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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Parent of two celiac current college students here with some general practical tips; our kids aren't as particular as yours (one is GF and DF, the other just GF, but both have a broad palate), so you'll have to run all of this against the additional restrictions your student is working under. 
 
There are a few schools with fully GF dining hall options (off the top of my head, Tufts and Cornell). I'm sure looking online (try the subreddits for Celiac and ApplyingToCollege to start) will get you a broader list. Based on places where we've eaten in the dining halls, Tufts and Stanford were amazing; Bowdoin, Middlebury, and USC were great; Dartmouth was decent; Johns Hopkins was not great; did not eat at Oberlin mainly because it looked pretty dismal on the GF front. I've heard good things about UCLA but haven't eaten there; I'll add more if I think of any.

Many schools *claim* to be able to offer gluten-free (or, more often, "made without gluten ingredients") options, but this is often accompanied with the equivalent of a shrug and "no promises" w/r/t cross-contamination. You can usually get a sense of this by looking at the dining hall page and scanning some menus. Many schools also offer a "celiac/GF cupboard" that you can access by registering with accessibility/disability services; this can but doesn't always include GF bread, frozen entrees, GF bagels, GF breakfast cereals. Some include Cheerios (which are controversial within the celiac community as dubiously GF).

Some schools' dorms include access to a kitchen somewhere in the dorm building; if your student might want or need to cook, then see whether these dorms exist at the colleges of interest. Yes, student will probably have to store their own safe cookware in a bin, clean before they cook, etc., but it's good to know whether there's *any* cooking option on-site.

More and more colleges are offering "Top 8" allergen-free zones; unfortunately, this means the food at those stations can be a little limited and there's always a tiny worry about the possibility that someone unsophisticated might not realize that barley and rye are problems for celiacs. (Wheat is a Top 8 allergen, but the other gluten-containing grains are not, and "gluten" is not defined as an allergen for US regulatory disclosure purposes.*) But for your student, they might be happy with what mine would consider a little bland/boring; check out a few menus.

Some PPs noted that it's important to look at where the school is located; I agree with this. One of our college filter factors was what the FindMeGlutenFree map looked like around campus - was it a quasi-desert with maybe one possibly safe option, or are there at least a couple of places where a celiac student could go out to dinner with friends? Is there anyplace you can DoorDash from? Is there a GF bakery in town so friends or family can easily get you a birthday cake, or is anything GF going to have to be by mail order? What's the grocery shopping situation like - is there a supermarket in walking distance from campus?

Finally, the celiac subreddit has great practical tips for cooking away from home (e.g., a tiny rice cooker can allow you to steam rice, veggies, and a protein all in one shot - maybe not the most exciting but safe and nutritious) that might be helpful if your student ends up needing to cook for themselves.

Wishing you and your student good luck - hopefully they'll find a school that they're excited about and can safely eat at!

(*FYI to anyone who supports a change in the rule that would add "gluten" to the disclosure requirements (which would mean, for example, that the barley malt in Rice Krispies would have to be flagged, which it currently is not), the FDA is currently taking comments: https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2023-P-3942-1120 )[/quote]

NP here with a child with celiac disease who also has associated gastrointestinal damage and therefore symptoms that can be quite painful to endure. This was immensely helpful and written in a way that was straightforward and respectful. Many thanks for the resources and ideas. [/quote]

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