Heard a podcast claiming 30% of college students disabled?

[Anonymous]

Top 25 schools according to that site, public schools look more reasonable:

3% or less Duke
4.83% UCLA
7.50% MIT
10.43% Rice
11.20% Emory
11.73% Caltech
12.00% Georgetown, Michigan
12.83% WashU
13.34% Berkeley
13.57% Carnegie Mellon
14.00% Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Notre Dame
14.26% Columbia
15.00% Vanderbilt
15.03% Penn
15.54% Princeton
15.80% Dartmouth
19.80% Yale
21.00% Chicago, Harvard
21.58% Cornell
22.00% Brown
38.17% Stanford

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. The “disabilities” accommodation system is being fully gamed by UMC parents to squeeze out whatever additional advantage they can get for their kid. Meanwhile those of us with kids with actual disabilities see that they are still stigmatized because they aren’t the right type of disability. And here I am wanting my kid to take tests with no extended time (because I think he can, and I want him to learn to focus under pressure) but realizing that this puts him at too much of a disadvantage since all the kids with “ADHD”
get double time. But what really rankles is the parents who claim their kids are so disabled for certain purposes (ie when there is an advantage) but then either a) make arguments for excluding my kid or b) their kid becomes suddenly neurotypical when the label would be a detriment.

- we personally know at least half a dozen kids who’s parents “arranged” for extra time on tests, including the SAT, by gaming the system and “doctor shopping” until they found someone willing to diagnose something wrong with the kid, for extra time.

Many doctors need to pay off student loans I guess.

Abuse of the ADA is rampant.

I know about a dozen kids with fake Dxs.

Did the parents or kids actually tell you that they were fake, or are you assuming that they are fake because they don't seem disabled to you?

[Anonymous]

All this because OP claims to have listened to a podcast they can't name.

[Anonymous]

Debated getting DD checked for slow processing speed at beginning of MS because she definitely has that. But decided against it because even with accomodations in school, jobs won't extend that. So best to learn how to work with the brain you have in the system we have and push the brain to the max capacity. Much easier to do that when young and brain is most plastic and also when young because there is the support and safety net of parents.

I thought to have extra time accommodations when in school and then not have it suddenly as an adult will be a rude awakening. This way DD will force her brain to adapt a bit and also she will find a career path that suits her.

In my field of work, slow processing wouldn't work and their can be no accommodations. I work at top speed everyday with massive amounts of information, and critically make judgements and decisions that affect other people's wellbeing. DD won't end up in my job but that's ok. She will find her way.

She's near the end of MS now, and the processing speed has gotten better in my assessment, and same with her memory and ability to connect information. She's not the brightest or the fastest by any means, but the improvement as been marked!

The brain can adapt and rise to the occassion more than many parents are allowing for their kids. For me it is more important to expand her brain's abilities and struggle right now while I can support her than it is for me for her to get straight As. I decided accommodations may help her grades now but would not be in her best interest in the long run. Forcing her brain to make and strengthen these neuronal connections will serve her much better for her life.

[Anonymous]

Top 25 liberal arts schools, even higher than national universities

3% or less Air Force, Navy, Washington & Lee, West Point
7.36% Bowdoin
8.11% Wellesley
11.93% Hamilton
12.40% Claremont McKenna
12.58% Carleton
15.00% Bates
17.00% Richmond
17.90% Colgate
20.11% Harvey Mudd
20.12% Williams
20.99% Swarthmore
21.00% Grinnell
24.95% Davidson
25.00% Middlebury
25.06% Wesleyan
26.69% Pomona
26.77% Colby
27.00% Vassar
27.20% Haverford
28.00% Barnard
34.00% Amherst
38.00% Smith

[Anonymous]

Does extra time even make much difference in college? I’m not sure most tests are actually timed and the assessment is based on content knowledge, not how quickly you complete it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Debated getting DD checked for slow processing speed at beginning of MS because she definitely has that. But decided against it because even with accomodations in school, jobs won't extend that. So best to learn how to work with the brain you have in the system we have and push the brain to the max capacity. Much easier to do that when young and brain is most plastic and also when young because there is the support and safety net of parents.

