157: What To Do When Applying to Graduate School with a Chronic Illness

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Welcome back, everyone, to the Grad School Femtoring podcast. This is your host, Dra.Yvette. Today I have a solo episode about what to consider when applying to graduate school with a chronic illness. I've received this as a question. It's also something that I have considered if I could do things all over again, or if I were applying to graduate school now. What would I do, knowing that I have a chronic illness and that I have specific needs and accommodations that I need to have met in order for me to thrive? So if you are someone who is applying to graduate school or thinking about applying to graduate school, and you have a chronic illness, this is the episode for you.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

The first thing I want to recommend is that as you prepare your materials, make sure you plan ahead. You probably know this already, because for a lot of us, with a chronic illness, we can never really anticipate when we're going to deal with a flare up- that is when we're going to deal with an exacerbation of our chronic illness symptoms. And because we know that this happens, we have gained valuable life and time management skills.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

This almost goes without saying- I mean, I'm reminding you, but you probably already know this- that it's important to plan ahead, because anything could happen between now and your deadline. And many times our chronic illness, or illnesses, do get in the way of meeting certain goals and deadlines. So just keep this in mind. Plan ahead. Plan to do your research, work on your applications, talk to the people you need to talk to months in advance before your first deadline.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

The next thing to consider is learning more about how flexible the program is upfront before applying. This is really important. I would not recommend applying to a program that is known to be highly rigorous, highly competitive, and not supportive of folks who "cannot keep up." How do you find this out? You learn about the program, its expectations, its flexibility- or inflexibility, its rigidity- by talking to existing and former students in that program. You don't have to disclose anything about your own illness, but there are questions that you can ask to find out about the flexibility.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

You can ask them if any students have taken leaves of absence. If any students have taken a medical leave. You can ask, how does the program treat students when they are ill, when they get sick? And you can ask about how supportive the advisors are with individuals who have had to deal with emergencies- family emergencies, medical emergencies. Again, you don't have to disclose anything about yourself, but you can ask.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Because when you are in graduate school, and you are committing to two, four, six, eight, ten years of your life, odds are life will happen- whether you anticipate it or not, whether you have a chronic illness or not. So it's completely justified for you to ask this question.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

The next recommendation when it comes to preparing your application to graduate school as someone with a chronic illness is to pay close attention to the health care options in every program. I don't think that you should work under the assumption that all health care options, all health fees, all medical providers are going to be the same across the board in different graduate programs. This is also something that you can learn more about by talking to existing graduate students.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Ask them what their healthcare experience has been like there. Ask them what their healthcare fees are. Ask them if they're satisfied with the quality of care that they've received. And you'll want to know what type of specialists are available - if they're close by. Will you have access to a team of specialists if you need it, depending on your chronic illness? It's good to know upfront.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

I developed my chronic illness in graduate school, so I didn't know about it applying in. But I was lucky or privileged enough that I went to graduate school at UCLA and had a full whole team of specialists walking distance- right there on campus- to support me. And I saw a number of different specialists- not just one, but different ones- to figure out what was going on with my health at the time. So if you anticipate that you may have some medical needs, and you may need to access specialists, it's good to find this out upfront so that you don't have to be commuting or spending a lot of money, a lot of out of pocket costs, because this is not available or provided within your health care plan.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Something else to consider is to look into the funding options in that program. I say this all the time, because I'm primarily talking to first gen students of color, and a lot of them who are already working class or low income. But this applies to you if you're chronically ill as well. Recently, I was on a website. I'm not going to say which website it was, but it was a website to help students with learning about grad school. And they were saying that all PhD programs provide full funding. Actually, I disagree with that. Not all PhD programs will provide you with full funding. I highly recommend that you go to graduate school, especially doctoral programs, with full funding, but that is not always the case.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

This is why it's up to you to find out what type of funding is available, and to create a budget to make sure that you can financially support yourself during grad school. The budget takes into account not just the funding, but also the cost of living in the area where that institution is located. If you're chronically ill, it's especially important to learn about funding, because you may have less of a capacity to take on multiple part time jobs. Many people will pride themselves on how much they can hustle in grad school. Many people will pride themselves in how much work they can do, and the long hours that they are working. But that's not always the case for someone who is chronically ill. So if you know you cannot be taking on multiple part time jobs, if you know, you don't want to be taking on thousands of dollars worth of student loans, then keep in mind the funding available at your institution.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

