However, families of students with learning differences face a unique set of challenges when applying to college.
Twenty percent of students have a learning disability (LD) or an attention difficulty that requires accommodations. This includes, but isn’t limited to, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, auditory and visual processing disorders, dyscalculia, dyslexia, dysgraphia, and emotional challenges.
Despite these challenges, students with learning disabilities can and do succeed in college. At WCP, our goal is to ensure your child’s college success, right from the start of the admissions process.
When working with LD college applicants, WCP guides students through the process of building strategic and balanced college lists, brainstorming and crafting compelling application essays, drafting well-developed responses to supplemental prompts, designing impactful extracurricular lists, and choosing letter recommenders.
At WCP, we are committed to demystifying and simplifying the college application process for LD students. We understand that the process can be overly burdensome, time-consuming, and that success depends on sound research and planning. That’s why we provide tools that help LD students break down application tasks into manageable and achievable goals. These tools also assist in organizing tasks, maintaining deadlines, and they make the process more efficient and less stressful, for both students and parents.
Should I disclose my disability? Will disclosing my disability help or hurt my chances of being accepted into my list of colleges and universities?
Many students wonder if they should disclose a disability on a college application. Ultimately this is a personal choice. However, at WCP, we provide applicants and parents guidance and advice about this important and sensitive decision based on our decades’ of experience working with applicants with dyslexia, ADHD, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, emotional difficulties, and other learning challenges.
Will a college accommodate my learning disability? How can I ensure a college will provide support to me in order to maximize my learning?
Many parents of students with learning disabilities are surprised to learn that their IEP or 504 plan doesn’t transfer to college. A student may be accustomed to receiving certain accommodations in high school that they won’t have access to in college. However, the Americans with Disabilities Act requires that colleges and universities that receive federal money provide accommodations for students with disabilities. But not all colleges provide the same level of care and attention to meeting the diverse needs of LD students. That’s why we show you how to find out the reality behind the words on colleges’ Office of Disability Services web pages. Once that’s done, applicants and parents can use the information gained to determine if a school is a good fit given the applicant’s specific needs and desired level of support.
SERVICES FOR LD COLLEGE APPLICANTS
ADVANCED PLANNING
A well-developed IEP or 504 plan in high school, designed to meet the applicant’s specific needs, is key to a successful college education. At WCP, we work with students and parents to ensure that the soon-to-be applicant has an airtight 504 or IEP in place before applying to college. We also encourage your child to take interesting and challenging courses that meet or exceed the requirements for graduation. The goal is to help you create a course list in high school that will prepare your child for the admissions process, succeed in college, support secondary education goals, and career aspirations.
Colleges want to see that applicants have been involved in extracurricular activities and that the student has developed an independent passion that has led to work outside of school activities. At WCP, we guide your child in choosing school and community-based activities that allow them to explore and develop their interests while developing key leadership skills.
ESSAYS
The Common Application (Common App) essay is an applicant’s opportunity to show off aspects of themselves that aren’t highlighted in the other sections of the application, and it’s essential that applicants make a good impression right from the start. That’s why we help students with learning disabilities/differences identify their strengths and write compelling stories that best illustrate what makes them unique and powerful applicants. We support LD students throughout the writing process, from brainstorming through writing, strategic rewriting, editing, polishing, and proofreading. Our work doesn’t stop until you click “submit.”
In addition to the Common App essay, WCP shows LD students how to exploit the opportunities presented in the supplemental essays to ensure that their responses increase their value and boost their admissions chances.
THE COMMON APP ACTIVITIES SECTION
An activities list that is clear, concise, and that showcases what an applicant will bring to their future college work is essential. Therefore, the writing of the activities list needs to be strategized as carefully as the essays.
At WCP, we show LD students how to highlight competitive advantages, turn weaknesses into strengths, and upload impactful descriptions of their activities into the Common App activities section.
SELF-ADVOCACY
The process for receiving accommodations in college is different and often a bit more complicated than in high school. Once admitted, it’s important for LD students to take an active role in knowing which supports will be most beneficial.
That’s where we can help. We know how important self-advocacy is to students with learning disabilities/differences. That’s why we help students develop a vocabulary that will be helpful when working with Offices of Disability Services and faculty. When a student wishes, we also conference with them while they are at college to refine their advocacy skills as new courses and challenges are encountered.
LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION
WCP helps LD students pick the right recommenders and how to help the recommenders write compelling letters that will highlight their strengths and advance their candidacy for the top schools on their list.
STANDARDIZED TESTS
WCP knows that standardized tests don’t always accurately reflect a student with learning disabilities true capabilities. We will help you make the decision to disclose – or not disclose – test scores to a test-optional college. If an LD applicant applies to colleges that require the SAT or ACT score, but does not feel the score adequately reflects their intelligence, we can show you how to use the “Additional Information” section on the Common App to explain the test score.
INTERVIEW PREP
WCP works with LD students to create organized and compelling interview talking points to help them make admissions-winning impressions. That way, your child will enter the college interview with confidence, knowing that the interview will be aced.
Schedule your free 20-minute phone consultation with us to learn how The Writing Center of Princeton can help boost your child’s admissions chances.
