<p>Okay so I got severely depressed during spring semester and dropped out half way through. I currently owe the school $6,000. I really want to go back in the fall what do I do? Will they let me if I pay some of it back through out the summer? Who do I call? Please please help!!!</p>
<p>Before I address your questions, I want to commend you for recognizing the symptoms you had as an illness and not something else. I encourage you, if you haven’t already done so, to make an appointment with a medical provider, social worker, or pastor–a professional who can work with you this summer to confirm your diagnosis and address the illness. If it is depression, you will see it again and you need to learn how to deal with it. Lots of people who suffer depression find relief from the symptoms via pharmaceutical, cognitive, and other kinds of therapies only a professional can provide.</p>
<p>You have twin problems. One is debt, and the other is academics. Like any other debt, you’ll have to pay it off even though you didn’t complete the semester–unless you withdrew officially AND early enough that you could get some tuition remission. Read the student catalogue to find out your options there and talk to your guidance counselor and/or the dean of the school into which you enrolled at your college.</p>
<p>Academically, you have to hope you somehow finagled some course incompletes. They are not granted automatically by professors. Otherwise, you received either D’s, F’s or no credit for the courses in which you were enrolled this semester. (That could be a good thing if you were failing the courses before you dropped out.) Again, talk to your GC or dean.</p>
<p>It’s very important for students to recognize the symptoms that suggest severe anxiety, depression, or other mental illness–in themselves and other students–as early in the semester as possible so as to avoid the financial and academic consequences of withdrawal or lots of low grades. If the student has to withdraw, parents need to act immediately to see what they can do to avoid some of the costs of withdrawal. That often means recognizing the symptoms early in the semester and interceding in your child’s health, financial, and academic welfare. Unfortunately, sometimes the symptoms don’t show up til just before midterms, but I see a lot of college students who (or college students whose parents) refuse to take seriously the early signs of illness and act to care for their health, grades, and finances. </p>