There's also something that I want you to look into, which is the emergency funding options at the institutions. I don't think that this is mentioned enough in the conversation around grad school applications. Yeah, we talk about full funding and fellowships and scholarships. But there are also pockets of emergency funding. Lok into those. Find out who's the one that is providing them, and under what circumstances they provide emergency funding. Necause in the situation that you need to access it, you'll know that it's there.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Now, the next thing may be obvious to some but not to everyone, which is to get registered with your university's disability or accessibility aervices office as soon as possible. The conversation of whether or not to disclose your chronic illness or your disability is a personal one. I don't want to tell you- yes, you should disclose, or no you shouldn't disclose. There are pros and cons to each decision. If you disclose, legally, you cannot get discriminated against. Legally, you are entitled to protections against discrimination. And you will have access to more supports through the university if you, again, disclose.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Now how much you disclose, what you disclose, is up to you. You don't have to share every single detail about your chronic illness with others. Not disclosing can help protect you against blatant forms of discrimination. There are individuals who may not believe that you are chronically ill, especially if you have an invisible disability, who may not be flexible. It really is up to you whether or not to disclose, and who you disclose with. You know, there are trusted individuals who you may want to lean on for support. Then there are folks who you may not want knowing anything about your situation, because you know that they're not going to be helpful at all. Nonetheless, no matter what you decide, it is still really important to get accommodations, to get registered with the Disability Services Office. That will help make your life a lot easier, instead of you having to struggle and suffer in silence.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

The last thing I want to mention when it comes to applying to graduate school with a chronic illness is disclosing carefully. Again, when you apply to grad school, you don't have to disclose anything. You don't have to tell anyone anything. You don't have to mention it in your applications. Now, once you have accepted, once you have said yes to an offer, that's when I recommend you go to the Disability Services office and get signed up.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Before you say yes, definitely reach out to these offices to find out about what services and support they provide, because you don't want to find out after the fact that maybe they don't provide as much of a support as you had expected. But when you're applying, disclose carefully. Like I said, you don't have to say anything. It's really up to you, and what you feel comfortable doing. That is really my biggest advice, to think carefully about when, with whom, what, and if you're going to disclose your chronic illness to others. Not everyone will take it the same way. I know from experience.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

The other thing I wanted to mention when it comes to disclosing is a reminder about having to advocate for yourself. You're going to need to keep advocating. I said that was the last one but actually this is the last thing I want to mention. Keep advocating for yourself once you are in graduate school. Well, when you are applying, you can do this. Once you get in and accept an offer, you need to keep doing this. No one is going to advocate for you. Even if you disclose your chronic illness to others- maybe you choose to disclose it to your advisor or certain mentors. You cannot assume that they will know as soon as you mention what your chronic illness is, that they will know exactly how to support you. That is not true. That is not the case.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

You may need to keep reiterating the same things over and over and over again. You may need to set a boundary and then keep reinforcing that boundary over and over and over again. It may be frustrating. But it is worth it for you to take care of yourself, because as someone who is chronically ill, your health obviously comes first. And the other thing is just a reminder that most people who don't have a chronic illness will find it hard to remember your own needs unless you continue to remind them. It's not their job to do that- even loved ones.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

For instance, I'll just share a little bit about in my case. I get sick in the mornings. I feel sick most mornings. It's not fun. I mean, I could talk about the symptoms, but I will not overshare right now in terms of the details. But long story short, I just don't feel great. I have a series of different symptoms that I experienced most mornings, and it makes it hard for me to function. So I take my morning slowly, and I don't do morning meetings. I just don't. When I lived in the US- which was just last year- I would repeatedly have to tell people that I couldn't meet with them before 10am. Even 10am was sometimes a stretch, depending on how I was feeling. Because yeah, most mornings I feel sick. But there are days that it doesn't go away, and I just feel terrible going on throughout the rest of the day. So that made it a little bit complicated with reinforcing my needs. But what I did know, that was consistent and steady, was that mornings were not great.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Was it irritating that I kept having to remind people- no, I can't meet before 10am. Yes. But I also know it's not their fault for not remembering, that it is my responsibility to advocate for myself. Now that I live abroad, things have changed because the timezone difference actually works in my favor. Most of the people that I work with, that I talk to, my loved ones are actually on the West Coast. I am eight hours ahead of them. So when I'm not feeling great, they're asleep. And I often say this to people when they ask me about what it's been like living abroad is that I feel like I have hacked the timezone, because it actually works in my favor.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

But if I was applying to graduate school- you know, even now, it's not like I don't have things to do here in the mornings. There are responsibilities that I have, but I still try my best to keep things later in the morning and in the afternoon, so that I don't have to be struggling and doing things when I am not at my best. That's just my reminder. You're going to need to keep advocating for yourself as you apply, and then once you get into graduate school, as you navigate graduate school, and ontinuing on in your career in life. All right, that's it for today. I hope you all found this helpful, and I will talk to you all next time.