Applying to College-Undergraduate Admissions

Page 1 of 1 [ 5 posts ] 

JRo
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

User avatar

Joined: 1 Sep 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 2

02 Sep 2009, 5:07 pm

Hi Everyone

I am just wondering something, is it

a) should you tell your college about your disability when applying there
b) Is is advantegeous to talk about your disability and overcoming it in your college essay, personal statement
c) Do institutions have to let you in if you have a disability and fulfill all their requirements



Orwell
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Aug 2007
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 12,518
Location: Room 101

02 Sep 2009, 5:43 pm

This is almost the same as your other thread. A more commonly recognized disability might be better to mention than Asperger's. If you're talking Asperger's, mentioning it will not help you in the admissions process.

JRo wrote:
c) Do institutions have to let you in if you have a disability and fulfill all their requirements

No. Most universities use subjective admissions criteria and can reject you for any reason whatsoever without having to explain why.


_________________
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH


fuzzybunny
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

User avatar

Joined: 1 Sep 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 1

02 Sep 2009, 6:35 pm

Will a college automatically find out in the application process if you have received special ed or 504 services in high school? Will this hurt your chances of a college acceptance?



astaut
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Sep 2009
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,777
Location: Southeast US

08 Sep 2009, 6:19 pm

a) If you want any kind of accommodations, you'll have to provide the disability office with documentation of your disability. You have to do it at the beginning of the semester, you can't decide in the middle of the year you want accommodations and go back and change it. If it were me I would do it, but everyone probably doesn't.
b) I'm not diagnosed with AS, but in my personal statement I wrote about a medical disability. This was to respected liberal arts college where I was later accepted, but I can't tell you how much of an impact the essay had.
c) I don't know if I understand your question or not, but colleges can't reject you based on a disability. School's have admission requirements, but just because you meet those doesn't mean you are automatically accepted. You must meet the admission requirements and then they'll review your overall application and maybe interview you. So if you're rejected you probably won't really know why.

I think if you want to write about AS in your admission essay/personal statement, I think that's great. It's a good idea to let someone knowledgeable read it before you send it off. I let my school counselor read mine.



astaut
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Sep 2009
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,777
Location: Southeast US

08 Sep 2009, 6:22 pm

fuzzybunny wrote:
Will a college automatically find out in the application process if you have received special ed or 504 services in high school? Will this hurt your chances of a college acceptance?


I don't know if they automatically find out about this, but most college's admission requirements I've looked at have said they don't accept special ed credits. I'm not sure about junior colleges though. Look at the admission requirements pages for some of your local universities and junior colleges and email an admissions counselor if you can't find out...you don't have to give them your name or anything, you can write anonymously.