<p>Our child was given a foreign language waiver in high school due to dyslexia. The college admission office accepted this and granted admission. Now, we are considering whether to have our child ask for a foreign language waiver from the office of disability services as an accommodation. Does anyone know of colleges that do this? If not, what accommodations have proven useful?</p>
<p>It varies by college. Some do allow foreign language to be waived. Others do not. It would be best to check with the office of disability services at the colleges you are interested in. </p>
<p>As far as accommodations for foreign language in college, most likely the same accommodations would apply such as extended time for exams, note taker, testing in a quiet room, etc. again, this will vary from school to school.</p>
<p>We have the same issue for D. I have spoken to her top 5 choices and all except one will allow a “cultural” substitution for the foreign language requirement in college. All say that they will waive any foreign language requirement for entrance on a “case by base” basis. One of our state flagships say that the “require” 2 years of HS foreign language for admittance. We shall see.</p>
<p>Would you possibly post the names of the schools that have waived college foreign language requirement. My daughter has similar issues and we will be applying to college in a few years. Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Thanks Newcrew. The disability office said that they will waive it if it was waived in high school. That’s the answer we wanted.</p>
<p>My son is also dyslexic and after 9th grade got an exemption from foreign language. When we looked at schools we chose schools specifically that did not have that requirement, in fact we chose a school for him without heavy duty gen ed requirements.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure math and FL waivers (for admissions and/or for undergraduate grad reqs) are listed in this guide (at least start here, then confirm with school): <a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Programs-Disabilities-Attention-Hyperactivity-Admissions/dp/0307945073/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391747142&sr=1-1”>http://www.amazon.com/Programs-Disabilities-Attention-Hyperactivity-Admissions/dp/0307945073/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391747142&sr=1-1</a></p>
<p>The K&W Guide to College Programs & Services for Students with Learning Disabilities or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, 11th Edition (College Admissions Guides) [Paperback]
Princeton Review (Author), Marybeth Kravets (Author), Imy Wax (Author) </p>
<p>Agree that they would give a waiver, but something else would have to be substituted.</p>
<p>FWIW, my LD son is taking an AP language course, and the discipline of studying a language has helped him and he plans to continue it in college. </p>
<p>If there is any interest in foreign language, you could ask for your child to audit a foreign language intro course.</p>
<p>DS has been accepted to all 6 colleges he applied to. All had FL requirement for admission which we were able to have waived due to language-based LD. School he’s most likely going to attend says that study abroad can be used to fulfill language requirement. </p>
<p>I wonder why you didn’t think about this before enrolling your student at this school. If you knew it was an issue it could have been dealt with prior to matriculation. </p>
<p>Anyway I don’t say that to be critical as much as to encourage other parents reading this thread to be more proactive with their LD kids. </p>
<p>Personally, my very dyslexic son thrived in his HS Latin coursework and enjoyed it so much he took all four years. I’m sure that was part of the reason he got accepted at a number of terrific colleges (especially as prospective engineering major). At this point I don’t believe he has any additional foreign language requirement to graduate, but even if he does he could probably go back and repeat a year of Latin to fulfill the requirement. </p>
<p>@Inquisitive I would urge you to consider Latin before seeking the waiver. If your college doesn’t offer it maybe see if there’s a CC course your student could take over the summer. Latin is a great way to help dyslexic learners improve their vocabulary and sight reading fluency, plus it’s a wonderful exposure to the Classics! </p>
<p>My son was disastrous with all languages including Latin. He is a package of extreme gifts and extreme deficits (you may never have heard someone sing as badly, for example). When he and I worked on college choices, we steered toward those with very mild distribution requirements which also frequently meant no language requirements. He did apply to a few with requirements. He was applying to largely the most competitive schools and said he didn’t want to do pre-admission visits because he didn’t want to fall in love with schools for which the probability of admission was 10%. So, Tufts said they would waive with a substitute. Dartmouth only agreed to make a decision about waiving it because it was a deal-breaker for my son. They normally would not review unless the student had already decided to attend. They did waive but the head of Disabilities Services (not the correct title) said that he had only waived 15 kids in three years. Did not ask Princeton, but I don’t believe they would have waived. </p>
<p>In some cases, colleges will tell you what they will do regarding accommodations or waiving of requirements before your kid has been admitted. But, mostly you get generalities (they are all excellent at lip service to different kinds of learning as it is the law but few actually believe any of it if it requires anything from them). The real time to ask is after being admitted but before selecting a school. Then, they can be asked to make a specific decision: Will you waive the requirement or not? </p>
<p>U of Maryland does not require a foreign language for most majors. Brown does not require a foreign language. Upenn and others allow ASL as meeting a foreign language requirement.</p>