Hello all,
I was wondering if having a semi-physical and multiple neurological disabilities would be considered a hook in Ivy League admissions, and particularly at Penn?
No. You wouldn’t believe how many people have some kind of condition.
I’m not talking about common conditions such as allergies, asthma, etc. I’m talking about more serious conditions that impact everypart of my life and have heavily impacted schoolwork
The answer is still the same. No, it’s not a hook. It may make for an interesting essay, but that’s it.
I think it could potentially help since it adds to diversity. I wouldn’t go out of your way to mention it but perhaps in a diversity supplement essay it would be good, or if you have your counselor mention it in their comments
It’s different, it’s unique, it might even be fodder for an interesting backstory – but it’s not a HOOK. A hook is something the institution desperately wants and searches for.
A hook is a reason why a college would particularly want you at the school (ex. recruited athlete, child of a big donor etc.). Many people with different types of disabilities will be applying. Agree with the above that your disability and how you have dealt with it could make for an interesting and powerful essay/backstory but it still isn’t a hook. Best of luck as you go through the college process.
I personally don’t understand why being from a historically disadvantaged ethnicity or by race is a hook, and having a major disability is not. Both have been historically subjected to segregation, discrimination and oppression, both require the student to overcome obstacles not realized to their “typical” peers, both are protected by section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Certainly having a disability often creates an assumption of being “less”, whether it is less smart, less capable, or less able to work hard. Certainly the perspective of living with a disability leads to a diversity of thought that is different from that of coming from another historically under-represented minority.
The truth is that other disadvantaged groups are not yet willing to open their umbrella to people with disabilities. Right now it is trendy at colleges to embrace diversity, but only certain types of diversity. They are not willing to embrace the diversity that comes with disability because that STILL carries too much of a stigma.
So, to answer your question, it should be a hook, and if true diversity were valued, it would be.
I think, @psycholing, that many schools set targets over time that they think are important to their mission and sustainability. While your point above is a good one, institutions are far more likely to want to have X% of their student body meet ABC criteria by 2xxx than to “target” students with disabilities.
It can certainly differentiate you in the pool, so in this way it does reflect what you mention above, You should use it in your app if you feel it has been important to defining you.
Hi Garendstategal, I am not a student. I am actually a parent of two students (one in college, one applying), and I am a former academic. I work in civil rights now, mostly with minority students with disabilities. I really see no difference in a college wanting to have students of XX ethnicity/race and wanting to have students with disabilities, except perhaps that the students with disabilities are somewhat less organized. You may see that change in the coming years. For example, the autism self-advocates have made great strides, just as the HIV-positive advocates did many years ago.
Back in the 1980’s when I was an undergrad, as part of a class on using street theater to initiate civil disobedience, my classmates took over a University cafeteria to protest that it was not accessible to students living in the dorms in wheelchairs. I was amazed to learn that my classmate down the hall who had cerebral palsy had to eat alone in her room every day just because ramps were not installed. If that is not segregation, what is? Times have changed, but not all that much. My current clients with disabilities struggle in college, often with just the minimal amount of ADA accommodations.
Consider: one reason we value diversity in a college is to have multiple experiences to augment class discussions. As a professor I would be the first to say that having a homogeneous class is quite boring. So now when we look at elite schools we see much more variety in classes – different races, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations. I see this as a positive. But how many people do we see in these classrooms with significant disabilities – those who are blind, deaf, with autism, cerebral palsy, etc. I would say that kind of diversity is very very limited. In 8 years of teaching and many more years as a teaching assistant, I only had one blind student, no deaf students, and none in wheel chairs, none without use of their hands. I did have several students with autism, but only because that was an area in which I conducted research.
My comment here is directed to those college admins who may read these kinds of threads. They SHOULD consider disability as much of a hook as any other minority status. Let’s not just excuse them if they don’t.
Sorry, @psycholing – I saw you were a new member and thought that you were a student trying to understand what constituted a “hook” as that question is a well worn thread on these boards (and the well-worn answer is “institutional priority”). Your objective is a good one, and I hope you succeed in your work.
As someone who is not involved in the setting of institutional priorities, I can’t be of much help. I would guess that if you had data demonstrating that this group constitutes a smaller percentage of the population at Penn than it does it does in the general population and had further demonstration based on test scores, etc., that there is absolutely no reason for that other than bias, you’d be armed for battle.
But I think that the first step is getting the institution to set correcting this as a goal because until it is, it can bolster someone’s application (in the same way that being internationally recognized in a sport that the school doesn’t have a team for does – by making the applicant attractive without filling an institutional need) but it won’t be something they’re looking for. Good luck to you.