My daughter is a senior in an IB program. She has a 34 ACT score and a 4.3 GPA. Here’s the catch - she has a medical condition called POTS which causess relapsing and remitting headaches, vomiting, brain fog and extreme fatigue (as in, can’t be on her feet more than a few minutes). She misses days and sometime a week or two of school at a time. Mild symptoms started in 8th grade and became pronounced when she was a sophomore. But because the condition isn’t well known, she wasn’t diagnosed until last spring. Her school set up a 504 plan that reduced her course load and allowed her to be out of school a lot. She was able to catch up academically even with all the missed school and is trying to go full-time this semester. But the condition has affected her through all of high school. She had to drop all of her ecs because of her physical problems (In middle school she danced 20 hours a week; this is a huge change). She is moving forward with applying to college but we’re not at all sure she’ll be physically able to attend next year. A gap year to gain strength might be necessary. All that said - we’re seeking suggestions on places to apply. She had always planned to apply early to Yale but I am concerned that she would be throwing away her chance to apply somewhere else early where she would have a better shot (since she has no ecs) (and maybe have an easier second half of her senior year knowing she was admitted). Her intended majors are international relations with stats and data science. Her current list includes Yale, American, UC Berkeley, Chicago, UGA (home state), Miami of Ohio and Williams. Am looking for suggestions - especially ones with early action - ideally of a manageable size and with good accommodations for a student with ongoing medical problems (and ones where stats are valued over ecs). I know it’s a tall order but a great friend who saw her daughter through this process last year tells me this group is an amazing knowledge base. Ideally east coast but she does have a close relative in San Francisco so California is a possibility as well.
To be honest if my student had this condition I would not want her to be more than a couple hours drive from home.
We have friends with a daughter who has the same condition. She was diagnosed Jr year of HS after much scrambling to figure out what was wrong. Dropped all her EC’s too… She is now at our state flagship about 4 hours away, and has done well. She was away (out of state) last summer at an internship. Overall she manages it and it has worked out. This is a hard time though, was for them too. She applied to the schools that she wanted - two were out of state - and she ended up where she wanted to go. You and your D are at the beginning of the process and I imagine the path will become more clear as you go along!
A friend’s niece was diagnosed with POTS, and had to give up a full ride scholarship (volleyball) and couldn’t even attend college.
If your daughter is wheelchair dependent, consider the weather at schools she wants to attend. It really is a lot harder to handle winters in New Haven than in Georgia, at a huge school like Cal than a smaller one Williams (but Williams will be tough because of weather).
Thinking about schools that are closer to home and possibly less rigorous than Chicago and Yale - Tulane, Furman, Elon, Rhodes. Maybe U. Richmond? For the larger flagship universities, it’s hard to beat UGA for the price and the opportunities in the southeast. I wouldn’t want to be a flight away from my daughter if she had those medical issues. Good for her though for aiming high and trying to not let her illness hold her back.
Consider schools with schedules that allow for some flexibility. Elon - four credit hour classes and J term, which would give her a chance to rest up in Jan. or make up a class. What about the school (Colorado?) that does one course at a time for a period of weeks. Lafayette and Hobart & William Smith have the extra term (January and May respectively). Basically, I would plan on her taking longer than four years to accommodate a lighter schedule.
Also, I’d look for a campus that isn’t too spread out if walking tires her out (Elon is huge, Lafayette is not).
Lastly, if a wheelchair is a possibility in her future, there are huge disparities in accessibility between campuses despite ADA regulations. Older campuses can’t change some of their 100 year old structures. Good luck to your smart and driven daughter!
I’d add Davidson and Wake Forest (both small campuses) to your possibilities list.
I think Colorado College (with the one class at a time plan) would be a terrible place for someone who tires easily and has trouble breathing. Colorado Springs is at 6000 feet elevation. It is very hard to breathe at 6000 feet and the weather might make getting around in a wheelchair difficult.
I had thought about Davidson too but it’s known for being very academically rigorous so missing classes there could be pretty difficult.
Actually, that’s my strong feeling, too. I’m telling her, “save the dream schools for grad school.”
Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it.
A good friend’s child with Ehlers Danlos syndrome (with lots of POTS like symptoms) had a fantastic experience at Franklin and Marshall College in PA. The student was able to get short term medical “leave” whenever symptoms flared up enough to interfere with schoolwork, and most professors were very accommodating in scheduling make up of missed work (occasionally needed to contact dean to intervene with a professor, but rarely).
They chose F and M partly because of its compact size, and also it is relatively flat, so it helped with the physical challenge of just getting to class.
The academic experience there was great, too, with good internship opportunities, great professors, and academically challenging for a high stats student ( even higher than your D).
There is also decent access to healthcare in the Lancaster area.
Forgot to mention that the F and M student did end up taking several semesters off for medical reasons, but did graduate and has a great job. Be sure to get tuition insurance wherever your D ends up, in case a medical withdrawal is needed.
Meant to say: Thanks for all your replies. I really appreciate them.
@TomSrOfBoston I agree re: distance. I’ve been telling her that she should save the far-away/ dream schools for grad work
@1399HdJ So glad to hear your friend’s niece is doing well at a flagship. I’m hoping my daughter will do the same.
