I do not know what to do. My son a freshman in a very competitive collegee program and honors student has come down with mono. We were in the ER last night. It’s Saturday and his finals start Monday. With all the investment how can he try to take these exams on meds and exhausted. Of course we are coming into summer. His program is so lined out for the four years. Anyone ever have this experience of a derailment or any suggestions. Thanks
When I was a student with mono, the infirmary wouldn’t release me to go take my exams so I had to contact all my professors and get extensions/ incompletes. I made them up ASAP when the school resumed.
The key is to contact all profs and advise them that your S has mono and was in the ER and ask what the options are.
Good luck—this is not uncommon and there are procedures.
The student can take incompletes and take the tests at a time negotiated with each prof or next semester.
Yes, he needs to contact each prof BEFORE the scheduled final time. Email this weekend to each prof explaining the situation and asking to take an incomplete/delay the final until he is recovered. He should probably email his academic advisor if he has one as well and let them know what is going on. If the profs push back, he needs to go over their head to the department chair. At some colleges (especially smaller ones) there may be someone like a Dean of Students that could also assist with this. I think it is fine for you to help him draft emails, since he is sick, but ideally he should send them from him account.
One thing to watch out for is whether any profs are leaving for the summer or going on sabbatical. Once I asked to delay taking a final for work related reasons during my masters program, and the prof said it was fine. I had a B in the class without the final. A few weeks later I called him to schedule a time to take it (so I could get my grade up to the A I’d been earning all semester), and the guy had left on sabbatical and was unreachable. I’m still ticked off about that B on my transcript. 
So… he might want to ask the prof to respond to the email, and also to let him know the best way to schedule a make up exam when he is feeling better. Hopefully the prof will communicate if there is some obstacle like a sabbatical.
Thank you. I feel so bad for my son. I hope his profs are understanding. Tough way to end freshman year. Also, don’t want to see his scholarship be jeopardized if he’s not at the top of his game.
In addition to contacting the professors, reach out to the Dean of Students office as well.
Also contact health services and provide information from ER visit.
My kid had mono before exams – he signed a release with health services and they emailed all his profs to inform them of the diagnosis and alert them my kid would be contacting them to set up accommodations for the end of the term.
Call your school’s health services today – if no one is available there today, then email the Dean of students/dean of 1st year students/and professors individually. Consider attaching a scan or photo of the ER diagnosis. Request to reschedule exams.
Email the school’s health services, dean, and all the profs and include ER documentation with diagnosis. He should be able to get incompletes. If he has the phone number for the prof of tomorrows exam he should call them. If school has online scheduling to health clinic make an appt asap.
It may be school dependent, but for my daughter the academic adviser was the key person to let know the situation. I echo the above and say email, text, whatever contact you have all the profs and the academic adviser.
My daughter had a mild concussion while at college and her professors were all wonderful. They made whatever accommodations they could. There have been several threads on CC about sick kids at college during finals, etc. and most professors are understanding in this situation.
Hopefully, he will be able to catch up with whatever the profs require over the summer and start fall fresh and healthy.
You student should do this if at all possible (if he’s able to think straight), but if he can’t, contact the dean of students (and specifically the dean of first year students if there is one), as well as all of his profs. Get all of the documentation you can. He should ask if any of his finals can be done at home.
My daughter had a medical emergency a week before the start of finals her senior year, and she had to come home after she was released from the ICU. I will warn you that although her profs were very understanding (her math professor let her take her exam at home), they really didn’t give her as much time as she actually needed to recover. It’s hard to be ill and trying to do your work, even on a longer schedule.
^^^ Agree with above. If at all possible I would try to push through them, unless he has been so ill up to this point that he isn’t prepared for them. Rescheduling and preparing all over again may be harder than trying to get through them. Mono can pull him down for a long while and gets worse before it gets better. He has to decide if he can handle it trudging through any of them. See which professors are amicable to working with him on this and decide for each one. Good luck, curious how it turns out. Terrible timing, but it happens.
