Your friend's ambulance corps experience is not unusual. 

It is probably impossible to keep teachers and students from calling the ambulance corps when a seizure occurs.  A lot of times staff people/teachers make the call in order to cover themselves legally.  Students call because they are uncertain of what to do--and are sitting next to you, etc.  And by the way, seizures are often misconstrued by college students and professors as a result of some sort of drug or alcohol experience, even if your problem is complex partial and all you are doing is mumbling or walking around. (In my case I left an organic chem test once, an advanced bio exam which I couldn't read for a while afterwards, and in the dorms, I even left my shower stall 2 or 3 times and wandered about the hallways and onto the wheelchair ramp.)  When you are having a seizure, it's that look in the eyes or misbehavior that makes many uncertain about what state you are in, so be ready for any possible types of issues to arise after this type of thing happens.

As a college student with epilepsy, I worked as a crew chief and training officer for the campus ambulance corps for 6 years at a large state university (population 35k), and am quite familiar with premed student and student EMT attitudes and comments behind the scenes about people with seizures.  If the ambulance corps is on campus, you have a bit more control over how the ambulance corps staff will deal with you, so long as you try to inform the officers of that crew about your situation.  Just tell them that their arrival will most likely result in you signing a waiver, in most seizure cases, in order to allow you to go back to classes or to your studying (and they'll cover this in their training updates and such with their members afterwards).   This doesn't mean you won't get an ambulance arriving . . . they'll arrive anyway, just in case, but hopefully know who to suspect and have their waiver form ready.    Contrast this with the opposite scenario: if they keep getting calls about someone with seizures, from other teachers, staff or students, and are never really kept in the loop about the person's seizure history and typical medical needs, they wind up getting somewhat judgmental and critical about all the "false calls."  (This behavior is kind of ironic I found, since many of my classmates and ambulance corps members I witnessed doing this were pre-meds and the like.)

If the ambulance corps is not a campus-run operation, it's a bit harder to have the ambulance corps crew members understand.  But I still recommend you try to get in touch with them, and talk with a chief or officer there, but not be surprised if there are members who don't care what is recommended and will still try to follow what they think is the best protocol, according to their teachings and judgments regarding the management of seizure cases.  For these types of crews, see if you can get from their corps one of those waivers to keep on hold (already signed even), in case they show up, and you are out of it, but alert enough to give them their signed waiver.  (A doctor's signature on the same item saying he/she is okay with you doing this might be of help as well.)  I know of a few people who kept a doctor's letter on hand instead.  The tags around the neck or bracelet are fine, but sometimes just make matters worst, because this leads some EMTs to think the worst is happening (a status epilepticus emergency).   [How many EMT's out there actually know the difference between complex partial seizures and partial complex seizures?.  Typically, unless well informed, EMTs don't understand that being charged for an unneccessary ambulance transport for a problem as self-contained as most non-generalized seizure states is not the best patient-friendly outcome.]

As for the professors in college, try to find out which profs are more likely to be "understanding". and talk to them one-on-one during their office hours, preferably ahead of time.   In highly competitive pre-med classes like Intro Chem, Organic Chem and Intro Bio, where attendance can be 1000+, I found them to be "less available to you" concerning this matter, so getting some assistance from the handicapped students services office helps--especially for testing and concerns regarding rights to laboratory access.  Going to the TA is sometimes helpful, but again there is the personality issue you often have to contend with when it comes to TAs.

If there is a campus infirmary, talk with the staff there. 

 If the seizures tend to result in problems that impact test-taking or writing performance (i.e. post-ictal amnesia, post-nocturnal seizure side effects, aphasia-induced writer's block, and such), see if handicapped students services can provide some neuropsychology testing and assistance, especially if short term-long term memory loss and Wernicke's/Conduction aphasia end up interfering with test-taking/essay performance.  Profs have a hard time understanding this (with the exception of biopsych/neuropsych majors, grads and staff), and whether or not they actually do depends on personal attitudes and beliefs--not necessarily what they may have been teaching in the classroom.  So, involving disability services enables you to establish a baseline setting, should their assistance be needed in the future.

Trying to put what I have experience regarding my college experiences with epilepsy together . . . I think that educating academicians on seizures could certainly help them so long as they have an open mind about this. 

Professors have to be taught two things: how to properly deal with grand mal/convulsions and not mistreat or misapply first aid to these people, and how to understand and acknowlege the limits seizures can have on learning and especially test-taking performance in the classroom.  It is not the history of seizures that does you in as a student, it is the occasional recurring seizure that interferes with your ability to recall and messes up your performance on tests and during projects due in a very short period of time that does you in. 