I thought to have extra time accommodations when in school and then not have it suddenly as an adult will be a rude awakening. This way DD will force her brain to adapt a bit and also she will find a career path that suits her.

In my field of work, slow processing wouldn't work and their can be no accommodations. I work at top speed everyday with massive amounts of information, and critically make judgements and decisions that affect other people's wellbeing. DD won't end up in my job but that's ok. She will find her way.

She's near the end of MS now, and the processing speed has gotten better in my assessment, and same with her memory and ability to connect information. She's not the brightest or the fastest by any means, but the improvement as been marked!

The brain can adapt and rise to the occassion more than many parents are allowing for their kids. For me it is more important to expand her brain's abilities and struggle right now while I can support her than it is for me for her to get straight As. I decided accommodations may help her grades now but would not be in her best interest in the long run. Forcing her brain to make and strengthen these neuronal connections will serve her much better for her life.

+++ that is a bold and correct decision

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Smith and Stanford seem to be the clear “winners” at 38%.
CIT only 12%.

It may be based in part on other factors related to the school. For instance if the school has mandatory meal plan, that will encourage kids with food allergies and/or eating restrictions to register for an accommodation to get an exception. Schools with good dorm facilities may have fewer registrations, as there is less need to register an accommodation to get a single (necesssry for kids with things like Tourette’s), bathroom access (IBS) or decent hvac (asthma, chagrin’s). My kid is considering submitting an accommodation request to get out of the mandatory meal plan — currently we pay like 4K a year for food that they cannot eat due to a chronic GI issue that requires specific foods not easily available in the very bad dining halls. At another school, that probably wouldn’t be necessary. Another example is stuff like priority parking — not necessary at many schools but essential at others.

Agree ! it highly depends on the school and how they "market"/encourage registering if one has allergies that could affect the room or if one has food allergies so the dining plan coordinators are aware and they connect the student w someone. Kid's school strongly encourages food allergy kids as well as other allergies to register the condition. Part may be because they have a couple of living areas that allow pets! Kids with sever cat or dog allergies do not get put there. This school is a top school and based on the link here has over 15% with accommodations. At this school allergies are an accommodation registered with the disability office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's those ADHD and AU diagnoses from grade school,

No college will give accomondations based solely on a grade school diagnosis. All require a recent (usually within 3 years of entering college) evaluation.

They keep getting renewed DUH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard that even in law schools students are getting exemptions from timed finals.

It kind of blows my mind that in 2 decades we have basically thrown out measuring processing speed as a type of academic skill relevant to assessment. I guess I am biased since speed and tests are my strong point, but I do think that the capacity to absorb and understand information quickly is highly relevant to a lot of metrics of ability.

I’m the same as far as speed and tests but I also recognize that it really isn’t a major factor in most real life scenarios, including most legal jobs. I think it is not excused for assessments where speed is an essential part of the test — things like fire fighting, some medical skills, culinary classes, etc. Even for people who write on a deadline, timed exercises are not really reflective of the demands — you can generally just work later into the evening if you need more time since none of us are hourly employees. And for many people, they don’t need the extra time so long as they don’t have the anxiety of the ticking time clock pressure.

It absolutely is a factor in most legal jobs. Why do you think it is the kids with high LSATs and grades (under the old system) that end up eg Solicitor General? It’s not the only factor, but if you don’t have a basic level of intellectual speed, you cannot keep up at elite levels.

I’m the PP you’re responding to. I went to the top ranked law school (at the time), clerked for a federal appellate court, and have worked at a firm for over 20 years. I stand by my statement. There are very few legal jobs that require you to issue spot and write a brief on a 2 hour time frame. Analysis, judgement, the ability to think critically and write well are much more important than speed to almost all legal jobs. Speed can be important for certain on your feet work, but most lawyers don’t do a lot of that and that’s also a totally different type of speed than doing an issue spotter test on a 2 hour time frame. Even when I was in law school, most exams were take home tests of between 10 and 48 hours duration because the professors wanted quality, not what you could vomit onto a paper in 120 minutes.

