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University of Wyoming

Transitioning
 

If you are making the change from your current situation to attending a 4-year post-secondary institution, it can be quite an adjustment. If you are coming from high school, there are many factors that enter into the picture. Many students had a closely supervised high school experience with an IEP or a 504 plan in place wherein a team of professionals, you and your parents determined the direction of your future by making plans for you in many different areas of your life.

When you come to a university you will find many things are different. In general, you are now responsible for your education. There isn’t a “Resource Room” for you to go to or an IEP or 504 team that will work with you. However, the UDSS office is here for you to help in the process of finding your way around and adjusting to a new environment. One way we do this is by helping you make a plan at the the beginning of each semester that assists you in accommodating to the environment you are in now by matching our services with your specific disability-related learning needs. We can help you familiarize yourself with the many support services that are available to you as a university student (such as the Writing Center that helps students in the process of writing papers). In general, don’t hesitate to ask us if you need support!!

You will find that you are expected to “advocate” for yourself, in other words, talk about what your disability is and how it affects you as a student. It is very helpful for you to begin NOW gauging how comfortable you are talking to others about your disability. For example, you will need to speak to your professors if you use accommodations such as extra time on exams. As a university student, you are considered an adult. As an adult, you’ll be expected to request the services you need and to determine the extent to which you will give permission for information about you and your academic progress to be shared with others, including your family (according to the FERPA legislation).

You will probably also find that the level of difficulty of the material you are studying as well as the amount of the material you have to read and keep up with will increase dramatically. To keep up with assignments and deadlines, be prepared as much as possible to make a plan for managing your time efficiently and learn to break tasks into small parts. In that plan, you should also plan on spending 2 hours outside of class studying for each hour in class.

It can be quite challenging to balance school, work, and a social life; again try to be prepared by having a plan for organizing your time so you can hit the ground running with your life at UW.

These are just a few topics that come up most frequently with students. There are too many to mention here. Keep in mind that you are awesome and can meet the challenges of life as a university student, and that the future you began planning for is here and even closer than ever to fulfillment.

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