Hello! I am an admitted student for the Hamilton College Class of 2027 (current senior in high school). Trying to make my final college decision currently with 2 weeks left…
For students living with severe anxiety/depression, how has Hamilton been? Are professors at Hamilton supportive if I were to meet with them and explain my situation? Let me know if you have any experience in this area. It’s a deciding factor to know their mental health supports here are good and I want to hear some student/parent perspectives! Thanks!
Yep, already in contact with accessibility and they’ve been very nice! Just looking for some student/parent perspectives on how it’s all worked out for them.
I don’t know about Hamilton specifically, but my son with a serious mental illness attended two very different types of schools and felt very supported at both. His illness was serious enough that I got involved. One professor told me he has several students every semester who need accommodations, so you won’t be alone! A department chair met with us and shared how she struggled with depression when she was younger and then personally helped my son sign up for classes.
I hope you get some specific feedback but I wanted to reassure you that you will get help. Just be sure to reach out when you need it. Good luck to you!
Are you being treated? Will you have a therapist while at Hamilton?
The Office of Disablities gives you letters to give to the professors, as you seem to know, so yes, you will talk with the professors to set up accommodations.
But in our experience a dean, advisor and doctor or therapist play the biggest role in ensuring accommodations. It may take awhile to figure out the system but once you do, I hope and expect you will have adequate support. The other people I mentioned can communicate with professors if needed.
Hamilton will have a free counseling service on campus. These services are popular. Book your appointments early. My daughter attended another NESCAC, but as she and her friends progressed though college, they all used the counseling service. It helped them manage stress and was an outlet.
Your focus should be on your own measures to secure mental health services while at college, and ensuring you have your accommodations in place before you start. Hamilton will have great professors, and they will provide academic support, but only within the constraints of what they are required to do, given your documented accommodations.
It’s not clear from your post if you will have accommodations based on your mental health issues. Please clarify. Professors will have to comply with documented accommodations and I expect they will be fine with that. But they probably aren’t able to go beyond the parameters of the accommodations. They will, of course, have office hours and you can certainly attend them to help you understand your classes and coursework.
What are you hoping for? If you tell a Prof that you have accommodations, what do you want to result from that conversation? Remember that your professor is there primarily to help you learn. Have realistic expectations about that and make sure that you take advantage of the campus counseling center and whatever outside mental health resources you can line up.
Hi! Since I haven’t committed yet, I am not 100% sure what accommodations I will be approved for at Hamilton. However, I do also have academic accommodations through a 504 plan at my high school currently (due to a processing disorder exacerbated by a mental health condition) and the Dean said this should likely carry over into college.
I do work with a psychiatrist/therapist at home, and I will continue to have Zoom appointments with him in college (since I’m staying in NY).
Hi! Yes, I am being treated with the help of a therapist and will continue to be at school. Maybe when discussing academic accoms with the profs, I can add in a component about just making them aware of my mental health struggles, too. Not even asking for anything extra but just making them aware. Thanks!
So your accommodations don’t explicitly include your mental health issues?
Frankly, this is not something to share your professors without having an explicit reason to do so.
What do you hope to achieve by doing that? They can’t be more lenient with you than with any other student, unless your accommodations have a provision for that.
Your professors are not trained in mental health. It’s possible that this information might upset some professors. It might make them uncomfortable. It might make them suspicious of your motives for revealing the info. It might even cause them to make unfounded judgements about you. I personally don’t see a benefit from telling them this, and in fact, I see some possible negative effects.
I think it’s important that you state what your hope is by divulging this information it’s them.
Talk to the Office of Disability Services now and umderstand what testing needs to be in place (is yours adequate and timely enough) to give you the accommodations you will require.
Okay, good to know! I’m never one to be secretive about mental health because of the stigma surrounding it. However, I guess it’s a good idea not to share more than necessary. Maybe I could take action through a club to spread mental health awareness in a positive way!
That’s a great attitude! I agree totally that there needs to be less stigma around mental health, but also consider what your profs are there to do, which is teach. I suspect there could already be a club on campus focused on mental health. Have a look at Hamilton’s list of clubs and student groups.
You might well end up getting to know a professor very well. Generally at LACs, there is an expectation that professors and students will actively engage with each other. Many professors at LACs end up inviting students to their homes, or they go to campus events. Maybe in Utica, bumping into your professor is quite likely.
Remember, even if you want to share something that’s very important to you, it may not be something they are comfortable discussing. If you end up discussing that with a professor as part of a conversation, maybe that’s going to be fine. But I don’t think volunteering that info is a good idea, for reasons already mentioned.
@happyflautist registering with the O of D gives you a legal right to accommodations. There is no need for professors to know the reason you registered. If you need an accommodation at a particular time, you can approach the professor, and say you are registered, and request the accommodation.
For both my kids, in different schools, when they ran into a problem, they talked to a dean, who got documentation from a doctor or therapist, and then the dean basically told the professor to provide the extra time for a project or whatever.
The O of D can set up some things, such as single room, reduced course load, notetakers, extra advising etc. but in the day to day experience, you may end up seeking help from a dean or advisor, as I wrote before.
Some schools will list desired accommodations in the letter you give the professor, but some will simply say you are registered.
As I said, it is different at each school and you will figure it out. Protect your privacy and know that you are legally entitled to accommodations. Make use of whichever administrative person is helpful and appropriate and don’t rely on sympathy from professors. They will do the right thing because they are required to not because they always understand.
Finally, anxiety and depression are very very common and you are not alone.
Ok, thank you! Yeah, there are definitely a lot more supports in place nowadays for academic and mental health accoms. I agree that disclosing more than what is already in a plan is unnecessary. Thanks!
It is great that you are figuring this out now. Many college bound students do not take these steps. No matter the college you decide to attend, you need to research the accommodations that you may need and request those specifically. You can add more latter, but will need to go through the same process.
The specific processing issue will be important to document in addition to the depression and anxiety and the college will have that process for how your psychiatrist documents that. They may also want documentation from your school counselor about the accommodations in place now. You may need other accommodations specific to the processing, but here are some that have been helpful for one of my kids:
Notetaker or photocopy of another student’s notes (important if you miss class due to a depressive episode or change in meds).
Availability of course materials (lectures, handouts) online (more common after Covid).
Extended time or alternative date for test taking (if there are two finals on the same day this can be helpful).
Extended time to complete assignments (following a depressive episode or change in medication this can be helpful).
As other posters have stated, not everyone is comfortable talking about depression and anxiety. Your generation is certainly changing that for the good. But professors are understanding with this protocol and want you to succeed.
Your first semester, get acclimated and do not overload your schedule with an extra class or too many other priorities. If you need to change medications be mindful of any possible side effects and schedule appointments to check in.
This is interesting. Have you been tempted to register for more than a standard course load? In your case, however, it seems you may want to consider adding a partial-credit music course based on your evident interest in the flute.