vipe997f

i am currenlty a senior and i already got accepted into UC irvine. Part of the requirements to go there is to keep a 3.0 or above and not get any D's or F's. in the beggining of march 2006 i had a major accident. I smacked my head and i had a epidermal hematoma. Just for knowledge, only 1 in a hundred head injuries result in this, and the chances of surviving are 2% ish. I am very lucky to be alive, however i havent been able to go to school for the past 2 months. For the past two months i have been pretty much brain dead and wasn't able to understand anything. I still have a hard time walking and talking. As it stands i have a 0.0 GPA. Although i have this, my teachers said if i did all my homework i would be able to make it up.I just got my work like 5 days ago. the problem with that is that i have over 200 hours of homework and i have to finish this in the next 12 days. My question to you guys is if i had a 3.0 or below, and i told my situation to irvine do you think they will reject me?

citygirlsmom

Has your counselor called Irvine...or your parents...any contact at all?

lesmizzie

IM very sorry to hear about this

vipe997f

i also have another big problem. I still have to graduate with a diploma. My stupid counsler insists on me getting a GED. my parents complained and told my counsler that i need a DIPLOMA to go to irvine. Because of this my counsler requested my teachers to pack me with an overwhelmingly amount of work to do

Amie

That seems completely ridiculous to me. Can't they give you Incompletes for the rest of the semester and give you ample time to make up the work? Clearly you had a devestating injury, one that you are still recovering from, and it's unreasonable for them to punish you for something you have no control over.

Is there someone higher up than the GC you can speak to in the school. Perhaps an administrator or the principal? Maybe you could have a meeting with him/her and your parents and full explain the situation, see what they can do. And definately someone from your school should contact UC Irvine. From what I can tell, you are a good student who cares about school and your responsibilities, but had an awful setback, that you are doing your best to cope with. As long as you are honest about your situation I think you should be ok.

On a side note, I'm really sorry this happened to you, and I wish you the best in your recovery. Good Luck with all this.

EDIT: Spelling.

HImom

What contact have you & your folks had with the school about your current health? Have you spoken/worked with your teachers about this? Also, can you ask your teachers & school about showing MASTERY (via testing and/or projects) instead of doing each & every assignment, in light of your injuries & continuing health challenges? If you're in a public school, you should be able to get accommodations for your health conditions that are affecting major life functions--education, walking & talking.

Would definitely get a note/report from your doc about your injuries & schedule a meeting with your principal/headmaster/registrar & guidance counselor & your folks. Talk about your current health situation and ask what further info you need to provide. Ask them what you need to be able to get your diploma--even if it means getting an incomplete & completing things over the summer when you're better.

You also might consider taking a leave of absence from college for a year to fully recover. Your body has been through a lot & being sure to allow it to fully heal is important. You can do something else in that "gap" if that's something of interest. Physical therapy & rehab would be very important, to build back up. Maybe a part-time job or volunteering in a field you would be interested in pursuing. Maybe some community college (if UCI is OK with that).

Your school should be wiling to work on your behalf to contact UCIrvine with you about the situation. I'm sure your docs will help as well.

bearsfolife

I would sue your damn high school if they don't give you the summer or something to get all your homework done.

It's impossible to do that much homework in less than 2 weeks, and be expected to still go to school the rest of the yr.

****in outrageous man. I'd sue 'em since they can't be reasonable.

You got some real a-holes for teachers in your school

Drew00

That's bunk, man.

Marian

HImom has some really good ideas, especially about the possibility of a gap year.

If you don't have to graduate with your class, you can probably get more time to finish all that work. Perhaps you could turn it in when the next school year starts and graduate at the end of the fall semester. (Another possibility would be to see whether you can repeat your senior year, but that would probably be really boring.) UCIrvine will still be there a year from now, and it would be especially nice if they would just let you defer your admission for a year instead of making you fill out the application paperwork all over again. Ask them.

Another good reason for a gap year is to give yourself some time to get an idea of what lingering problems, if any, you might have from your injury. Most of the problems you have right now will get better with time and rehab, but some subtle things may stick around. (I had a head injury once and had trouble with spelling and punctuation, of all things, for years afterward.) A year from now, you'll know whether you have any issues, and if you do have any, you'll be better prepared to deal with them. For example, if you figure out that you have a bit more trouble with math than you used to, you'll know that you should arrange for tutoring if you have to take a math course. That sort of thing.

You and your parents need to talk to your guidance counselor and principal together, and you need to talk to the people at UCIrvine.

Edited to add: By the way, you are obviously doing GREAT. To be able to come on this board and post well-organized, well-thought-out messages only two months after such a devastating injury is amazing. You are already a success story. And things are only going to get better from here. The real problem is simply that the timing sucks. It would have been a lot easier if all this had happened last year or next year, but it didn't.

vipe997f

some of the teachers and counslers just dont understand how bad of an injury this is. It's not like a broken arm or broken wrist, or the flue. This brain injury has affected the way i look at things and understand them. I cant really concentrate more than 15 minutes at a time beacuse i get extremely confused. This is why i think its pretty much impossible to finish this much work in an ample amount of time.

bearsfolife

Like I said, threaten to sue them. Cause you could potentially have a case on your hands that you could come out victorious.

Hey, the courts/judges will see what you've gone through, and the evidence will be there that it's hard for you to concentrate for long periods of time b/c of the brain injury.

Threaten their a$$es man. Maybe that'll open their eyes. No school needs a lawsuit being filed.

quirkily

Suing isn't the solution to everything...

rExRuN467

^ not solution to everything but it is a solution to some things. In this situation, I would consider suing if they do not A)allow you much more time to do your work B) give you some classes over summer or after school that would make up the credit or C) just give you a diploma after learning about your situation

citygirlsmom

Go above the school, go to everybody you can, call Irvine directly...

You are dealing with your conselor, deal with the college DIRECTLY...get on the phone first thing Monday, do not count on your counselor alone

You have a disability, and because of that, you have protections, the American With Disabilities Act is for people in your situations...its like if you were paralzyed and they insisted you finish all your gym class

So contact a local group that works with the disabled, and do not think there is any shame in having that "label", you have had a serious injury, and the school is not being fair or accomdating, so right now do some googling to groups in your neighborhood that work with people that have physical issues, and you do, it was a brain injury

Start right now, and start getting together all your information for when you contact Irvine...now is the time to take over your life and go to whomever you need to to get things done

You sound very rational and calm here, but you need to get a bit angry and use that energy to protect y

Rhapsody in Green

Suing isn't the solution to everything, but in this case, I think it might be. I can't exactly claim to be an expert on the matter, but I'd be somewhat surprised if the way the school is handling this is entirely legal. Schools are obligated to make accomodations for mentally disabled students, and the OP seems to be, for a brief time, mentally disabled. I know the ADA also protects people who are recovering from illnesses such as cancer to some extent, but I'm not sure how that would apply to you. I don't really know enough about these laws to be sure about anything, but it might be worth looking into if nothing else works out.

Regardless, however, I think you should try to meet with higher-ups in the school first. If you explain what your injury entails and show them proof, I think they should be sympathetic. There's a good chance that Irvine would be sympathetic, too, given your circumstances. Their policy isn't really intended to hurt people with sudden and debilitating illnesses, and I wouldn't be surprised if they made an exception for you.