On End-of-Semester Paralysis

Hello all,

Welcome to my latest post! Note that this one isn’t divided into the usual sections; it’s just a longform reflection. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy it!

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I spent most of the past two weeks working with an “emergency” client – a recent-ish college student who, despite having graduated from a prestigious institution in May with excellent grades, had not written the final papers for two of his classes. And when I say he had not written them, I mean he had not written a single word of either paper – and these were not short papers. They were not even medium-length papers.

When his father contacted me, this student was working on extensions, meaning he’d been given two more weeks to either turn in the papers or fail the classes for which they were assigned. Clearly, he – let’s. call him Jay – was living every college senior’s worst nightmare. To depressed to write, and paralyzed by the magnitude of his impending failure, Jay found himself unable to escape the cycle of procrastination that he’d always been able to overcome before, if only at the very last minute.

This time, the last minute had come and passed: Jay’s final papers had been due well before his May graduation, but his professors, unable to watch their previously star student fail at this crucial time, had granted him extension after extension in the certainty that he would eventually finish their assignments. They had even permitted him to walk at graduation.

But no matter how understanding his professors were, Jay had not, and could not, write his final papers, and so when I met him he was hurtling toward the end of what would quite literally be his final grace period as an undergraduate.

It would be difficult to overstate Jay’s stress level at the time of our first meeting. He smiled and shook my hand, outwardly composed, but I could feel the tension pouring off him as we spoke. He was not in what you would call “a good place.”

Luckily for him, I had once been in his position; at the end of my senior year, I experienced a similar kind of psychological paralysis, and actually did fail to complete one of my final papers, resulting in a failing grade for that class. Until then, I’d gotten straight A’s all through college, meaning my cumulative GPA was, until that point, a perfect 4.0. Since my freshman year, I’d worked to keep that number from sliding (although I loved my course of study for its own sake, I was also deeply self-conscious about grades), and because I did not know how or where to seek help at the crucial moment, I lost out on the fruits of all that labor. Or at least, that’s how it felt.  

At the time, I also felt sure that I was the only college senior with this mysterious, soul-crushing problem – a problem I now call “end-of-semester paralysis.” Jay, when we met, was similarly convinced of his fateful uniqueness, certain that no one else could possibly be so “incompetent” as to ruin their transcript after graduation.

What Jay didn’t know was that I’ve actually worked with dozens of college students in the exact same situation – students who have finished a semester without finishing their final assignments, and who are now working desperately against looming extension deadlines to preserve their grades (and their mental health). Although it’s stigmatized and rarely talked about in academia, end-of-semester paralysis is a troublingly common affliction in today’s universities. In my experience as a writing coach, I’ve found that it usually correlates with some form of depression and also with ADD, though I’m not a psychologist and can’t explain this link with any certainty.

What I can say with certainty is that end-of-semester paralysis is a legitimate issue, and that it’s deeply distressing to the individuals experiencing it. The way my students tell it (and I concur), it feels like watching your own ship sink, knowing that, for reasons you can’t explain, you’re simply unable to muster the will or the effort to stop it.

The good news is that a skilled writing coach or tutor can help college students struggling with end-of-semester paralysis. Every one of my students facing this issue have ultimately been able to complete their final assignments on time (given their deadline extensions), including Jay – we finished working together at the end of last week, after two weeks of daily 2-hour meetings, and now he’s free to step into his future without fear of a messed-up transcript.

The bad news is that end-of-semester paralysis is, in my view, symptomatic of larger issues with our systems of higher education, and with the culture of mainstream academia.

In future blogs, I’d like to unpack some of my questions about this unspoken phenomenon, and how it relates to our style and methods of education today. But for now, I’ll close out. Main takeaway from today’s blog? Working as a writing coach has really sold me on the ability of writing coaches to help students in tough spots.

Of course, there aren’t many (ethically-minded) writing coaches who can provide the sort of last-minute emergency services my company can, and there are even fewer who understand end-of-semester paralysis from personal experience. If you or your kid are stuck in a situation like Jay’s, please reach out. If you’re unsure how to find a writing coach, or how to hire a writing coach, or if you’re uncertain about what sort of writing coach is best equipped to meet your needs, you’re also welcome to reach out.

Thanks for reading, and again, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or feedback!

Sincerely,

Brady Gilliam

Your tutor