Disclose or not disclose?

<p>The question for the upcoming application season is does student disclose his/her learning disability (dyslexia) in personal statement or short addendum to application or not?
Advice is running 50% yes, 50% no.
Any personal experiences would be appreciated. Thanks.</p>

<p>will they need accomodations on campus?
If yes I would disclose and submit information about their current accomodations.
You want to know up front if you will be able to work with them and if they will provide what is needed.
It doesn't have to be part of application-but I would want to know what resources they have</p>

<p>Whether to disclose or not depends upon whether the dyslexia has affected your son's schedule, interests, or plans. I think the triumphal essay about how one has conquered dyslexia and learned life's lesson that hard work will conquer all is probably too cliched. But, I know someone whose son's SAT I essay is pretty weak and probably should comment on that. My son has altered his schedule in part in response to dyslexia. He hasn't taken a conventional foreign language course. He's been partial homeschooling, in part because he found even the Honors and AP courses at our high school to slow and in part because he was overwhelmed by the volume of reading/writing he was required to do. By doing some subjects out of the school, he's been able to work at a faster pace in some subjects and to improve his writing. So, he will definitely have to disclose or his schedule will look a little strange. </p>

<p>He has actually thought that he might use his sophomore year Honors Chemistry teacher as a character reference. She was actively hostile to giving him extra time even though it was mandated by the IEP. So, she watched him take tests to see what he was doing with the extra time. He got sick, in part from overwork, and had to struggle to recover. But, by the second semester, he got an A+ on every test. She's become an advocate for him to other teachers and when I appealed the decision by the College Board on testing accommodations, she wrote a sterling letter stating that a) despite her skepticism, he needed every minute of the extra time; and b) that he was one of the best, and most intellectual students she'd ever had. He was going to ask her to comment on how he'd dealt with his dyslexia, how he advocated for himself, and what a great student he was. </p>

<p>If you think it is necessary to explain your son's performance or can help portray him to advantage, I think disclosing is desirable. However, if your son has a pretty good record with no apparent need to explain, I'd guess some admissions committees would say, "Great. He's an overachiever -- by super hard work, he's managed to amass a pretty good record. Good for him. He could will his way through high school but he'll never be able to manage the workload here." So, I think that there is a risk.</p>

<p>I think one can get accommodations without disclosing. So, I would investigate, as emeraldkity4 suggests, whether the school is responsive in regard to requests for accommodation (my sense is that some are and some aren't) and what resources they have.</p>

<p>
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The question for the upcoming application season is does student disclose his/her learning disability (dyslexia) in personal statement or short addendum to application or not?

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<p>I think that if your child's dyslexia resulted in your child slowly working their way up to a really nice gpa at high school, then I would disclose it a wee bit. For example, if your child had to work their way up to a 3.0 by the end of their grade ten year, then it would not hurt to disclose the fact that your child has dyslexia a wee bit. By, wee bit, I mean alluding to it, more so than making it the theme to any admissions essay or something. </p>

<p>Now, you should make sure your child's l.d. testing is current for University. Please stay on top of that and make sure to help your child meet up with the head of disability services. You need to do that for two reasons. One reason is that your child may come across a class or two where they would need time in a half for tests or what have you. The second reason is that, if your child desires to go on to grad school...then it would be a good idea to make sure everything with the l.d. office and all is 'right Kosher...because your child might need extra time for the GRE. It takes a super long time to get L.D. assistance for the GRE. </p>

<p>Asides from all that, eastcoastmomma, I wish your child all the best!</p>

<p>Accomodations are difficulty to get for GRE
For example- my daughter had accomodations for SAT and in college.
When she wanted to use them for GRE- the College board denied her request- since her scores without accomodations were comparable to Joe Average, even though she has documented disabilities and isn't able to show her strengths without accomodations</p>

<p>I keep having the same question in my mind. DS has Asperger's Syndrome and is very ADD. He is in mostly G/T, pre-AP, AP classes (this year, 5 AP classes). He's not neurologically "together" enough to get all of the available points in any class (If we put him in 3rd grade math, he'd still get a low A/high B because he wouldn't turn his homework on time.) His buddies/classmates are all at the very very top of the class in a very competitive school...we'll be lucky if DS finishes in the top 20%. Having a bit of insight into what goes on in his brain, I think he's doing a spectacular job in school...but his class rank is going to look "ho hum."</p>