Can a disability (epilepsy) be an advantage?

calmom
Sat, 09 Dec 2017 22:54:31 +0000

Colleges base admission decisions – and decisions as to how to allocate their own merit scholarships – based on institutional interests, goals, and priorities. The question the admission officers ask with each student is, what will student X bring to us? what will we gain by admitting student X?

So if you want to ask whether a particular medical condition or disability can be an “advantage”, you would need to be able to answer the question, “how will the college benefit by admitting a student with X condition”?

The economic, racial and cultural diversity questions are easy enough to answer: most colleges do not want to be places where the student bodies consist only of rich white kids. And these days, it is harder to attract good students across the board if a college is perceived as lacking diversity.

I think there may be confusion because some may perceive affirmative action programs or generous need-based scholarship programs as being charitable programs driven by sympathy for the student who has suffered in life. But that just isn’t the case – no college is going to admit any student, or award scholarship money, because they feel sorry for a kid.

So your kid – and every other applicant - really needs to build their college search and applications around their individual strengths. Sometimes overcoming a physical disease or disability can be part of that strength – the appeal of the “challenge you have overcome” essay is that it can demonstrate dedication and resiliency. But it can also backfire if the essay fails to impress.

I do agree that it is important and valuable to disclose the reason the student has missed 1/3 of an academic year, although simply explaining that the student had two major surgeries and now has fully recovered is probably enough of an explanation, especially if it comes from the g.c. In that case the disclosure is made to avoid the possibility of the admissions staff making unwarranted negative assumptions.