Best elite school for Disabilities

AnonyMom
Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:53:34 +0000

Gjg – I think you missed the guts of what I was saying. Elite schools do have LD students in their populations, but those students are not lower or marginally achieving kids who were accepted because their LD’s propelled them across the finish line. They’re there because despite their LD’s, they were competitive applicants using the same criteria as other applicants.

I don’t think there is really good data as to the desirability of self-identification at top schools, but many people believe that at some schools, self-identification may be risky. (Anecdotal info suggests that Berkeley may be an exception, but again, check with your GC before you accept this as gospel.) And remember that there was enough data to support the notion that identifying students as LD by flagging their special administration SAT’s was stigmatizing with a negative impact on college admissions that the ETS was forced to stop flagging through heavy duty litigation. Clearly, if college admissions committees had been crying, “Oh joy, a really high achieving LD student who needs accommodations! Let’s accept her at once!” there would have been no point in pursuing the court case that forced the ETS to stop earmarking, and no possibility of prevailing.

The problem I have with your posts is that you seem to be asking for help in hoodwinking admissions committees. If you have an LD and you want to self identify in order to better convey a full sense of who you are, fine. But your “dishonest little hack” comment leads me to think that you may be planning to misrepresent yourself. Since you are quite aggressively clear about your lack of interest in hearing comments on the moral or ethical implications of what you hint you are planning to do, I tried to present you with some practical reasons not to proceed…although, if you are really planning to present yourself in a dishonest way that will “exploit” your LD in the hope of tricking elite colleges, perhaps finding that you’ve shot yourself in the foot will be a useful learning experience.