- Contact the Dean of Students ASAP. Also contact each professor.
- This is what Incompletes are for…you are doing well in the class but something happens. I twice had to do something like this…once because I had pneumonia and once because of a car accident. I took the “easier” finals I felt up to, and then took the others when I came back in the fall.
- or he may need to take incompletes in everything.
Once you/he contact professors and dean of students, next decision is really up to how your son feels. My daughter had surgery and mono in fall of freshman year (not such a bad case) and concussion right at start of finals. At finals time, she felt up to taking the 2 finals she had already really prepared for, and didn’t take the other 3 until she returned in January. It wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t terrible either. If he feels up to taking any, I suggest he does so, but if really can’t prepare for or take any, his school will find a way to make it work. If he decides to take any, he might be able to spread them out over more time, with a rest period in the middle.
I do not mean to alarm you but Mono can be serious. My son’s tonsils swelled so badly we almost had to admit him. He needs rest and lots of liquids and tons of advil. Poor guy!! I would have him send an email to his professors and perhaps the dean.
My kid was actually admitted with tonsils swollen, and the virus attacked an optic nerve so her eyes crossed and she couldn’t see well! Even without those, though, the fatigue was so extreme that the idea of taking an exam or even a small quiz would have been out of the question. There is variation in the effects of mono but the one common element is that if you don’t pay attention to the recommendations to rest, it can last longer and even recur.
The Dean can email professors. Provide documentation to the dean. The dean can basically tell professors what to do. At the same time, yes, also contact the professors. But it is definitely a good idea to have administrative back up in the form of a dean. The disabilities office might be able to advise.
Hopefully your son’s school offers incompletes and he can wait until he is truly ready. Sure it is harder to take exams further away from the class itself. You could see if a paper could replace the exams as an accommodation, but doubtful.
Focus on health first and foremost. Get documentation and talk to the dean or administrator who can handle this for your son. Good luck!
For example at CWRU
Grade of Incomplete
Assignment of the Incomplete Grade:
The Incomplete grade (I) is assigned by and at the discretion of the instructor when (a) there are extenuating circumstances, explained to the instructor before the assignment of the grade, which clearly justify an extension of time beyond the requirements established for and met by other students in the class, and (b) the student has been passing the course and only a small segment of the course, such as a term paper, remains to be completed. It is the student’s responsibility to notify the instructor of the circumstances preventing completion of all assigned work. In the absence of notification or adequate justification, the instructor has the authority to assign the student a final grade that assumes a failing grade for the missing work. An Incomplete grade should not be assigned (a) when a student has been absent for much of the semester and/or has done little of the work required for a course, or (b) because a student is absent from a final examination, unless the dean of undergraduate studies has authorized the grade.
The amount of additional time allowed the student to make up incomplete work should serve to accommodate the student while being fair to other students in the course. It should be proportional to the duration of a student’s illness or absence and might be no more than a few days or weeks. At the extreme, it should not extend past the eleventh week of the semester following the one in which the Incomplete grade was received. In certain cases (such as students on probation) the dean of undergraduate studies may establish an earlier date for completion of courses with Incomplete grades.
Changing the Incomplete Grade:
When the student has completed the required work, the instructor shall enter in the Student Information System a final evaluative grade to replace the Incomplete. When a student fails to submit the work required for removing the Incomplete by the date established, the instructor shall enter a final grade that assumes a failing performance for the missing work. In the absence of the assignment of a grade by the instructor, the Registrar will convert the I to F when the deadline for making up Incomplete grades from a previous semester has passed.
My (now) husband, then my fiance, got mono at age 31. Given how he was laid out, I can’t imagine someone taking finals in that state. He could barely swallow, could only drink cold drinks, sweated his body out every night, was flat on his back for a week. If your son is in this state, don’t ask him to “just get through his finals.”