I feel your pain. I had my very first migraine aura during an ag engineering final in college. I didn’t know what it was and thought I was having a stroke. I couldn’t see, couldn’t read or articulate words. My hand was completely numb so could barely hold a pencil. All I could do was cry. I couldn’t even tell my prof what was happening bc I couldn’t say words, just jumbled nonsense.
If it were me- I would contact your admissions officer. Just knowing what it’s like trying to test while that is happening, the results are probably not good. Maybe by being proactive, they can get your medical diagnosis verified and make an exception. Best of luck and may the odds be in your favor. Bless your heart.
Notify admissions of your medical condition. This is out of your control, there is nothing you could have done during that test to control an aura migraine, it is debilitating.
Priority is to get your aura migraines under control, with proper medication. Any college you go to you risk this happening again. Proper medication will help with recovery.
Did you explain to your school the medical circumstances during the IB exam? Are you able to retake the exam according to IB rules?
While I think you should have notified UCLA of any issues prior, that’s water under the bridge.
What I wonder is what happens when you are at school.
Have you checked accommodations at both? Just because a school is better known or higher ranked doesn’t mean it’s the better school for you. The current school might be better in terms of support. We don’t know which it is - but I’d look into that.
I know, most people think of a migraine as a bad headache, and its so much more than that. I remember that i was 12 when i got it for the first time, i acc thought i was dying. I was so scared. I dont want to make it seem like i am using it as an excuse, however, i would be absolutely heartbroken if my last 4 years of high school and ucla acceptance went down the drain because of the last exams.
I am able to retake the exams if i need to. As for my medical condition, my counselor knows, however during the examinations i didnt draw attention to myself during an episode. I took a bathroom break if i thought i was going to vomit and drank my ibuprofen. The thing is, i am still able to write, albeit its more difficult and very VERY hard to concentrate. I have to close either my left or right eye when i have aura, because its very nauseating and pray to got that weakness in my right hand doesnt get worse. usually i am able to keep writing just a but slower.
I have yes. And i am aware that the ranking of the school is not the main criteria, however, ucla was one of my top choices and the school i committed to is very very unknown and small. Just in general, i would like to go to a bigger school which has my first choice major. The school i committed to has smth similar to what i want but its not the best choice.
Also, how should i go about this to ucla? Should i just send them an email wishing to explain some special circumstances that arose during my examinations? I have no idea what is the process for that or whom i should contact.
I am not a UC expert, but my general thoughts are that you should communicate with the health services and accommodations departments now to address your condition with the full intent to start fall semester.
Discuss your migraine during exams with your high school counselor. At least explore the idea of a retake, if that’s an option.
I do not see any advantage, only disadvantages, to bringing this up with your AO at this point since you have no idea what your results will be. This may be a non-issue. I would hate for it to become a red flag because you brought it up preemptively.
But these are my general thoughts with no experience with the UC system so I defer to the advice of the experts.
Edit: I also agree that health conditions do not need to be addressed with AOs as part of the admissions process. I do think it is important for students to research the health services and accommodations that are available. This is for one’s own wellbeing to make sure a school can meet your individual needs. This is especially true for internationals or students from a significant geographic distance who do not have personal support systems nearby. Hugs.
International Baccalaureate (IB): Students enrolled in IB schools
are expected to earn scores of 5 or higher on IB exams, and most
admitted students score 38+/42 points on the IB Diploma.
If you don’t meet those metrics then you don’t meet the requirements for application/acceptance/enrollment.
Others know better than I do. What are the guidelines for depositing at two schools? Does it matter that they are in different countries? While generally viewed as unethical, I would think that a waitlist acceptance and unsure of final grades/test scores might be a valid reason to keep both deposits. Not sure.
Many people do not include their disabilities on their college applications. There have been several threads where people share their rationale for sharing or not sharing that info.
I’m not familiar with a medical team of experts who review incoming freshmen records. Is that routinely done at colleges?
I am familiar with the Center for Accessible Education. My understanding is that they only talk to students after they enroll. However, it wouldn’t hurt to try to reach out to them proactively.
