<p>Go back to the college board and request the accommodation of double time plus extended breaks. Due to ADD and LD my son was granted double time. The Collegeboard requires the test to be given over 2 days. It is not given at the test site but is arranged with the test coordinator at your school or possibly like at our school thru the counselor. The test is delivered to the school and as someone else mentioned it must be given within a 4 day window. The proctor and the student determines when to give the test. Since this is the case you are working with someone who knows your child and her circumstances. For my son he needed to take the test in quiet and early in the day so they arranged to do it on a sat and sun, Others have done it afterschool or during the school day. If the day of the test your D is sick you would still have a few days in the window to reschedule.
I would get on the phone with the disabilities office. When we had a problem it helped for the school to call. Keep calling till you get someone who is willing to help you and get make note of their name.</p>
<p>calmom,</p>
<p>I asked you to respect our decision and that was too much for you. I don’t agree with much of what you said-- from your perceived flexibility of profs in large universities (not my experience at ALL and I have always been a perpetual student), to the helpfulness of tas (gag-- I can only remember 2 tas who were of any help) to whether or not you think stress aggravates an illness when you don’t even know which illnesses the docs are considering. </p>
<p>If my daughter goes away to college and needs to come home in a year for health reasons, I would not have considered it a year wasted. Life’s a journey and if she wants to go away for awhile, she goes with my blessings. I find the advice about talking to the school and infirmary very helpful because I will do those things for her-- but I’m not restricting her to staying at home if she doesn’t want to (and she doesn’t want to).</p>
<p>Everyone here just offers advice. Some posters have a mudgey-cudgey style with hugs, couching their words very carefully, stating things like, “You might consider…” or “I wonder if…”</p>
<p>Others are very plain-spoken and direct. Some say what they’d do in your situation, which isn’t exactly telling you what you should or shouldn’t do. They’re basing their ideas or advice upon their own lived experience. After all, that’s what each person knows best. Some of any OP’s realities are private or not shared, for good reason. We don’t know each others’ kids or all the factors. We do know our own experiences so can share the best wisdom from our own homes, or how it played out for our own kids in similar situations. </p>
<p>After a while of reading, you’ll see that everybody means well, so really just take what is of value to you, and try not to take offense. Keep focussed on your kids’ needs, benefit from the confidential free-for-all of advice, and that’s all this is.</p>
<p>Our son’s HS was surprised we sent our S to the school of his choice with our blessing, based on his extensive absence history. (His grade level counselor was even surprised we sent him with the band to Australia for a one-week trip with the band; he went and had a great time, even walked across the Sydney Bridge. She was expecting that we’d insist he attend the state flagship U, but with our blessing, he didn’t even apply, since he REALLY did NOT want to attend.) </p>
<p>We said we were confident he’d do his best and would somehow get things to work. We are glad we were able to offer him this option and it has worked. It really helped all of us that I developed a good relationship with the associate dean of the school of engineering & other key folks in that school, as well as the disabilities office & the family medicine department at the med school. It just makes ME feel better knowing that we’ve all done all we can to help him have a good, well-grounded base. He grumbled a little about all I did, but I could tell it helped ease his apprehension at bit too, since none of us really KNEW how well/poorly his adjustment would be. It was good that he chose to attend school in LA (tho it’s 2500 miles & 5 hours away from HI), since he has visited it frequently since he was 6 months old & is very comfortable there with the culture, lifestyle, values, etc. He did apply to schools at other places, but ended up choosing a school that has fit him extremely well and we’re so pleased! We have no idea whether his health will remain as good for his next 3 years, but are happy that he’s had this opportunity and will see where it leads.</p>
<p>I know that all posters just mean the very best when they provide their insights and suggestions. Please take their comments in the spirit in which they are given. None are really meant as criticisms, tho it may sometimes come across other than how it was intended because we are really all strangers and writing doesn’t allow us to connect as meaningfully as when we have face-to-face contact. </p>
