IIT Application—How to account for application discrepancies? Mention addiction?

Applying to College
1

Hi all,

I’m the concerned significant other of a man who is seeking to transfer to IIT. He is currently editing his essays to submit tomorrow; we’ve had many conversations about them. I’m a Literature/Writing major, so my implicit bias is getting in the way of helping him completely. So here I turn after googling IIT’s rejection of others.

IIT has a part on their transfer admissions page where they state they may give more credence to recent academic success than past academic stumbling. My boyfriend is 25. He’s been at a community college for two years. He has a 3.4 GPA & has taken every course necessary to be admitted to IIT. He has LORs from prominent professors. However, we are both scared for one reason: there are two years of prior academic failure to account for. He attended a college where he failed out, then attended another where he continued to falter until he had to drop.

The reason? Addiction.

Some of you may know addiction, many of you may not. I am a heroin addict, so I am empathetic to his story. It’s a story many of you have posted here, but with a different core. Student encounters tragedy/hardship, it affects their schoolwork. Addiction is now treated as a disease; suspending whether or not you personally believe so, what’s important is that this is how it is now treated. It is a biopsychosocial disease with a belief in the brain’s neuroplasticity; due to the brain’s ability to adapt, people can, in fact, get clean, stay clean, & no longer be a liability to others.

Please give your honest opinion. & please be kind. I know very well what the rest of the world thinks of addiction despite what science may say. I know people see it as a weakness of willpower. Enough of that. Here is what he is facing:

  1. How can he account for the discrepancies in his transcript without disclosing the addiction? Or, if he can disclose his addiction without it resulting in immediate rejection, what is the most effective way to present it?

  2. Is it an instant rejection to disclose the addiction due to the possibility of judgmental admissions counselors; or do you think IIT is as open as they claim they are, & that they will still give him equal opportunity?

Rock & hard place. I have no idea what to tell him. Some of you have gone there, & some of you have been rejected.

Please let me know. & forgive the length of the post—I am a writer, after all.

Warmth,
kidcthulu

2

I’m a physics professor at Illinois Tech and my advice to your significant other would be to simply say that he had health issues that prevented a good performance in the past but that the most recent work is truly indicative of his abilities. I also have had addiction in the family and I think it is really no one’s business unless he wishes to reveal it.

I am not involved in undergraduate admissions but a 3.4 in the last 2 years at CC plus all the requisite courses, should make a good case for admission.

Good Luck!