Traditionally, we grow up learning about petit mal and grand mal seizures, and learn little to nothing about psychomotor/temporal lobe/complex partial seizures (my problem) or myoclonics.  Professors have the same experience.   This means several classes (2 or 3) would have to be done to properly to cover this topic in the college setting for them.  (I once did some classes on this in the department of psychology during the late 1970s/early 1980s, and recall it took two 1.5-hour sessions, and that didn't include any detailed first aid coverage.)

As an undergraduate student for 6 years, I believe I told two or three professors of my problem, but only because it interfered with my performance on something that was due.  I once had a seizure during an organic chemistry test and could not take the exam for most of the hour due to dyslexia and dysecrive (which I believe is what you call it when you can't write).  Several times I had conduction aphasia which got translated into my writing  [This takes place when conduction between Wernicke's area (responsible for language form and expression) and Broca's area (responsible for motor movement when speaking) are disrupted, causing you to substitute words like orgasm for organism (pseudohomonyms) in your speech patterns, vocabulary skills and writing style]   This experience really happened to me for a cell biology midterm, which I then had to explain to my professor after I get the essay quiz results back and re-read my answers!

During the 70s and 80s, it seemed like there is a 50:50 chance that professors would understand your dilemma when you have seizures that get in the way of your paper writing and test taking.   They were more understanding of my dilemma 15 to 20 years later, when I went back for graduate schooling during the early 1990s.   

Working as a mentor/advisor for students with epilepsy at the university, I still find there to be some issues that have to be dealt with.   For undergraduates, I am still concerned that informing a professor of your seizure history could make them tell you you cannot engage in a required chemistry lab course or other risky project until the appropriate waivers are signed and the like.  For undergraduates I know that seizures are often brought on by stress-induced activity, which for some requires they take the test in a different setting (according to ADA policies).  For me, my seizure often occured the hour or day after taking a test; one time this led me to blindly walk out of the room after completing the test, without TA permission, between others still taking the test.   And as an undergrad I learned that staying up too late to study for a test or quiz could do you in, as well as consuming the wrong things at a dorm party (to describe this problem nicely).   Even worse, if you have seizures the night before a test, they can cause short term memory loss--not something a student likes to live with--this means that if you know your topic, rather than just memorize it, you can put it into long term memory enabling you to perform good on a test, even if you have a seizure some time prior to it.  Finally, I suggest students keep a detailed diary of seizure events, in order to determine possible causes, and avoid or modify your activities accordingly; this way you prevent seizures from interfering with your midterms and final test/final paper results.

Who asks?  (What do they ask?) 

Do you mean, do people in the classroom or school ask you if you have epilepsy?  Does your teacher?  And if so, why would he/she ask and what would your answer be?

Do you mean, do people with epilepsy ask for sources of scholarships and grant support and such--yes, they do.  Whereas there are numerous scholarship opportunities out there so long as you know how to find, apply and collect them, the opposite exists for grants.  There are as many grants available to people with seizures who want to do to college and get a degree, or become an expert in a particular field, as there are fingers on one hand (well, perhaps two hands).

What types of limitations are you under while at school and living with seizures?  I explained some of these to the previous reply by a college student.  These limitations don't mean you need a lower scoring method to pass, they mean you accomplished more than the average student with the same score but who doesn't have seizures, medication issues and post-ictal responses to deal with. 

It would be great to learn if there are college grants out there for epileptics that are more than just the token partial tuition coverage out there since my undergraduate years--a grant that provides you the opportunity to attend college in spite of epilepsy and be granted enough financial support to pay for a full year's tuition, for books and computer, etc., not just 1/10th of the total year long education cost like the current ones available.  (Of course, there may be grants out there at specific insititutions, which I would love to hear about and pass on to my students and handicapped student assistance office.) 

Did you know that when you type in "epilepsy" or "seizure" as part of a grant search engine, that most if not all of grants you see listed support the research of epilepsy and epileptics, rather than support the epileptics themselves?  It is as if we are monkeys in a cage for anyone to study, even those who are just slightly interested in learning what we are about.    This wouldnt' seem so bad were it not for the fact that if you try to contact other grant-providing sources that specialize in grants for students with a particular medical or "education limiting" history, these agencies all forward you to organizations which they feel better service this need for epileptics--places where this support doesn't exist to the extent that it should.

If you want to learn more about this, and find your own potential grant resources--check your local library for the Petersons Guide, or a book that describes grants for Individuals, or a computer database which lists and describes each grant/scholarship opportunity available to students and school/college applicants (even high school and pre-college students) based on their personal history and qualifications.  In addition, each college or university has a grant search tool in their financial assistance office and at their libraries, which can automatically perform this search for you.  Most if not all schools, have some an enrollment/financial aids office that tries to find out if and how you can pre-qualify for financial awards on their behalf, sometimes.

It might just be better for me to just open the second part of this question to others.  (I already gave some real examples of this in response to the previous reply). 

In regards to education and career choice, what kinds of limitations do epileptics face?  And how does one get past these limitations?