<p>All of us want the best for our kids. I believe that stress affects everyone’s health–sick or healthy. It’s always something that we’ve discussed with our kids and docs & schools. Heck, there have been studies that show that happy stress AND sad stress do affect our health. It doesn’t mean that we can or should be “wrapped in cotton wool,” but of course, it is something to keep in mind. Our S did NOT get into the MOST ubercompetitve schools (tho he applied & sabotogued his apps by only sending in bits & pieces), and I’m secretly grateful he didn’t go to those places & instead ended up where he did. Things to have a way of working out in ways we had never quite expected.</p>
<p>Well, this OP certainly hopes and is taking all the medical steps to have the diagnosis and treatment in place before the D leaves for college. She wanted our help on how to get the SAT testing piece done in a timely, positive way so that could happen. </p>
<p>For some reason, I’m reminded of a friend of one of my kids who was far from home and in a wheelchair. She was dazzling, a great student, wonderful personality, beloved friend. She was at a top LAC and afterwards travelled abroad for a masters degree. It certainly would have been simpler and less stressful to keep her close to the family home, but away she went. She went to work on the college campus in administration, rather than return home to live.</p>
<p>Instead of stressing over the SAT - which is too long - take the ACT. Some of the nervousness is relieved because students don’t have to stress over “shoud I guess/shouldn’t I guess”. Errors are not counted against you on the ACT. Just go and give the ACT your best shot… Many students do much better on the ACT than the SAT. (There was talk about the College Board making the SAT a two day test; I don’t know if that issue has been further pursued.)</p>
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<p>You’re right. That’s a good point about food and illness.</p>
<p>I was thinking of a different situation – the sort of situation where a person can’t choke down breakfast at 7 am but is desperately hungry by 10 am, when the dining hall is closed. That type of food problem can be solved by buying non-meal-plan food for cash. The type you describe is more difficult.</p>
<p>HImom,
As an aside, when my s broke his leg (femur) this past spring in So. Cal, the closest trauma center was Loma Linda, where they wanted to fly him. But, Loma Linda claimed to have no beds and refused the transfer. Sometimes big trauma center hospitals can be a nightmare…</p>
<p>2collegewego,
I know you came here asking for advise about the SAT accomodations, and I hope you got some helpful suggestions. But as you know, these threads take interesting twists and turns, and some people offer “advice” that isn’t solicited. Its’ kinda like asking what time it is and someone telling you how to build a watch. I agree with you - I think smaller schools will be much more accomodating to a student with special needs. My s’s school was very helpful to him with the modifications necessary to manage his broken leg. In fact, he just waved goodbye to his electric cart/scooter thing last week. It also helped that the HUGE Houston Medical center was right across the street. He could get himself to appointments without dealing with long drives or having to ask others for help (rode that scooter thing across a major city street :eek:). I am sure you are taking things like access to healthcare facilities and airports into consideration in your dau’s college choice, and certainly the big cities like Boston, NY or whereever she is applying ED will have plenty to offer. Ditto for any school that has a medical center there or nearby, like Dartmouth or Brown. Back to your original question- I have the fax and phone #s for the CB disability offices in Princeton and NY. PM me if you want them and I will send them to you.</p>
<p>2collegewego;
My dd has a chronic, debilitating GI illness (diagnosed as ulcerative colitis but crohnes disease is still not ruled out)and just completed the SAT’s on May 5 for the third time. No, she will not score what she is capable of, but we have all changed our goals since her diagnosis. She also gets very nauseated when her stomach is empty. Before each exam, I prepare for her a breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. She brought many snacks with her to the test and ate at each break. She had a thermos filled with RX Stress Arizona tea (no caffiene, lots of vitamins and herbs). She made it through the tests then came home and slept for the rest of the weekend. She has sooo many academic and social issues that have arisen from this disease but she is managing. She misses weeks of school every year and is always playing “catch-up” (and frequently cannot…her grades reflect each flare-up). There is so much to say that I don’t have time for right now but I wanted to let you know that your child is not the only one that has academic or SAT issues…and there are quite of few of us CC mom’s on this website that can be of help or comfort to both of you. You can PM or email me if you want to.</p>
