learning disabilities...a good hook??

Applying to College
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<p>I also disagree that the GC is better to address the disability - it may be true in some cases, but not all. First of all, the student knows how the disability has impacted him/her and how he/she has learned from the experience - that is often what is important to address. And I feel the applicant knows himself/herself better than the guidance counselor would, and can often address those issues better. Although if the applicant feels uncomfortable writing about it, then do whatever you are comfortable with. But in many cases, I feel the applicant may be more eloquent at explaining the issues. And in some cases, schools have a bias against a student with a disability & may not do a good job explaining it, or may even say they don't feel the student should be admitted. My school district did not believe one of my diagnoses was a real illness, and caused me no end of problems. Even though my learning consultant had the same illness, they refused to believe me and acted like it was all in my head. My doctor is world reknowned, and they asked me to go to their doctor - they said who is this Dr X (don't want to post his name) anyway. My mom faxed them his 40 page resume - we wish we could have seen their faces. In any case, some guidance counselors or school officials may have biases against certain disabilities, and may not do a good job of explaining the situation. I can say in college, I asked my advisor for a LOR for a study abroad program (just a month program, not a year long or anything), and she told me she didn't feel I could handle it medically and didn't want to write the letter. If she had just said she didn't feel comfortable writing it, that would have been fine, but it was not her place to say what I could handle medically. If my doctor and I felt I could handle it, that was his and my decision. I was so upset, I switched advisors. I would not have felt comfortable asking her for a letter for grad school. (and this is someone who lives in my hometown and has known me since before I was sick). Sorry for the long message. I just feel in some cases, an applicant will do a better job explaining his/her disability and will state it far more eloquently. I got a lot of compliments on my essay and feel it may have even helped my admission into some schools, as I did not have a lot of ECs due to illness (though I was on the board of trustees of a state health nonprofit organization). It's totally up to the applicant, but just wanted to put in my two cents.</p>

<p>Beth</p>

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<p>To the extent it is relevant to this discussion, the testing services no longer note nonstandard administrations of the tests (i.e., accommodations) when reporting scores. They were sued and agreed to stop doing this in order to settle the cases. This happened, oh, a couple years ago or so.</p>

<p>The only circumstances I know of where colleges know is for service academies. The law doesn't apply the same way to them ... I researched all this one time when someone was mentioning her son trying to get into the Coast Guard Academy and finding out that they asked whether any of the submitted tests were taken with accommodations. Ordinarily, colleges can't ask that. </p>

<p>I don't remember all the details of what I found and maybe there have been developments in the last year or so. But this was the situation last I read up on it ...</p>

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<p>Way to go Beth! I do agree about writing your essays about the disability if you explain what you learned from it. I was really only stating what I had read in a college admissions book. It was only one person's opinion. I think their point was that they didn't want to see the student as only having a disability. They wanted to see other strengths. Judging by the way you write, I am sure you shined. Good luck in everything you do. You are an inspiration!</p>

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<p>I found the College Board press release I originally read on the subject of dropping the flagging of nonstandard SAT administration:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/press/article/0,1443,11360,00.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/press/article/0,1443,11360,00.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>RiskCareDream, Thanks so much for your comments and good wishes. :) I think students with disabilities often gain a lot from their experiences, and therefore when writing about what they've learned, may shine in comparison to other candidates who do not have their maturity, courage or strength (no offense intended to those without disabilities - not that they are not amazing too, just that having a disability can give you certain characteristics like strength of character, maturity, and an ability to overcome obstacles). I'm currently waiting to hear from the other Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Medical Programs I applied to, especially Bryn Mawr, University of Penn, and Johns Hopkins - please keep your fingers crossed that I get in, especially with regard to Bryn Mawr - I interviewed there at the end of January and they are making their decision this week or next week, so keep your fingers crossed, I'd really love to attend the program at Bryn Mawr. I know how those of you applying to college feel, I'm in the same boat, waiting to hear. :) Best of luck. And anyone who wants to talk about disabilities, whether to do with applications, accomodations in college, etc, please feel free to email me directly at <a href="mailto:Beth_W@ix.netcom.com">Beth_W@ix.netcom.com</a> And if anyone needs legal advice regarding accomodations in school (for students with disabilities) feel free to contact me, my father is an attorney now specializing in special ed law and I can put you in touch with him.</p>

<p>Beth</p>

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<p>Beth, I appreciated your full discussion of your own story. I wanted to concur with Diane's & RCD's replies, but they luckily beat me to it!</p>

<p>In your case, regarding your essay, it would be my example of what other posters have said (other threads) regarding (1) stressing the result, as opposed to the condition, and (2) providing context for your accomplishment. Thus, what the admissions committees were able to see was the winner who shone through. Secondily, you've been a winner despite circumstances. That tends to "add points," if you will, to any application. </p>

<p>This is also a very misunderstood aspect of an admissions review, I think, esp. on CC here -- & esp. because the CC population looks to be more skewed toward students with advantages of birth & circumstances, than not. The mythology on CC is that colleges are rewarding (perversely) for negative factors in one's life. (Thus by implication, punishing for advantages.) That's not what's happening. They're placing a value on achieving amid adversity because of the independence, drive, conviction, tenacity such achievement assumes. They believe such adverse conditions more closely test your survivability in college yrs. & post-college yrs., than do the conditions surrounding the protections of high school & home. Naturally many students with enormous advantages still get admitted, but not in the numbers or percentages that they once did, given the limited number of slots. </p>

