Can a disability (epilepsy) be an advantage?

psycholing
Sun, 10 Dec 2017 05:35:09 +0000

I asked a similar question last year when my son, who has a medical disability, was applying. I figured, as you did, that disability is a form of diversity. I professionally work with people with disabilities, and I am a strong believer in the perspective that people with disabilities add and enrich the community.

Most CC posters discounted the idea that disability could be a “hook”. For his own reasons (not owing to CC), my son ended up not emphasizing the disability, and not mentioning it in the common app. On some prompts, such as “Write about a time where you had to overcome adversity” (or something similar), he did write about his disability, but typically in the context of how it led to resiliency. These were generally short answer type prompts, not full essays. Of the places he mentioned disability at all, two rejected, and one accepted, but with no additional funds. At the schools which accepted him with merit scholarships, disability was not mentioned.

So, from this very small sample, mentioning it does not help, and may hinder.

On the bright side he did get a small scholarship from a charity associated with his particular disability, and he did get into quite a few excellent schools.

We are very very proud of him for overcoming all that has been put in his path, including rather severe medical issues this Fall.