Suggestions for Students with Learning Disabilities

• Set realistic goals and priorities for course work. This might mean limiting your involvement in extra-curricular activities or taking a reduced course load during your first semester or when you’re taking particularly demanding courses. Collegial work and assignments are often much more difficult and time-consuming than in high school.
• Find out about your disability and be both confident and able to describe your disability and related needs to others.
• Tell your professors about your disability and recommended accommodations EARLY in the semester. As part of the process, try to get to know your teachers and get them to know you.
• Sit at the front of the class to ensure you can see and hear well and to minimize distractions.
• Use a day-planner to record all due dates, meetings, and responsibilities. Be sure to write all of these things ONLY in one place — your planner. Always carry your planner with you so you can add more as you go.
• If you learn more by “thinking aloud” or working with others, start some study/discussion groups for your classes.
• If you’re feeling overwhelmed or having trouble in a class, speak with the professor (or the Dean of Students) immediately. College professors expect students to come to their offices with questions or to discuss what they’re learning; that’s partly why they have office hours (times when professors are in their offices to meet with students). Try to be prepared to ask specific questions or identify areas that you do not understand.
• If particular subjects (such as foreign languages or math) are difficult for you, consider taking them during the summer when you can focus exclusively on these courses. You could take them at Trinity in the summer if they are offered or, with the prior approval of your advisor and the Registrar’s office, you could take them at another college and transfer the credits, so long as you earn a “C-” or above.  (Grades do not transfer in from other schools, but the credits do. Whatever grade you get at another school, good or bad, will not affect your academic average at Trinity.