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Does having epilepsy benefit a first-year college applicant in the admission process?

Sun, 01/23/2011 - 02:40
Topic: Living With Epilepsy - Youth

Hello all,

I am currently a Junior in high school. I make good grades, have a rigorous secondary school record, and have what I believe to be great extracurricular activities, qualities, and hobbies. I have a passion for learning, and love science. As an aspiring engineer, I would like to attend a university that has an excellent School of Engineering.

I have been looking at schools such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Certainly a school such as MIT is very competitive in the admission process, and every hopeful student wants to use what they can to increase their chances of acceptance.

So, I would like to know...Does having epilepsy (a medical disability) benefit/increase your chances of being admitted to a college in any way? (The 504 Plan I have at my high school will show up on my application/transcript information to give evidence of the condition.)

 

Thank you.

Comments

Re: Does having epilepsy benefit a first-year college

Submitted by brcburner on Sat, 2011-01-29 - 07:43
YES. DEFINITELY. I got my BA for free because of my epilepsy. I don't know where you're located, but the program who sponsored me was called Department of Rehabilitation Services (DORS), but they later changed it to Office of Rehabilitation Services (ORS). They were a program that helps people with disabilities get the job they want, and if a degree is required for that job, they will fund it--tuition, books, room and board, everything. Every college will have a department specifically for students with disabilities, so you can easily contact someone who can give you info on what services they have and what options you have; I would ask them who to people with disabilities go to for financial assistance. They'll even have note-takers. My epilepsy causes short-term memory problems, so I wished I would've gotten a note-taker, but I was too stubborn. Oh well. Good luck!!

Re: Does having epilepsy benefit a first-year college

Submitted by 3Hours2Live on Sat, 2011-01-29 - 20:04
Hi BrcBurner, It's important to also consider the "cost" of "scholarships" and other things that are "free", with the concept of "expected value". A simple definition of "Expected Value" is equal to the "Value" multiplied by the chance of receiving the value, minus the "cost" of attempting to obtain the value. (i.e., a Lottery Ticket costs $1.00, with the overall value of $0.60, therefore, the Lottery Ticket has an expected value of MINUS $0.40 (it's best not to buy Lottery Tickets)). A Federal Appeals lawyer offered corrections to my point of view of the Federal Rehabilitation Act, as he viewed the Act as having an Expected Value of MINUS $0.97, even with "perfect evidence" in a "perfect case", at a value of $200,000 (he said he wouldn't "break-even" to cover the "cost" until a value of $330,000). Another "great" federal program I became involved in, was inexpensive, to "Free" dental care. Later, when the program's details were covered in a lawsuit involving the businesses promoting sales of materials on how to get everything free from the Federal Government, the price of the postage stamp to mail the dental care application had an expected return value of near total loss (i.e., everyone would have had much better luck, and much lower cost, by buying Lottery Tickets to "win" the money for the anything but "free" dental care). With Epilepsy, the State Rehabilitation Department, and a person being a recent magna cum laude university graduate, the Department held that the university degree was a drawback in job placement, and a strong element of disqualifications for most services with epilepsy. The Department also gave me a test much like the "Wonderlic Personnel Test and Scholastic Level Exam" (WPT), and I obtained a perfect score, which was held to disqualify me and my epilepsy from all of the Department's services (like the paradox often referred to as "Too Smart To Be A Cop" in the news media: http://www.aele.org/apa/jordan-newlondon.html and http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/employee-development/568635-1.html ). The ADA apparently still holds that being denied benefits based on being too far above average (directly from the effects of epilepsy raising a person's IQ score), versus the "proven" drawbacks of being too far below average from the regarded effects of epilepsy, is not a violation of being protected from prejudicial discrimination. The "volatile" issue of IQ, sex, and epilepsy is brushed by Taylor and Lochery: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1032069/pdf/jnnpsyc00553-0015.pdf In Santa Cruz, Santa Jose, and the San Francisco Bay Area, along with all of the federal and State government, "great success with academics while having epilepsy" is regarded a necessary non-sequitur, not to be open to being disproved. The prejudice with employment and epilepsy is the same. Tadzio

Re: Does having epilepsy benefit a first-year college

Submitted by brcburner on Sat, 2011-01-29 - 23:32
Um....I'm honestly suprised to hear such pessimism; unless I'm interpreting your response incorrectly...my apologies if I am. My response is not based on "hear say"....IT'S WHAT I EXPERIENCED. I had a part time job during college, and the only way that it affected my funding was that they deducted some of the money that they would give me for rent and bills. I was my mother's dependant throughout this time period and my eligibility was not affected by that either. There's nothing wrong with him at least calling the organization (DORS/ORS)to see if this is still a procedure that they follow (who knows with the economy), or see if they can refer him to a program that can benefit him as well. It's better to try and not succeed than to not try and wonder if you ever would've. The worst that could happen is he ends up in the same circumstance as he's in right now. And as far as the ADA, you might want to do some research to see the updated version (ADAAA). Peace

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