I realize that the various schools legally are not notified if a student has time accommodations. However, if one is approved for computer accommodations for the essay portion, wouldn’t the schools be aware of those accommodations and will that hinder or affect their decisions in measuring the student’s application?
Colleges --except in the rarest of cases – must comply with the Americans with Disability Act. Besides the legal implications of discrimination, colleges have a pragmatic reason not to discriminate – they want the best students possible. Making inferences about an applicant based on whether or not the applicant used a computer to complete the SAT or ACT essay would be highly flawed.
Also, few colleges are requiring the essay and fewer still will go to the trouble of looking at them. Students should not be reluctant to use accommodations required for them to succeed.
D was born at 25 weeks gestational age so she has small motor issues that make writing quickly an issue. We applied for accomodation really just for the essay portion of the SAT and ACT. The process of applying is kind of a pain. You need doctors statements in hard copy form, not scanned or faxed. You need to apply way before the exam, I think it took 6 or 8 weeks in our case. If you are given accomodation no college will ever know and in our case she was given accomodation on both the SAT and ACT and on Subject Tests. I don’t remember if she got additional time on the AP exams or not. If you have a legitimate medical condition why not request accomodation?
@yellowjeans The EssayView service allows colleges to see student essays. I don’t think many bother.
I do not believe that universities are allowed to know that kids are getting extra time or other accommodations in high school or standardized tests.
Where have you heard differently?