Applying to College

Likely her low scores and grades, no matter how they’re achieved, would be the determining factor. Colleges are willing to accept students with learning differences and supposed to provide them with support if they feel the student will be successful in school.

You would have make a case that she would be more successful in college than she has been in high school to win her admission to the more selective schools. I don’t think it is the case that a college is more likely to look past low scores and grades for a student with learning differences than for anyone else.

Why is it you feel her visual spatial problem would not present as a problem in college? Would it not again cause her to do poorly on tests at the college level?

There’s a wonderful guide to colleges published by Princeton Review called The Best 331 Colleges in the United States. If offers very concise but thorough information about each college. You could check out what each college requires in terms of grades/ and SAT scores. Check out Bard. They do not accept SAT/ACT scores at all. Also check out Dickinson and F&M. With moderate GPAs, those two schools, along with some others, also do not require SAT/ACT scores.

The other idea is to go to any school for your first year, and if you do well, you can gain admission to most schools in your second year as a transfer student. It is much easier to gain admission to the selective schools as a sophomore transfer than it is as a freshman.

Good luck.

My daughter also has visual/spatial problems. It has been documented and she was allowed to write SAT answers in the test booklet instead of on the bubble sheet. Going back and forth between the booklet and answer sheet can be difficult for anyone. For someone with visual/spatial problems, it is just about impossible. I suggest that your daughter reapply to take the SAT with accomodations. The guidance counselor needs to fill out a form stating that the accomodation is needed and valid. The psychologist can provide the diagnosis and documentation to the guidance counselor. It is possible to get extra time on the SAT as well as writing in the test book. These accomodations can be extended to the classroom.

Trish wrote:
>
> Can any one tell me the pro’s and con’s of applying to
> college especially More Selective Schools as LD rather than
> just taking the chances with low test scores and moderate
> GPA? My daughter has only recently discovered she has a
> visual/spacial processing problem which causes her to score
> unbelieveably low on standardized tests and many tests in her
> regular classes. This problem seems to be NOT taken very
> seriously by anyone other than her parents and her
> psychologist (The “yeah, sure” response) Thus we have a
> student with a relatively high IQ and Ambition and low scores
> and grades.- so I was wondering if she would get the same
> response from Admissions.

Great information! We were told that the only accomodation for SAT was extended time. We also learned that if there is a 20 point spread in standardized tests (annual grade level aptitude tests) that the student should be looked at for a problem. Not only did my daughter show wild swings in her scores for 11 years, but we pointed it out to the school in 8th and 9th grade and were told “she just gets nervous”. It seems almost criminal.

The reason that I think she can do well in college is that she has a high IQ, is extremely verbal and does well on essays. We have learned of individuals who attended small schools (ie: Princeton) and never took a test! They selected classes that were small and wrote papers. The key is in finding the school that provides this type of education. Thanks for your suggestions.

Another option is to look for colleges that offer comprehensive programs for college students who have LD. Your daughter will be able to have someone fill in the Scan Tron sheet (fill in the bubbles) for her.

Hi Trish,
I am a freshman at the University of MA, Amherst. I have a learning disability (short term memory loss) and had the same fears about admissions as your daughter probably does. My SAT scores were below par as well my GPA and class rank. I applied to four schools, and got into my top two choices. I made clear in my application to let the schools know that I had a learning disability. I submitted an essay explaining my struggle with my disability and how I learned skills to achieve the best way I knew how. I think that if she applies to schools where they have an LD program, sends her IEP and makes it clear in her essay that her grades don’t reflect her effort then she will have a good shot at getting in. Also, here at Umass they set LD students up with a case manager and mine has a been a great help. She can e-mail me with questions if she wants because I’ve been through what she is about to go through. Hope I helped! Feel free to get in touch with me. Good Luck!

-Kaitlyn

we were also told the only accommodations for sat/act was extended time but found out you can have the test read to you and it can be administered on a different day instead of a national test date. even the guidance counselor didn’t know so we missed the act in jr. year because of this. the lesson was investigate for yourself. ld students need good advocates. alot of times it has to be the parent. the teachers and administrators don’t always know unfortunately. in our situation we were told he would nver get over 1000 sat anyway so why bother. special ed kids don’t go to college anyway. well, my son will go to college , we did arrange for non standard testing, and he will have a regents dipoma. he may not have the highest gpa but he took a rigorous course of study and will attempt college. unfortunately it was a long, hard , misinformed road. kids shouldn’t have to suffer this much in high school. i am very proud of my son. good luck!

Kaitlyn,
My daughter is going to be a senior in high school and is seriously considering UMass Amherst. She liked it when we visited. What can you tell me about the support that they offer. I was concerned that she may need a specialist more that a peer tutor. Are the numbers of students adequately served by the staff. Does the student have to be very aggressive to get the accommodations and help they need? How receptive are the faculty to LD students? Are accommodations easy to get ? She will need a language waver and possiblly a math waver. Are the core courses good? I have found that regid courses make learning difficult. Higher level courses are better because they are less vague. Any insight is helpful. Rose