Getting Sick in College

From extensions to prescriptions, here's how to handle it

Young woman sick in bed.

Terry Doyle / Getty Images

Being sick in college is not the most pleasant of experiences. You likely have no one taking care of you, like you would at home, while at the same time your responsibilities and obligations continue to pile up as you're stuck in bed. So just what are your options if you get sick in college?

Let Your Professors Know

If you are a student in a small class, have a big day in class (meaning you have a paper due or presentation to give), or have any other responsibilities where your absence will be both noted and problematic. A quick email letting your professor know you're sick while promising to follow-up with them about how to make up the assignment (including a gracious request for an extension), should only take a few minutes to write but will save you quite a bit of time later.

Take Care of Yourself

True, you have that midterm to take, a huge event your cultural club is planning, and the concert you and your roommate have had tickets for months. It may be frustrating, but you need to take care of yourself first and foremost. The last thing you need, after all, is to just get even sicker just because you didn't take care of yourself. It may seem impossible at first, but there really are ways to get more sleep in college. Let yourself sleep!

Healthy eating in college can be a challenge—but it also can be accomplished. Think of what your mother would want you to eat: fruits and veggies, things with nutrition, healthy liquids. Translation: no, a donut and a Diet Coke won't work for breakfast, especially when you're sick. Grab a banana, slice of toast, and orange juice instead.

Sometimes, common over-the-counter medications like aspirin and DayQuil can make a bad cold or flu manageable. Don't be afraid to ask a friend or roommate to grab you something while they're out and about!

Get a Check-up at the Campus Health Center

If you're sick for more than a day or two, have really bad symptoms, or otherwise just don't feel right, utilize what your campus has to offer. Make an appointment—or just walk in—to the campus health center. They can check you out while also offering advice and medication to get you back on your feet.

Keep Checking in With Your Professors

If you're missing a day of lecture in your chemistry class, you can usually grab notes from a friend or get them online. But if you're missing a few days, especially when there's intense material being covered or discussed, let your professor know what's going on. Tell your professor that you're really sick and that you might need a little help catching up. It's much, much easier to be in touch early on than try to explain later why you haven't been to class, haven't been in touch, and haven't turned in your assignments.

Prioritize Your To-do List

If you're sick for more than a day or two, you will likely fall behind on at least something—life in college moves very, very quickly. Take a few moments to write down a little list of what you have to do and then prioritize. Getting to the health center for a Strep Throat test? Priority! Updating Facebook with pictures from last weekend's Halloween party? Not a priority. Take care of the most important things now so you can do the other things you want and need to do later.

Major Illness or Extended Sick Time

If your sick day or two turns into a major illness or you're sick for long enough that your academics suffer, you might need to take more drastic measures.

Always Let Your Professors Know What's Going On

Even if you just shoot them a quick email letting them know that you've been really sick for a week and are trying to figure out what's going on, that email is much better than complete silence. Ask them what they need from you, if anything, to justify this much-missed class (a note from the health center? copies of your hospital paperwork?). Additionally, check your syllabi or ask your professors directly about what their policy is if you've missed something major, like a midterm or paper deadline.

Check in With Your Campus Health Center

If you're sick for more than a day or two, definitely go see the campus health center. On top of a check-up, they can verify with your professors that, indeed, you do have a nasty case of the flu and need to be out of class for another day or so.

Keep the Faculty up to Date

Check in with your academic adviser, an academic support office, the dean of students' office, and/or the dean of faculty office. If you're missing a lot of class, are sick, and your academics are suffering, you'll need some help from the campus administration. Don't worry, though: this doesn't mean you've done anything wrong. It just means you've been sick! And everyone from your adviser to the dean of faculty has dealt with sick students before. Life happens in college; people get sick. Just be smart about it and let the appropriate people know so that, as you begin to recover, you can have the support you need academically instead of having to stress about your situation.

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Lucier, Kelci Lynn. "Getting Sick in College." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/what-to-do-sick-in-college-793542. Lucier, Kelci Lynn. (2023, April 5). Getting Sick in College. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/what-to-do-sick-in-college-793542 Lucier, Kelci Lynn. "Getting Sick in College." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-to-do-sick-in-college-793542 (accessed March 19, 2024).