The Writing Center of Princeton works with students and college applicants from all over the world via Zoom or Google Meet and through the use of Google Apps for Education.
What Makes Us Different from Other College Admissions Experts?
1. Experience
Our tutors are experienced and accomplished educators and college counselors. We have expertise in special education and know exactly how to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities/differences. .
2. Personalized Service
WCP helps you identify and clarify your child’s college admissions goals. At the same time, we nurture and design a plan of action and curriculum based on what best fits your time frame, your child’s personality, your schedule, and your child’s aspirations.
3. Set Your Own Schedule
WCP doesn’t like package plans and we know you don’t either. WCP doesn’t offer them and never has. You are free to schedule as many or as few appointments as you wish.
4. Emotional Support
Applying to college (or independent school) can be emotionally difficult –especially for students with LDs–and it often puts a strain on a family. One of WCP’s most important responsibilities is to be here for you and your child and we take that responsibility very seriously. Whether you need to vent or just need to talk things over, you can rely on us.
“As a 2e, the first good thing I did was to start working with Susan right from the start of high school. With her help and intelligence, the tedious part of high school became a lot more interesting. The second thing I did right was to follow her advice when I applied to college. She kept telling me to write about the quirky ideas I had and not to dumb myself down. And that landed me right where I wanted to be: U Chicago.”
Emory, University of Chicago freshman from Hopewell, NJ
“Applying to college can be scary, but Melissa helped me calm down right from the start. The planning, the time management, the rewriting of essays–I couldn’t have managed without her patience, encouragement, and guidance.”
Joseph, WPI freshman from Los Angeles, CA
Some of the Colleges to Which Our Students Have Been Admitted
Alfred University
Amherst College
Barnard College
Boston College
Boston University
Brandeis University
Brown University
Bucknell University
Cal Tech
Cambridge University
Carnegie Mellon University
Case Western Reserve University
Catholic University of America
Chapman University, Argyros School of Business
Clark University
Colby College
Columbia University
Connecticut College
Cornell University
Dartmouth University
Drexel University
Duke University
Emory University
George Mason University
Georgetown University
Georgia Tech
Grinnell College
Harvard University
Haverford College
Indiana University, Bloomington
Johns Hopkins University
Lafayette University
Lehigh University
Maryland Institute College of Art
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Michigan State University
Middlebury College
MIT
Muhlenberg College
New Jersey Institute of Technology
New York Institute of Technology
Northeastern University
Northwestern University
NYU and NYU-Stern
Ohio State University
Oxford University
Parsons School of Design
Penn State University
Pratt Institute
Purdue University
Quinnipiac University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rhode Island School of Design
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rutgers University
Saint Joseph’s University
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Smith College
Stanford University
Stevens Institute of Technology
Swarthmore College
Syracuse University
The College of New Jersey
Trinity College, Dublin
Tufts University
Tulane University
University of Arizona
UNC, Chapel Hill
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Chicago
University of Colorado, Boulder
University of Connecticut
University of Delaware
University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
University of Iowa
University of Maine
University of Maryland
University of Massachusetts
University of Miami
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
University of Notre Dame
University of Oxford
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh
University of Richmond
University of Rochester
University of Southern California
University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business
University of Texas, Austin
University of Vermont
University of Virginia
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Vanderbilt University
Vassar College
Villanova University
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest University
Washington University at St. Louis
Wellesley College
Williams College
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Yale University
What to Do Next?
Schedule a complimentary 20-minute consultation with us.
We look forward to speaking with you about the many ways we can support you and secure your child’s admission to the top college on the list!
Susan Osborn, Ph.D., Founder of WCP
COLLEGE APPLICATION SERVICES
FOR LD HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
Starting in your child’s first year of high school, we help you:
• Design a course load that will capitalize on your child’s learning strengths and interests, and make an impact on college admissions committees
• Maximize admissions chances by designing an extracurricular program that will add value to your child’s academic profile and boost college admissions chances
• Build a network of connections with community leaders, teachers, and experts who will write stand-out college recommendation letters
• Create an ideal college application timeline for junior and senior year
• Build self-confidence and independence
• Take the worry and stress out of the college application process right from the start
For STUDENTS IN 11th and 12TH GRADE
During the second half of your child’s junior year, we help your applicant:
• Develop a college list that suits your child’s intellectual interests and professional aspirations
• Pick essay topics that will show how your child is outstanding
• Write college application essays that show that your child is ideally qualified for every college on the list
• Strategically revise, edit, and polish college application essays
• Write supplemental essays that maximize admissions chances by adding value to your child’s application
• Write, rewrite, revise, reorganize, and reformat extracurricular lists to optimize admissions chances
• Create compelling talking points for college admissions interviews
• Write requests for letters of recommendation that ensure letters will boost admissions chances
• Use a learning disability (LD) in a positive way that adds value to your child’s application and boosts admissions chances
• Maintain an organized admissions schedule
• Build self-confidence and independence
• Reduce stress
• We also help parents write parent statements that will help your child’s guidance counselor write a personal and powerful letter of recommendation.