<p>Regarding your other salient points, people like yourself do an enormous public service to post on CC, shedding light & deconstructing myths. If knowledge about LD is not in the Dark Ages, publicly, it is at best in the Middle Ages. Not only is the public at large misinformed, but also, shockingly & as you point out, the so-called professionals are themselves too often ill-trained & misinformed. We have experienced the same thing at my D's high school (where, for example, there are zero alternatives to AP courses in certain subjects, & where no one trained in Learning Differences or Disabilities is on staff). I think what has happened in this Information Age, is that the information regarding the complexity of this topic has Arrived, faster than the public's & than the professionals' capacity to understand & address it.</p>

<p>So thanks for sharing here, and at large, & please continue to do so.
Best wishes to you:-).</p>

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<p>Speaking of Dark/Middle Ages, my son got into a "highly gifted" program in 5th and 6th grade due to his math ability. But then the program wouldn't accelerate him as fast as he could go. When I inquired, I was told it was because he "didn't belong in the program to begin with and we don't see why he is here quite frankly -- I mean he is in special ed!" While earlier he had required a full time special ed program in speech/language (preschool and kindergarten) and speech, occupational, and physical therapies thereafter, by the time of the program he was being observed by the occupational therapist (they do this for one year before eliminating the service altogether) and getting his last years of physical therapy. Uh, so he couldn't do math? He was uncoordinated -- this disqualifies him from learning algebra?</p>

<p>It ended up we accelerated him on our own and then he passed out of middle school math once he got there. Another fight about that one, but at least I won.</p>

<p>My daughter and I had to constantly push the school system to allow her to be academically challenged. She would be told that the books she wanted to read for book reports were too long or difficult, be given "study guides" (really, the answers to upcoming tests) and test accommodations she didn't need, etc. We were told a foreign language would "confuse" her. And on and on ... </p>

<p>All this was part of her personal essay. That and the way the experts said she would never talk, but they had underestimated the power of chocolate (the M&M approach I mentioned before).</p>

<p>So the experts don't really always know. They not only told us at age 2 that she would likely never talk, they also said she had organic brain damage (diagnosed by her perseverative behavior) and was probably retarded, with a future in a group home as an adult. Certainly it was supposed to be impossible that her measured IQ would rise dramatically over the years as her language skills evolved. I really wish I remembered those people so I could brag to them a bit about my daughter's group home at an Ivy League school. Maybe here a little bragging (or a lot :) ) would be forgivable!</p>

<p>So, I guess you can see where I am coming from when I have a skepticism about testing and labels. Tests are great in determining where someone is and what they need. They aren't always that good in telling where someone will end up and what they can accomplish, particularly when you don't have an actual diagnosis, but rather a group of symptoms that has been given a name. Or sometimes more than one name ... I frankly have lost track of every label my daughter went through.</p>

<p>Thanks for letting me get my morning rant in before I move on to something constructive for the day!</p>

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<p>Only people who have experienced a disability and tried to function within a school system can truly understand the amount of effort that is required to succeed. (And also their parents.) I just hope the admission committee members keep that in mind this admission cycle.</p>

<p>Good luck Beth! I'll keep you in my prayers. I know you will persevere. You've worked too hard not too!</p>

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<p>I'm surprised at how much ignorance there is about LDs. The extra time or accommodations on the SAT are needed just to bring an LD student closer to what their results would be if they didn't have a disability. When a non-LD student is given extra time, their scores do not improve significantly. Studies have been done on this. Giving an LD student extra time makes the test fair. Giving a non-LD student extra time does relatively nothing to improve the scores. So anyone who is envious of the extra time someone who deserves it needs has no concept of what it means to be learning disabled.</p>

<p>Students with LDs are often extremely intelligent. In order to have an IQ split that is large enough to qualify (more than one standard deviation), one portion of the IQ ends up being significantly larger than the other, and often puts the student into the superior range. It is usually the performance IQ, while the verbal IQ is supressed. That shows the person is capable of performing at the higher level were it not for the LD that is holding down the verbal ability. Perhaps someone else would like to explain this more thoroughly.</p>

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<p><a href="http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/intell/wisciv_hx.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/intell/wisciv_hx.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>This page is interesting if you want to see someone's idea of average IQ scores for each type of learner. It also defines each index of an IQ score.</p>

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<p>IQ tests don't always tell the entire story, either. My daughter's rose 40 points during the course of her special education career. The last one she had still showed that ability/achievement gap. We just stopped doing the testing once she was out of the system because it gave us no useful information. I could tell she had weaknesses and just remediated them.</p>

<p>I kept telling everybody from the time she was two that her measured intelligence was affected by her language skills. They thought I was full of it. But, as her language improved, so did her IQ. This isn't supposed to happen, but it did.</p>

<p>My sister was a school psychologist for many years. She read all the test results over the years, and even sat in on the first IQ testing session when my daughter was little. She has never had an explanation.</p>

<p>A long preface to my question ... does anyone know about the persistence of measured IQ over time?</p>

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<p>Moms know best . . .</p>

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<p>IQ can fluctuate +/- by around 10 points, but tends to be relatively stable over time. Repeated adminstration of the test can affect the results, even if it is give only once a year. Over time, there is a tendency to regress toward the mean, so a split in the IQ can begin to disappear if enough tests are given.</p>