Receiving accommodations for your college freshman

<p>For those of us whose wonderful kids have received accommodations (extended testing time, block answer sheets, and the like) in high school, many colleges have a stated requirement that the applicable evaluations be no old than three years to allow your students to rely on them for college accommodations.</p>

<p>I just wanted to let you all know that colleges may be flexible on that date, depending on the comprehensiveness and quality of the documentation you can provide.</p>

<p>Our D's evaluation was done over 3 years ago, but I have already contacted the appropriate school official, who advised me to send her the documentation and she would review it to see whether in her judgment, D would be eligible for accommodations based on the older testing.</p>

<pre><code>We just received a letter today indicating that D is in fact eligible for accommodations, and that she must make an appointment as soon as she arrives on campus to meet with the academic advising office.
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<p>There are so many college related matters we all will deal with this summer, but this is a great one to take care of now, saving money on additional testing, and getting the attention of the learning support department before they are inundated with requests.</p>

<p>It's not so much the age of the testing but whether the tests were normed for an adult or a child.</p>

<p>Good suggestion. We also were able to use testing that was over 3 yrs old. Worth asking.</p>

<p>Also you should know if it is something like a processing issue and you are at a public, like a UC, they will go by the lowest standard, ADA and your child may have a bonified, qualified for SAT extra time, but not meeting the standard at university.</p>

<p>In HS, the standard is working to your potential, in ADA it is working to below average. </p>

<p>Example, a student has a processing LD, and IQ of 160, a processing speed of 130, qualifies for extra time on the SAT in HS.</p>

<p>Same kid at a UC has to process below 80 in order to have extra time.</p>

<p>No accomodations.</p>

<p>There are not going to be accomodations in "real life" so it is time to learn to compensate, but the problem is so many college things (MCAT/GRE/LSAT/finals) are artificially contrived with time limits, so a bright or even brilliant kid will still do "fine" but will not show their true potential- maybe no law school or med school for some, because their Ochem mark may be a B instead of an A and their MCAT will be low because they did not finish.</p>

<p>Some privates can choose to accomodate, allowing the GPA to truly reflect the students abilities. Important questions to ask</p>

<p>Great thread to remind students and parents to investigate now what testing will be required by their future school.<br>
If the student does need to go through the assessment process again, it's so much easier to get it done now while they are still at home rather than in the fall after school has started.</p>