You’re here for an academically rigorous education, right? It’s likely that at some point during your time at Duke, you will miss the days of high school, when straight A’s seemed a little more straightforward to achieve, and the bar for overachieving felt somewhat lower. You may reach a moment where you find yourself several exams, quizzes and papers deep, with absolutely no clue what is going on in three of your classes, all while being too swamped with work to even show up for your fourth.
It is okay. It really does happen to the best of us. Instead of comparing yourself to the student you used to be (or worse, to others) and continuing your ride to the end of the semester on the struggle bus, know that there are resources out there (SO many) to help you. Programs and resources to support students exist by the hundreds at Duke. There is no shame at all in reaching out to use them; they are there to be used!…