Depression/uni transfer history

I have quite a history of depression; it's been a really hard couple of months and today I saw my psychiatrist and got a note which basically says, in rather more words, that I'm not well enough to attend uni (thus explaining my appalling attendance lately) and need the pressure of it taken off for a few weeks, at least until my antidepressants kick in.

The problem is that before this particular bout started I was looking into getting a transfer out of my current uni. I'm aware that it'd be helpful to have a reference from the university and even though my psychiatrist has told me that they're not allowed to discriminate/give me a poor reference because of this (disability discrimination act), I'm still not convinced and I'm still worried that they will, because of my attendance. In terms of work, I got Firsts on everything last term, but I may have problems with it this term.

I guess I'm just looking for reassurance that it won't be held against me...Or opinions on it, whatever...Has anyone had experience with this kind of thing?

Long and rambling, sorry

Reply 1

Ink

12

If you did so well last term, I imagine you may have developed good/strong relationships with a few of the teachers/lecturers, or at least gained their good opinion.

If they saw you doing well and then suddenly fall off from that, they probably realized something was wrong even before the note from your psychologist. I'm sure their opinions of you didn't change overnight from "good student" to "stupidest person in my class."

If you are still concerned, you should go to the teachers/lecturers who seemed to like you individually and ask them whether they would be willing to write a reference for you. Perhaps you could even explain a bit about the situation or why you want to switch beforehand (might soften their view, if they know more details, and also gives them more material to put in a reference).

If they seem happy to give you one, it should all be good, but if they seem hesitant, you might want to look elsewhere.

*edit* btw, as far as reassurance goes, this kind of thing happened to me when I was in high school. Several months after leaving the school, I asked one of the teachers there for a uni reference, and even though hers was the academic class that I got my lowest mark in, she gave me an amazing recommendation. I couldn't have come up with better if I wrote it myself :smile:

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

OP

(Dunno where the 'history' bit on the title came from by the way...How odd)

Yeah I know logically it's not really going to look like I've just started slacking or something, but I had a bad experience with the uni doctors last year when I needed a mitigating circumstance form because I physically couldn't stay awake for more than six hours a day for a while, and they wrote down that I'd been feeling 'a bit sleepy'. Not exactly reassuring.

Thanks for the advice on the reference...Stupidly, I didn't actually consider that I might have a say in who writes it. I think there's definitely at least two tutors who would be happy to do it...

Depression/uni transfer history

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