<p>My younger cousin is currently a junior in high school. He's incredibly intelligent and is just beginning his college search. He's already got his mind set on HYPS. I don't feel like saying which one in particular. He's currently ranked second out of over 300 kids in his high school class and he scored a 1560 on his PSAT (just including reading and math sections).</p>
<p>But he also has a serious disability. It's not life threatening, but it's caused him to miss lots of days of schools, causes him daily severe pain, and disrupts his ability to function normally. </p>
<p>So here's his dilemma. He told me that these colleges would consider him for affirmative action b/c he's disabled (he's not URM or anything like that). But he's also against affirmative action and believes that individuals at such highly exclusive schools should be accepted on their own merit. Furthermore, everyone knows the most impressive part of having an Ivy League degree is garnering acceptance.</p>
<p>Yet, on the other hand, he's fully qualified intellectually. Many AA admits have SAt scores 150 points below average and GPA's 0.5 points below average. He's got all the academic requirements, but we all know it's such a crapshoot for HYPS. Using the disability gives him that extra push for getting admitted. </p>
<p>Should he "game" the system and use this to his advantage? Thoughts?</p>
<p>(P.S. Some peopel may think this is about me. This is not about me. I've already graduated from an Ivy League school.)</p>
<p>Note: This is probably a question most relevant to people who are against affirmative action. For those pro-AA, the answer is pretty obviously, "yes, tell them you have a disability."</p>
<p>Your cousin needs to wake up and smell the coffee.</p>
<p>Admitting to his disability will level the playing field for him. Which means that he indeed will be admitted based on his own merit. </p>
<p>He won't get in anywhere because of his disability, BUT knowing about his disability will allow the admissions committees to interpret his file properly. For example, if he has a disability that has caused him to miss many days of school, explaining that he missed those days because of his health issues is much more to the point than leaving the admissions committees wondering why on earth such a smart kid is cutting class all the time. They will be able to award him "full merit points" instead of giving him a "demerit" for absenteeism.</p>
<p>If you click on "Discussion Home" in the upper left of this page, and then scroll down, you will eventually hit on the Learning Differences and Challenges forum. There you and your cousin can read lots of threads about disabilities and the college application process.</p>
<p>Thanks for the thoughtful reply. The missed days number is really the only thing that might be detrimental. But it's not really that many days where it would be a huge red-flag for his application. He doesn't have many "official" absences. He usually goes to the nurses office and they still count him as in school.</p>
<p>So it really hasn't affected his application. He can basically tell them and hope that gives him an extra push at such wildly impossible schools to get into where tons of 1600/4.0 students get rejected, like being a woman engineering applicant. Or he can just let it go and be just like every other applicant.</p>
<p>Your cousin may be smart academically, but seems very stupid when it comes to real life common sense. I am sorry to be blunt, but if he will get an extra boost in chances for a top tier school, he should use it.</p>
<p>Um...there's nothing wrong morally with telling them. If they could, universities would be able to evaluate you on who you are and not just who you and others portray you(rself) to be. He'll be telling them the truth and revealing more about himself. It's not gaming the system; the system is just fallible.</p>
<p>Alerting schools of his disability isn't really an affirmative action situation; it just presents a more complete version of who he is that colleges can use to put everything in context, which could potentially excuse (slightly) some lacking areas that would not be excused otherwise. Affirmative action exists because colleges want more socioeconomic diversity on campus, and I think specifically desiring a certain amount of disabled kids would just be a bit weird, if not almost twisted. </p>
<p>This cousin doesn't sound like he's opposed to affirmative action, it sounds like he's opposed to potential pity. Which is very understandable, but it sounds like something that he should let colleges know about regardless of whether or not it could be exploited. That's not the issue here, in my opinion.</p>