Do colleges look down upon IEPs

[Anonymous]

My child, a good student and with strong creative talent, is on a dyslexia IEP and has an academic support block (which stands in for a study hall).
How do admissions officers treat IEPs?

[Anonymous]

They will likely not know about it unless you disclose it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They will likely not know about it unless you disclose it.

This.
Also, in college, it will be up to your daughter to disclose her disability and seek accommodations, or not. My kid, who had an IEP all through school for autism, did not want to use accommodations in college and is doing well - thank goodness.

[Anonymous]

They won't know about it. You can discuss necessary accommodations with disability services before or after admittance, but it won't get back to admissions.

[Anonymous]

I would not disclose because it may signal that your child is less likely to be successful, especially at competitive schools. Your high school is not allowed to note that you have an IEP on the transcript so they won’t know unless you tell them.
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-qa-20081017

(See question 7)

Once you decide to attend, all schools have accommodations offices that will review documentation and help make an accommodations plan for the student.

[Anonymous]

My child has an "academic support" block through their IEP however. That would show up on a transcript, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child has an "academic support" block through their IEP however. That would show up on a transcript, right?

Probably. My dyslexic DC had this in 9th and it’s on the transcript, and also has a foreign language waiver. So DC will include a couple sentences about their dyslexia in the “more info” section of the common app to explain because there is no way to hide it.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure they'd know because the transcript is graded classes only right?

I am a college professor and strongly encourage your kid to continue accomodations in college. It will be on them to do the legwork with that office. I see so many young adults think that they no longer need accomodations and it can be a spectacular disaster. Better to have them in place and not use them than to need them and not have them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child has an "academic support" block through their IEP however. That would show up on a transcript, right?

If it's a class then probably, but you will have to look at the transcript from your kid's school to know for sure. We can't see the transcript, so we can't help you with that. This may clue the univ in that your kid needed extra help, but they still won't know it's special ed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would not disclose because it may signal that your child is less likely to be successful, especially at competitive schools. Your high school is not allowed to note that you have an IEP on the transcript so they won’t know unless you tell them.
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-qa-20081017

(See question 7)

Once you decide to attend, all schools have accommodations offices that will review documentation and help make an accommodations plan for the student.

This is not good advice

[Anonymous]

I would think your child would be looking at schools that will work with her needs. For this reason, I can't imagine it hurting her.

My own DD had an IEP for OHI (ADHD and anxiety), and she got into all of the colleges she applied to- but we are not talking about Top 30 colleges. She had no trouble getting into Big 10 schools and a couple of SEC schools, and the in state options she wanted (with the caveat that she did not want UVA/ W&M).

The support the IEP provides is way more important than worrying about future college limitations.

[Anonymous]

My kids did not have an IEP, but every college we looked at over the last seven years talked about supports provided and processes. One well regarded school said a quarter of their students receive one sort of accommodation or another. I think colleges have moved out of the dark ages on this. It is easy enough to search for each school's office of student support and see how robust the offerings are. They aren't going to hold it against your kid if he uses something they offer, and which other students of theirs are also using.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not disclose because it may signal that your child is less likely to be successful, especially at competitive schools. Your high school is not allowed to note that you have an IEP on the transcript so they won’t know unless you tell them.
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-qa-20081017

(See question 7)

Once you decide to attend, all schools have accommodations offices that will review documentation and help make an accommodations plan for the student.

This is not good advice

This is really only for students looking at top schools. Schools that are looking for reasons to say no. Needing extra support could be the reason. Once you are accepted, or even when applying, seek out and find what support they offer. But there is no such thing as an IEP in college. Reasonable accommodations, yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would think your child would be looking at schools that will work with her needs. For this reason, I can't imagine it hurting her.

My own DD had an IEP for OHI (ADHD and anxiety), and she got into all of the colleges she applied to- but we are not talking about Top 30 colleges. She had no trouble getting into Big 10 schools and a couple of SEC schools, and the in state options she wanted (with the caveat that she did not want UVA/ W&M).

The support the IEP provides is way more important than worrying about future college limitations.

That's what they all say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would think your child would be looking at schools that will work with her needs. For this reason, I can't imagine it hurting her.

My own DD had an IEP for OHI (ADHD and anxiety), and she got into all of the colleges she applied to- but we are not talking about Top 30 colleges. She had no trouble getting into Big 10 schools and a couple of SEC schools, and the in state options she wanted (with the caveat that she did not want UVA/ W&M).

The support the IEP provides is way more important than worrying about future college limitations.

That's what they all say.

Ha! I was that poster and it’s actually the truth. She did not want an environment as competitive as her NOVA high school and decided to not even apply to the most competitive. So she applied to Wisconsin instead of Michigan; South Carolina over UGA, etc. That was my point- a school list should be a list composed of schools that can work with your child’s dyslexia. Our list was carefully crafted based on supports for ADHD and making sure it wasn’t cutthroat due to her anxiety. If the list is well done, they won’t think twice about the IEP even if they notice the support class.