Competitive Disability Friendly Colleges

drumminggeek87
Wed, 25 Jul 2018 19:09:37 +0000

@TTG , thanks for the reply! I’ve actually been wondering about if any of the schools on my list worked as safeties. My stats are a little weird just because of extenuating circumstances with my disability, but I have a 1530 on the SAT (780 CRW, 750 math, and I’m taking it again), 740 on Math I SAT Subject Test (also taking US History, Physics, and Math II), 3.96 GPA (unweighted). In my courseload I’ve had: 6 college level classes, 6 AP classes, 4 honors level classes, and 8 on-level classes. (Not sure if it matters, but with the on-level classes, 3 were high school level classes taken in 7th and 8th grade, 3 were band, where there’s no honors but I was in the highest level possible, 1 was a prereq for an AP class, and 1 was a course where I was blocked by my school from receiving honors level credit because there was a required project that involved extensive walking, which I obviously couldn’t do. I’m not sure if any of these things can be explained to colleges). Extracurriculars were impacted significantly by my disability, but I did 2.5 years in band at the highest level possible before having to quit for health and credit reasons (was on a reduced schedule 9th and 10th grade and had to begin working towards fulfilling those credits). I’m also waiting to find out about National Merit recognition and National Hispanic Recognition in the fall, as well as my class rank.

In my college search, Northwestern, Harvard, NYU, Brown, USC, and Stanford are the ones I have really liked, so most of the other ones were added on for possible safeties or cheaper tuition. UW is my instate school, so that’s mostly for the tuition. Cal Poly SLO is one I honestly know nothing about, but a lot of people in my school apply and the majority get in, so I added it for that reason. However, I’ve been unclear on how easy or hard it is to get into. Sarah Lawrence I chose because it seemed like great academics with a higher acceptance rate, and I’d heard their film program was good. UMD was chosen as a competitive state school with lower out-of-state tuition than a lot of good state schools, and as I’m in Washington, I wasn’t sure if a quest for geographical diversity and (I’m assuming) a lower number of Washington state applicants would help me in admissions. BU is another one I don’t know much about, but seemed like a less competitive school in a city I like, but it’s again been one were even with research I’ve had trouble gauging just how much of a safety it is. So, if you have any insight on how “safe” these schools would be based on my stats that would be really helpful. I’ll also definitely look into Colorado College and Chapman!

@bopper , thank you too for the info! I hadn’t seen the page from the Reeve Foundation so I’ll definitely look into those. Unfortunately staying near home isn’t a perfect option, because medical care for my chronic illness isn’t great here (not necessarily better elsewhere, but staying nearby isn’t a must) and we really only have 1 doctor who has been good. It’s also a really hilly area where it gets hot but almost no buildings have air conditioning, so right now I’m kind of stuck as a homebody because I can’t get around the city or stay in most buildings for long, thus the desire to go elsewhere.

I’ve also found some of the accessibility maps, which are amazingly helpful (Brown’s detailed one was the reason I started looking there, Georgetown’s was the reason I STOPPED looking there), but I’ve also noticed some schools don’t have them, or that the information provided by each school varies a lot. I had taken lack of info as a red flag, but do you have any opinion on whether or not this is an overreaction? I’m visiting a local college later this summer, and I’ve been trying to find anecdotes from students on the Internet, but if you have any suggestions on good places to find those that would be great. Thanks again for your suggestions!