By Andrew Levinson

You are sitting in that classroom. Sweat is on your back. Your stomach aches with nervousness. Yes, you are waiting for your first college class to begin. You ask yourself: How did I get here? When is this class over?

I felt the same way in my Economics class in Fall 2005. I left my high school as a mainstreamed member of my graduating class and as a member of the National Honor Society. Having a disability and navigating your way through high school is no easy task. Students with disabilities might ask: How am I going to handle college?

My advice is simple and is based on three tenets. First, put in perspective the demands of college as compared to those of high school. Once you become familiar with your surroundings and the workload in college, you will find that college is no more difficult than high school. In fact, it will probably be easier for you as you may not have as many classes during a given day in college, when compared to the average day in high school. Also, there is a chance that you will not have classes on each day of the week.

Second, remember to ask for as many accommodations as you need. I stress this point because college is different from high school. You are now responsible for providing all of the necessary documentation and being your own advocate for what you know that you need. For example, if you received extended time for exams in high school, you have to make sure on your own that your institution provides you with this accommodation. The college or university that you are attending has no prior knowledge of you and likely has many more students to help like yourself than was the case in high school. Therefore, you must ensure that you are not forgotten and that you have the forms of assistance that you need in place. Be sure that college is as successful in high school.

Lastly, keep in mind your reasoning behind attending college. Perhaps, you want to become involved in public service and public policy, or your wish is to become an engineer, a lawyer, or a teacher. It is possible that you are unsure of what your career path will be but you want to be sure that you have a college education to make yourself competitive in the job market. The more you focus on why you are attending college, the better your performance will be. There is an incentive to succeed in college because that will determine your success, years after you earn your degree.

If you are looking for more information about college and beyond, I recommend the following websites: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/transition.html, http://www.washington.edu/doit, http://www.dol.gov/odep/pubs/brochures/wrp1.html.