Ok. I’m getting corned about these health/vaccination forms… I haven’t seen a doctor in at least 10 years and I can’t remember the last time when I got my vaccinations. Now I’m starting to wonder if this will be a problem when I apply to colleges. My parents didn’t want me receiving vaccinations, which is why I stopped seeing a doctor I suppose. If I don’t send in the health forms, will I be denied entrance into college? Or is there a way that I could partially fill out these forms? Any input on this would be great.
*concerned
At my son’s school, you aren’t able to live on campus without submitting complete vaccination records. It wouldn’t impact acceptance, because you don’t disclose that info applying. But I would imagine most schools won’t let you live on campus without medical records, or valid reason for not having the required shots.
@NJWrestlingmom don’t you think that your parents not letting/not wanting you to receive vaccines is a valid reason for not having the required shots? What school does your son go to?
You will have to speak with your college health services, they all have different requirements. As you are an adult now (or soon will be) your healthcare is your responsibility, and getting current on your vaccinations is up to you. Please educate yourself on why one should be vaccinated.
Pediatrician here: The vast majority of colleges with campus housing have similar minimal requirements to live on campus. If you are over 18, you can start the requirements now and have most done by August. Most schools will also accept a plan to finish remaining shots on campus(student health) if you have at least one dose of each of the required ones. Vaccines are a public health issue as well as a personal health issue: getting everyone who is medically able to have vaccines vaccinated is key to preventing potentially deadly outbreaks such as mumps, meningitis, measles, and more. The vast majority of institutions require vaccinations and only consider exemptions for medical reasons (specific immune system conditions are the main ones) in which it would be dangerous for that person to receive vaccines. Not desiring nor parents not desiring vaccines is not a medically valid reason and would not count at the vast majority of institutions.
Your vaccinations or lack there of will have no bearing on your acceptances into college, however, if your college has a requirement for you to live on campus as a Freshman you will have to be vaccinated. Colleges will not overlook your lack of vaccinations if you are living on campus. I think I received 4-5 school-wide emails the summer before my son entered college explaining that if health forms and vaccination records were not completed students would not be allowed to enroll. Unless your parents want you limited to colleges that allow you to live off campus as a freshman or ones that you can commute to from home you will have to be current (or have a plan to be current) on your vaccinations. As @2Devils stated your parents’ preferences are not a valid reason for not being vaccinated. If you are 18, you need to get your health records from your former doctor and start your vaccination protocols. If you are not 18, I would explain to your parents the college limitations that they have placed on you by not allowing you to be vaccinated and ask them to please help you obtain your records so that you can start catching up. As @Mwfan1921 said please educate yourself on why you should be vaccinated. A few months ago a young man testified before Congress regarding his decision to be vaccinated at 18 even though his parents were against it. You could start by reading articles related to is decision.
@2Devils thank you. I guess I will be applying to the colleges I want to go to and then attending the one close to my home if I get in. My parents will not let me get vaccines, nor do I want to get vaccines after hearing about some of the side affects. I am perfectly healthy after not having been vaccinated for several years, and I have no wish to get vaccines anymore.
@sahmkc thank you. Again as I mentioned, I guess I’ll just be going to the college close to my house then. I know why I need to be vaccinated, but I stopped receiving vaccinations because there was a vaccine that I was supposed to get but never did because one of the side affects was DEATH. Again, I will not be receiving any more vaccines because I don’t want to, and my parents don’t want me to.
Many universities will also block you from enrolling for classes if you don’t have your complete vaccination record. You’ll probably have to look really hard to find a full-time school that will let you enroll for classes, so I would strongly reconsider your stance.
@ProfessorPlum168 but what if I’m commuting to college?
I would suggest that you get a blood test and have titers drawn to see which, if any, of the usual diseases you may have immunity to as you wouldn’t have to get vaccines for those. Some examples could be chicken pox, German measles (rubella) and regular measles. You likely don’t have immunity to polio or diptheria. I got a letter from my youngest son’s doctor that he had the chicken pox because he was born after the vaccine came into use but he was exposed and had the disease when he was too young to get the shot yet so there’s no shot listed in his records and it was a problem.
I also refer you to the young man who chose to get vaccinated at 18 and who testified before Congress. His journey could inform your thinking on this matter.
No college that I know of allows the unvaccinated. My son even had to prove his status to take a summer class at the local community college and he wasn’t living on campus.
