[nabs-l] A question about something my rehab counselor said

[Karl Martin Adam]

Hi Sami,

I have attended two different schools as an undergrad, and almost 
know one at either of them took more than four classes a semester 
(many people only took two or three).  This is partly because at 
both schools I attended most people worked, so if you don't have 
anything to do other than school, you might be able to take more 
classes.  The number of credits also matters.  At the school 
where I got my BA, nearly all classes were four credits, and you 
had to get special permission to take more than 16 credits, so 
nearly everyone took either four classes or three if they worked 
a lot.  My other school had a lot of three credit classes, but 
there were four credit ones too, so most people took four classes 
which usually came to thirteen or fourteen credits.  Keep in mind 
that college (at least if you have a good professor) isn't high 
school.  You should be doing between two and three hours of 
homework for every hour you spend in class (more if it's a 
language, music, or STEM class).  The time you spend on your 
classes will also spike around midterms, finals, and the end of 
the semester when papers are due.  Your rehab counselor of course 
should not make you take a different number of classes from what 
you want to take, but keep in mind that all of our taxes are 
going to pay for your classes, so if you're going in seriously 
considering dropping a class and leaving us tax payers with the 
bill, just don't.  W's by the way do mean something.  They're not 
as bad as F's, so if you have a choice between failing and taking 
the W, take the W, but you don't want more than a couple on your 
transcript.  I think the suggestion that others have made of 
talking to an academic advisor at your school is an excellent 
one.  If students at your school typically take five classes in 
their first semester and do well, your advisor should tell you 
that, and you can take that information to your rehab counselor.  
If the advisor says that students typically don't take that many 
classes at all or start with fewer to get used to college, 
perhaps you should rethink things.

HTH,
Karl

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Sami Osborne via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Thu, 28 Jul 2016 13:42:14 -0400
Subject: [nabs-l] A question about something my rehab counselor 
said

Hi all,

I'd really like to get your opinions on something that my rehab
counselor said just today.  I'll be starting college in
September, and we were discussing the possibility of him funding
me for the different bills that need to be paid per semester or
year.

 He said something that I found really strange, although some of
you may disagree with me.  Even though I'm already registered for
classes and have a full schedule for the semester (five classes
during the week,) he suggested that maybe I should drop a fouple
of them and take a reduced amount of credits, at least this first
semester.  His reasoning is that he thinks it might be too much
for me, and apparently, other blind college students whom he has
worked with have done this.  Although my counselor is generally a
very accommmdating man, I personally disagree with him on this.
Numer one, I don't find five classes to be too much at all,
because that's the average of most college students, whether
blind or sighted, and number two, I have many breaks in between
my classes, especially on Tuesdays and Thursdays, where I have
one class in the morning and don't have another one for 6 and a
half hours! I'm also a person who really enjoys learning new
things, and also, I believe that this is not something that a
rehab counselor should be telling their clients, although you
guys can tell me what you think.  This is very strange in my
opinion.

I hope that you guys can give me some advice as to what your
opinions are on this matter.  Oh, and one more thing, what would
you suggest I do if I tell him that I don't want to drop anything
and he keeps on insisting?

I really hope you guys can help me, and have a happy end of July!
:(

Thanks so much,

Sami

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