And yet all the people you clerked with and who were at your big firm were probably on law review or got very good grades right? Obviously work doesn’t always mimic a 2 hour exam, but speed and precision are always going to be prized skills in the law and many other areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Debated getting DD checked for slow processing speed at beginning of MS because she definitely has that. But decided against it because even with accomodations in school, jobs won't extend that. So best to learn how to work with the brain you have in the system we have and push the brain to the max capacity. Much easier to do that when young and brain is most plastic and also when young because there is the support and safety net of parents.

I thought to have extra time accommodations when in school and then not have it suddenly as an adult will be a rude awakening. This way DD will force her brain to adapt a bit and also she will find a career path that suits her.

In my field of work, slow processing wouldn't work and their can be no accommodations. I work at top speed everyday with massive amounts of information, and critically make judgements and decisions that affect other people's wellbeing. DD won't end up in my job but that's ok. She will find her way.

She's near the end of MS now, and the processing speed has gotten better in my assessment, and same with her memory and ability to connect information. She's not the brightest or the fastest by any means, but the improvement as been marked!

The brain can adapt and rise to the occassion more than many parents are allowing for their kids. For me it is more important to expand her brain's abilities and struggle right now while I can support her than it is for me for her to get straight As. I decided accommodations may help her grades now but would not be in her best interest in the long run. Forcing her brain to make and strengthen these neuronal connections will serve her much better for her life.

This is my framework as well, but the schools basically have given up on any sort of work that requires processing speed, as far as I can tell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Top 25 schools according to that site, public schools look more reasonable:

3% or less Duke
4.83% UCLA
7.50% MIT
10.43% Rice
11.20% Emory
11.73% Caltech
12.00% Georgetown, Michigan
12.83% WashU
13.34% Berkeley
13.57% Carnegie Mellon
14.00% Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Notre Dame
14.26% Columbia
15.00% Vanderbilt
15.03% Penn
15.54% Princeton
15.80% Dartmouth
19.80% Yale
21.00% Chicago, Harvard
21.58% Cornell
22.00% Brown
38.17% Stanford

I am the OP.

The most shocking part of the podcast I remember was that statistics for disabled students were noticeably higher for universities located west of the Mississippi, and that when they subtracted the international student population, the percentage at many schools rose above 30%, and in some cases close to 40%.

The list you provided seems to affirm that generally. Also, IIRC, they were only discussing learning-disabled and/or neurodivergent students, such as those with IEPs / 504s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC was a Head TA at top 10 university and he was in charge of grading exams, papers etc.

He said about 25-30% get caught cheating and that about the same % asks for special "accommodations" based on ADH/ADHD etc. every single time there is a test, paper etc.

He thinks most of those seeking untimed test, extra time etc. were fake.

This is consistent with what my nephew described encountering as a graduate teaching fellow at a state flagship on the west coast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. The “disabilities” accommodation system is being fully gamed by UMC parents to squeeze out whatever additional advantage they can get for their kid. Meanwhile those of us with kids with actual disabilities see that they are still stigmatized because they aren’t the right type of disability. And here I am wanting my kid to take tests with no extended time (because I think he can, and I want him to learn to focus under pressure) but realizing that this puts him at too much of a disadvantage since all the kids with “ADHD”
get double time. But what really rankles is the parents who claim their kids are so disabled for certain purposes (ie when there is an advantage) but then either a) make arguments for excluding my kid or b) their kid becomes suddenly neurotypical when the label would be a detriment.

I think most of the disabilities are fabricated adhd diagnosis bought by umc white parents gaming the system from high school to college.

Absolutely true.

I have a kid with a learning disability and I don't know what parents would be gaming the system for? I mean, honestly, special ed is terrible and most of the schools we have been at can't even read the IEP so never get the accommodations. The extra time on the standardized tests is not really worth anything.

[Anonymous]

My son has type 1 diabetes and is considered disabled.