OP, please read this thread. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1552566-when-people-dont-vaccinate-their-kids-p1.html It’s very long, so why don’t you start around p223, which is around beginning of 2018.
The consequences and side effects of diseases that we have good vaccines for are far, far worse than side effects from vaccines. Vaccines do not cause autism.
Are you reading in the news about the various pockets of measles outbreaks in the US (and elsewhere)? Have you read about babies too young to have been vaccinated that have died, or had irreversible side effects, because they caught measles from unvaccinated neighbors?
Please get educated on vaccinations, and herd immunity. Here is the link to the news story about the unvaccinated teen who chose to get vaccinated, as someone referenced up thread https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/measles-outbreak/teen-steals-show-congress-tackles-anti-vaccine-misinformation-campaigns-n979591
Think about it. You are going to be attending class, and maybe living with people who might have meningitis, whooping cough, measles (unfortunately these days), or mumps. All have been occurring in increasing numbers on campuses recently. Go Google those diseases. Look at pictures, read about symptoms and possible complications. Why would you even think about risking getting those, when there is a safe and proven way to avoid them?
Also, some people can’t get vaccinated. Little babies or people with certain illnesses can’t, They are counting on you and me to get vaccinated so we don’t catch it and spread it to them. A disease like measles is very easily spread in public places, and you are contagious before you know you have it. We could kill someone else if we don’t get vaccinated.
My kid had an unvaccinated friend in college. My daughter talked to her about vaccinations, and her friend decided to go get herself up to date on vaccines. This friend is from an area that has been in the news for a big measles outbreak just recently, and is living at home right now. So it is a good thing she got her vaccines, or she might be another statistic in the outbreak.
Do you remember the name of your pediatrician or the clinic where you used to go? That person or clinic will have your records. You might find out that you don’t need a lot of vaccines at all.
As for your concerns about negative health effects from vaccines, yes, some patients will have severe and possibly even fatal reactions. However, that risk is extremely low relative to the serious health risks of contracting the illnesses themselves. I am old enough to have attended school with people who had contracted polio, and I was able to see how debilitating the results of that could be. I also have known people who lost family members to diphtheria before that vaccine became available, and I myself am here on this planet because my grandfather lost his first wife to the influenza epidemic in 1918. Vaccines are very powerful weapons against diseases. If your health permits you to be vaccinated, you should think carefully about getting your vaccinations up to date. You are protecting your own health by doing so.
Google vaccination records. There likely will be a link to the student health service describing the policy. I did it for a few schools and they had requirements to enroll.
Also be aware that even if you are granted a vaccine exemption you may not be able to attend college if there’s an outbreak on campus. For instance, this is the policy at my kid’s college:
OP—to quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
“You’re a loony.”
You can make the choice to not vaccinate, but you have to realize that everybody else makes decisions, too. Limiting public health hazards by keeping the unvaccinated off of campus is a choice, and one that is better-researched than yours.
Everything you’ve ever done—gone swimming, driven a car, walked across the street, breathed, eaten, slept—carries a risk of DEATH. The minute risk of injury from vaccines is nothing compared to the risk of actually contracting an infectious disease.
Please listen to the actual medical doctor who’s commented on this thread.
I’m going to be blunt here. Your parents, and you, have been brainwashed by fake science. Part of what college is about is opening your mind, and critically analyzing long held beliefs. You may as well start that ball rolling by discovering what real science says about vaccinations, including who really shouldn’t get them, and whether “DEATH” as you so dramatically put it is more likely to occur from vaccinations or lack of vaccinations. The fact that there are public health crises as a result of various outbreaks at present is more rather than less likely to make colleges insistent on vaccinations. And the parents here are less, not more, likely to want more unvaccinated kids threatening herd immunity in their kids’ own universities. If you are open to some science based discussion about vaccination that specifically addresses the concerns of antivaxxers, I can point you in that direction. At the very least, you should be considering vaccines against the worst diseases.
You know what else has a side effect of DEATH?
Measles
Polio
Diptheria
Aspirin
Advil
Tylenol
Traveling in a motor vehicle
When was the last time you heard of someone dying as a result of smallpox? Never? That’s because the worldwide vaccination program wiped smallpox off the face of the earth. EVERYONE got vaccinated so there’s no more smallpox circulating. Before the smallpox vaccine 300 million people died of smallpox JUST in the 20th century. Smallpox had been circulating since at least the 10th century. Due to vaccination, smallpox was declared officially eradicated by the World Health Organization in 1981.