<p>I just spoke to the CB SSD office. (I left a message for a supervisor but the customer service person kept putting me on hold and said she was talking to a supervisor-- not that she let me speak to her.) They said they won’t do anything without a confirmed diagnosis. Sigh!</p>
<p>2college-- the last time one of my kids needed a confirmed diagnosis, the pediatrician wrote, “debilitating XXXYYY with chronic ZZZ of unknown eitiology” and it did the trick-- the person reading the form is most likely not an MD-- you don’t have to produce blood count levels or send the results of an MRI-- just something official-sounding from a physician.</p>
<p>Very good, Blossom–the confirmed non-diagnosis!</p>
<p>If you are not in a state that gives the ACT on Sept 15 you can squeeze in an extra test by travelling to a state that gives the ACT on Sept 15 and taking the ACT there.</p>
<p>Thank you Blossom! At this point, I called around and got the first of her tests scheduled on Wed. Hopefully, she can keep down the contrast. I might not have a diagnosis that quickly though-- even if the test is enough for a diagnosis (and I think they would need one more test), the gastro can’t see her again until the end of June. So I’m likely to ask the pediatrician (who has seen dd through this whole ordeal) for the note. But we’re moving along.</p>
<p>My daughter has stomach issues, although not to this extent. I posted here about part of her situation. On one SAT she vomited all over the paper and, obviously, left. The second time, she didn’t vomit but was so consumed with terror that she scored in the low 400s on all three parts. When my daughter took the ACT, she had a compassionate proctor and a much more laid back situation. She scored a 28 on that – which is probably horrible for most kids here, but is appropriate to my daughter’s abilities. We found the Collegeboard people absolutely callous. But the ACT worked out.</p>
<p>zoosermom -
good for your D with ACT - 28 is a fine score. Her first reaction to the SAT may be considered apt social commentary … </p>
<p>2collegewego,
best wishes on the quest. Courage has to count for something and your D seems to have that in good measure.</p>
<p>“But we’re moving along.”</p>
<p>YESSS!
And I think Blossom’s given you a great fall-back. Sounds like a “diagnosis” to me. Of course I’m no doctor.</p>
<p>Actually, when we worked with CB, I don’t believe we had a “formal” diagnosis for my son either but did have a doc’s letter & were able to get what we needed from them. Blossom’s suggestion is a good one. The folks at CB are sometimes very helpful (if you get the right employee). If they aren’t too helpful, hang up & try again, you may be luckier the next time. If you do find someone helpful, please take down their name & contact info so you can try to work with them in the future.</p>
<p>I agree with HImom on the collegeboard. Keep calling till you get someone who is helpful. Try to get the direct line number to that person so you don’t have to keep retelling the whole thing all over again. I spoke with some really helpful people and I spoke with some people who I felt had no intention of trying to help. Once they hear you are a parent or student I find they are less helpful.
We had a real fiasco with the fault being on the high schools end. Both the counselor and I were calling them daily. We found they were much more receptive to helping the counselor versus the parent. If you can get someone from the Dr’s office to call you might get further. I think they don’t even need to know that you are working on the diagnosis. The Dr could confirm that you D needs a longer test time and frequent breaks due to her health. Even if it doesn’t come in time for the June test you would have it in place for the fall. The counselor or Dr might even have an easier time being connected to a supervisor.</p>
<p>2collegewego-</p>
<p>I am sorry to hear that your daughter isn’t feeling well. I have experience with a family member with a chronic illness and know that it is stressful for the entire family while waiting for a diagnosis, and later. I wish you both well.</p>
<p>It seems to me that there would be a way to make the SAT schedule work for your daughter, they must have a way in place to accomodate the current h.s. kids who are covered by the 529 plan.</p>
<p>On the up side-college life with it’s less restrictive schedule was very helpful for the chronic condition.</p>