<p>Just wondering if anyone on here has either disorders. I have bipolar 2 and schizophrenia and have been hospitalized twice for treatment. I was diagnosed with bipolar at 7 and schizophrenia at 14; I ended up being pulled out of middle school to become homeschooled because it was so severe, and I find it really hard to stay on top of school, work, relationships when having episodes. </p>
<p>I'm staring college in august, and living on campus 20 minutes from home so I can feel committed to it and less likely to just quit.
Any tips or advice you could give?</p>
<p>I do not have either of these conditions (I have ADHD) however, I always feel that any advice is better than no advice so here is what I can tell you from my experience in college. First of all, make sure you are registered with disability services from the minute you start. Many people don’t register because they don’t think they need it or don’t want to ask for help or think they’ll be fine academically. This is especially true of people with mental illnesses because a lot of the common accommodations are more geared towards students with learning disabilities. Here are some things that disability services offers at my school; priority registration(you can sign up for whatever you want and pick an awesome schedule cause you’re the first to register. even before the grad students), four hours of free tutoring a week in for each class you have, extended time on tests and assignments, ability to take breaks in class etc. I have gotten to know my advisor at disability services and it is very helpful. If you are having issues and miss classes, your advisor would be able to explain to your professors why that is and you would be able to get extentions on assignments. Also I believe that at some schools if you register with disability services and have a mental illness you can get free services from the psychologists at the health center. Getting to know an advisor at disability services is the best advice I can give anyone on this site because they will be very understanding of issues that you are having that are affecting your grades and will be able to help you.</p>
<p>I have a very close friend who was diagnosed with schizophrenia recently. She is very careful to whom she discloses her illness and the school she attends does not know about it. She will be a senior in the fall and will be applying to colleges, but will not be mentioning her illness fearing that she might get rejected. She has a 4.3gpa and SAT scores of 2100 and ACT of 35. Does the college you will be attending know about your illness and if so how did they react to it? Also, how would she get in touch with the disability department without the college knowing about her illness. Any input will be helpful as she is very concerned about this.</p>