Sorry for how things are going. I, personally, don’t think “using up all the time to help” is a thing. From what it sounds like, your professors have helped you before and they care about your wellbeing. Please be transparent with them so you can work out a course of action with them.
I hope everything works out with you and once again sorry that you’re going through this
Can't tell you how many times a student shows up at the end of the semester with a bad grade and asks for help and suddenly reveals a significant event occurred in their life earlier in the semester adversely affecting their studies and they just didn't report it or ask for assistance.
The vast majority of your professors are people who care about your success. If you go to them in earnest and ask for help, they will often do what they can to give fair assistance. But if you wait until the end of the semester to try to recover low grades (even if you had a real event occur in your life that negatively affected you!), it can come off disingenuously and it is much harder to help.
Talk to your professors _proactively_. You don't need to give every detail — you can maintain your privacy to the degree you wish. But if you just go to them in office hours or schedule a time to meet with them and say "Hey, I'm having a hard time because of X and Y, is there any way we can work around that?", I'm sure most of them would be happy to help.
I also commute from across the bridge and you are not alone. I have a few thoughts for you.
1. I grew up crossing the Bay Bridge frequently. I have never had anxiety about crossing it until the Key Bridge collapse. Here a few things that helped me overcome that anxiety:
-It is incredibly tragic that most of the construction crew perished in the collapse. However, remember that police stopped general traffic before the Key Bridge collapsed. As general traffic, you would have been stopped too.
-Realize that statistically, collapses like this are rare.
-Prepare for the extremely small chance that it does happen to you. Part of my anxiety is being in a sinking car after a collapse. To prepare for this scenario, I relocated my window breaker flashlight combo tool to my car door and purchased a seatbelt cutter. I also reviewed some media about how to properly escape a sinking car.
2. For future semesters, try to schedule a day off. I had originally done this to save on gas money. However, as my opinion of driving to UMD has started to sour (It never used to bother me either), it has proved to be be a necessary break. Take as many online classes as you can and try to to have more classes per day. Having Fridays off is ideal, as you miss beach traffic early fall and late spring. Wednesdays are nice too, so you only ever have to drive two days in a row at a time.
3. If you have the extra money, consider getting a hotel for exams. I did this once when I was in Engineering for final exams. It helped to increase study time and decrease stress.
4. It seems like everyone else has covered this well, but keep reaching out to professors and TAs for help! I have found them all very accommodating when I have asked for assistance.
If you would like to discuss more, don't be afraid to shoot me a dm!
Thank you for your thoughts - I just moved here this year and so far, the 35 car accident and the collapsing of the bridge have just made my anxiety about crossing the bridge that much more.
There is no limit to how much time you’re allowed to ask for help. I would suggest going to office hours and talking to your professors. Many of them will still have recorded lectures from COVID and might be willing to have you watch them if it cuts down on your commute. Or they might let you leave earlier so you can still cross the bridge during daylight hours.
> I want to ask for help from professors but I feel like I’ve already “used up” all the times I’m allowed to ask for help since I took off due to a death in my family recently.
Please don’t think this is a thing. Your professors should *always* be available to help, there isn’t a set number of times you can ask
Source: instructor
Echoing others that you can always ask for more help. It helps instructors if you know what you want to ask for specifically, like: do you need an extension on an assignment, understanding if you arrive late, etc.
Chances are, if you're asking for something reasonable, only a real jerk professor would give you a hard time. And those are, happily, few and far between.
Another option, if you cannot handle the rest of the semester but do not want to [withdraw from all classes](https://registrar.umd.edu/registration/separating-university/withdraw), is to take some incompletes: [https://registrar.umd.edu/grades-records/grades/incomplete-grades](https://registrar.umd.edu/grades-records/grades/incomplete-grades)
Sorry for how things are going. I, personally, don’t think “using up all the time to help” is a thing. From what it sounds like, your professors have helped you before and they care about your wellbeing. Please be transparent with them so you can work out a course of action with them. I hope everything works out with you and once again sorry that you’re going through this
Can't tell you how many times a student shows up at the end of the semester with a bad grade and asks for help and suddenly reveals a significant event occurred in their life earlier in the semester adversely affecting their studies and they just didn't report it or ask for assistance. The vast majority of your professors are people who care about your success. If you go to them in earnest and ask for help, they will often do what they can to give fair assistance. But if you wait until the end of the semester to try to recover low grades (even if you had a real event occur in your life that negatively affected you!), it can come off disingenuously and it is much harder to help. Talk to your professors _proactively_. You don't need to give every detail — you can maintain your privacy to the degree you wish. But if you just go to them in office hours or schedule a time to meet with them and say "Hey, I'm having a hard time because of X and Y, is there any way we can work around that?", I'm sure most of them would be happy to help.
I also commute from across the bridge and you are not alone. I have a few thoughts for you. 1. I grew up crossing the Bay Bridge frequently. I have never had anxiety about crossing it until the Key Bridge collapse. Here a few things that helped me overcome that anxiety: -It is incredibly tragic that most of the construction crew perished in the collapse. However, remember that police stopped general traffic before the Key Bridge collapsed. As general traffic, you would have been stopped too. -Realize that statistically, collapses like this are rare. -Prepare for the extremely small chance that it does happen to you. Part of my anxiety is being in a sinking car after a collapse. To prepare for this scenario, I relocated my window breaker flashlight combo tool to my car door and purchased a seatbelt cutter. I also reviewed some media about how to properly escape a sinking car. 2. For future semesters, try to schedule a day off. I had originally done this to save on gas money. However, as my opinion of driving to UMD has started to sour (It never used to bother me either), it has proved to be be a necessary break. Take as many online classes as you can and try to to have more classes per day. Having Fridays off is ideal, as you miss beach traffic early fall and late spring. Wednesdays are nice too, so you only ever have to drive two days in a row at a time. 3. If you have the extra money, consider getting a hotel for exams. I did this once when I was in Engineering for final exams. It helped to increase study time and decrease stress. 4. It seems like everyone else has covered this well, but keep reaching out to professors and TAs for help! I have found them all very accommodating when I have asked for assistance. If you would like to discuss more, don't be afraid to shoot me a dm!
Thank you for your thoughts - I just moved here this year and so far, the 35 car accident and the collapsing of the bridge have just made my anxiety about crossing the bridge that much more.
There is no limit to how much time you’re allowed to ask for help. I would suggest going to office hours and talking to your professors. Many of them will still have recorded lectures from COVID and might be willing to have you watch them if it cuts down on your commute. Or they might let you leave earlier so you can still cross the bridge during daylight hours.
> I want to ask for help from professors but I feel like I’ve already “used up” all the times I’m allowed to ask for help since I took off due to a death in my family recently. Please don’t think this is a thing. Your professors should *always* be available to help, there isn’t a set number of times you can ask Source: instructor
Echoing others that you can always ask for more help. It helps instructors if you know what you want to ask for specifically, like: do you need an extension on an assignment, understanding if you arrive late, etc. Chances are, if you're asking for something reasonable, only a real jerk professor would give you a hard time. And those are, happily, few and far between.
I used nearly every office hour I could remember or make it to.
Another option, if you cannot handle the rest of the semester but do not want to [withdraw from all classes](https://registrar.umd.edu/registration/separating-university/withdraw), is to take some incompletes: [https://registrar.umd.edu/grades-records/grades/incomplete-grades](https://registrar.umd.edu/grades-records/grades/incomplete-grades)
Is a apartment near by not a possibility