@twoinanddone Great advice. Definitely need to consider weather, campus size, topography. She saw a bunch of schools in the N/E, including Williams, before she knew she had POTS. Now far is out. Snow is out. Spread out is out… Yes, and altitude is out.
@elena13 Thank you! I’ll put those names on her list. She brought up Tulane before. Definitely need to dial back rigor. Stress is a trigger for POTS relapses. With Davidson, I had the impression that although it’s rigorous, Davidson goes out of their way to look out for students individually; trusts them to get the work done. Have to explore how far that goes in these circumstances.
@TwinMom2023 Great point on schedule flexibility. Fewer classes would make a HUGE difference. Falling two weeks behind with a full load could end a semester.
@cupugu Yes! We toured Davidson early and I forgot to mention that it’s still on her list. I loved it. She wanted bigger, but now is seeing the advantage of smaller.
My daughter has POTS, though she’s only 12, so we’re just worried about getting through middle school… not ready to think about college for her yet. But she feels so much better at the beach. She can almost function normally. So, I would consider looking into schools at sea level, close to the coast, either California or along the east coast (Yale would fit the bill…not sure how close other east coast schools on her list are to the actual coast).
I would also recommend tuition insurance. POTS is so unpredictable and, unfortunately, school is especially tough for our kids with POTS.
As far as lack of ECs, I’ve heard of kids with POTS (or their GCs) addressing their health struggles in the application and getting great results, despite their limited extracurricular activities in high school. Just getting through high school and graduating, especially with the stats your daughter has, is incredible and she should be so proud! Does she have a 504/IEP? Her accommodations should follow her through college.
Mainly because it’s in Georgia but also because it’s a good school: Agnes Scott College.
@Mamabear204 – You absolutely will want to consider accessibility, location, topography, and how easy (or not) it is to work with the Disabilities Office, get services, how your D will get around campus, etc. Public universities are mandated to provide services and be accessible, so that’s worth keeping in mind. When you visit schools, getting around campus should be a top concern; availability of good medical care is also important.
My D has a double whammy of two chronic pain conditions (Rheumatoid Arthritis and Fibromyalgia) and gets around with a trike and a mobility scooter. She met with disabilities people after she was accepted to both Yale and Stanford (her two top choices). She had the distinct impression that Stanford’s Office of Accessible Education had their act together a bit more than Yale’s Resource Offices on Disabilities and that the campus, the weather, and the access to medical care would be much easier to deal with – and, for the most part, it has been. I would hardly call Stanford stress-free (and the quarter system is rough if classes are missed). They do allow students registered with the OAE to take as few as 8 units and still be considered full-time, live on campus, etc. The campus is pretty spread out.
I would imagine that many LACs would be pretty accommodating. Schools that I suspect would be particularly good that are flat and have good weather include the Claremont Colleges (a disabled accepted student we know was told that she could have the disability/facility offices on speed dial and that they would have a golf cart available to her if needed (this was never tested as she ended up not going there). LACs that are part of a consortium would probably offer many more options and seem less small than an isolated and/or rural LAC. USC (California) is very flat and pretty compact.
I would avoid schools like UCLA that have a huge uphill and downhill to contend with between the dorms and the main part of campus. UCSD is also hilly and spread out; UC Santa Barbara is right by the ocean and pretty flat. Schools in the midwest will be flat, although possibly too spread out and definitely too cold. Columbia has a pretty compact campus, but – as a disabled person who grew up in New York – I wouldn’t call NYC disabled-friendly.
Other schools that were pretty high on D’s list that seemed pretty accessible included Rice (Houston) and Wash U in St. Louis. Vanderbilt also seemed reasonably accessible, but less so than Wash U and Rice.
Davidson seemed quite good and I suspect that they are good with disabilities. I might imagine that some of the women’s colleges would also be quite good (they tend to be rather supportive in general), so Bryn Mawr might be a good choice. You need to think about schools that have more than one campus or that house freshman further away from classes – I suspect that the trek from east to west campus at Duke, for example, would get really old really fast.
Google Maps now has a terrain function that shows elevation. There is also a mapping program called mytopo.com that allows you to look at topography maps.
I would also consider schools that either have online classes or will accept them. There may be times when your daughter needs to come home for a term and being able to take an online class may help keep her from falling behind.
Also, btw, Cornell College in Iowa has 3.5 week single classes similar to Colorado College.
Given that you may want to save $ for grad school, if thats in the picture, and you want a school that will address accommodations, and probably its wise to look at a small campus, perhaps consider Ga College and State (hidden gem LAC in GA) or Ga Southern.
@mamag2855 thank you for the word on F and M and on tuition insurance. I didn’t know about that and it sounds like a lifesaver for families in our situation. Fand M sounds like a great place; will put it on her radar.
@samsmom20 Thank you for the good news on ecs and the application - she’s gone back and forth on discussing her condition in the essay. She’s decided to do it. And we’ll keep sea level in mind. Good for you starting so early. And thank you, too, for the tip on tuition insurance.
@rosered55 LOL! We live walking distance from Agnes Scott! I love the idea. She’d like a little more distance.
@LoveTheBard Congratulations on your D’s achievements! And thank you for your insights into the disability offices and into the mobility issues. Claremont keeps coming up. I need to check on distance from our family there, Thanks for the tip on the topography maps, too,
I second the Claremont Colleges, great disability accommodations and weather.