CAE is NOT admissions. They will NOT be able to tell you if you will be rescinded. They are the center that would help you with accommodations in class (if needed). Since you don’t have an IEP or 504 in place, they can let you know what types of documents you will need to apply for services once you enroll at UCLA. It is important to provide documents and have them on file with CAE well before you may need to ask for accommodations. Most (all?) CAE students receive priority registration.
I don’t think it’s unethical to deposit both schools in this case if you have to make a decision before the scores come out. I mean it would be awful to decline the current enrollment and then get rescinded at UCLA later. So, if you’re not going to talk to the AO at UCLA in advance, I’d deposit both and hope for the best.
But actually I’d be more inclined to reach out to the AO at UCLA and ask now. I cannot imagine they would preemptively rescind your acceptance and, if they would do so with a low score, better to know now. They may ask you to retake it.
That is the opposite of your earlier post, but I do agree with this.
I don’t want to take this off-topic, the OP is past applications, but I do want them to realize they did not do anything wrong by not disclosing health issues to non-health professionals like AOs.
I agree with others who said in this situation it is ok to have two enrollment deposits out. Just don’t tell anyone that you did that.
When will you get your IB scores? You said you can retake them…what would the timing of that be?
Separately, please work with your physician to get treatment for your migraines. You said you might go on an anti-depressant for migraine prevention, but if you aren’t getting that many migraines, the acute migraine abortive meds may be fine for you, without the need to take chronic/everyday medications. Just a thought.
I would not contact UCLA admissions until you know your IB scores. Good luck.
Once OP had the migraine is what I’m saying - they could have inquired.
That said, I don’t think you know the issue until you get the score - meaning, OP is assuming a bad score but doesn’t truly know.
But now that they have concerns and I don’t know how long the score takes, it wouldn’t hurt to reach out to the school.
So I’m a bit random here but - I actually have no issue and I actually think it’s smart that someone investigates support concerns up front because you don’t want to apply to schools that aren’t a fit but I personally would not highlight them in an application. Due diligence up front, though, is smart, because not every school, no matter the pedigree or perception, is right for every student. I don’t know the answer but Occidental might have different supports than UCLA, as an example.
OP didn’t but now is bringing it up post acceptance but has a concern so in this case, OP needs to address the concern - given their timeline I would inquire now.
But again, the situation is now so it has to be dealt with now. I suppose double depositing is another choice as others say - but is against the rules - but since OP isn’t sure UCLA is 100% one can internalize it’s ok.
Some big schools may have legit supports and others might not - and this is not a learning disability but rather migraines (which my son gets) and other than staying home from school on occasion, I’m not sure what type of accommodations might have been available. Migraines aren’t a regularity per se but show their ugly head on occasion and there was likely no way for OP to know they would be present.
Now is the time to find out how supportive a school might be - is all I’m really saying.
In general, UCLA’s criteria for receiving accommodations is very liberal. It is the student’s responsibility to notify each professor at of their accommodations at the beginning of the quarter, even if they may not use them.
I wonder - and don’t know - with migraines, what’s to stop a student from saying they have one - on the day of a test - i.e. the prof doesn’t believe it, etc.
This applies to many scenarios. Right now, they are liberally offering alternative assessments for students who are stressed or don’t feel safe coming to campus in light of recent campus events.
Generally, any alternative assessment needs to be asked for in advance. For example, if you are less likely to get a migraine in a smaller room with different lighting, they might be able to offer that as an accommodation but you need to arrange that several days before the exam. What you can’t do is to tell a professor after an exam that you had problems on the exam. Well, you can tell them, but they aren’t obligated to do anything about it.
Agree that this is warranted in OP’s situation because–if I recall correctly from an earlier thread–OP would be giving up a full ride/near full ride scholarship to the small, regional, east coast school.
Please name the school since it may be very good even if not as well known as UCLA and the whole worry might be for nothing.
OP didn’t think he did badly, as he expects a 34 - an excellent score. However it’s below the 38 UCLA wants.
A 38 is what Oxford expects from students in top condition (there’s a different score for access-eligible students.) It’s almost impossible to reach with a migraine aura.
In your case, it would make sense to double deposit till you have your results. Btw it’s 100% okay to deposit in a foreign university and a US university or if you have conditions you’re not sure to meet because results are given in July or August (ie., UK, Ireland) so I would apply that general idea to your case.