Will Aspergers hurt my chances of admission to school?

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fawltie
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04 Nov 2011, 7:41 pm

They asked about neurological conditions and I wonder if it is better to leave that blank.



SammichEater
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04 Nov 2011, 7:54 pm

It might actually help.

At least for scholarship applications, they love to hear about this sort of stuff. You have to word it like you're overcoming some great challenge.

"Aww... this poor guy has autism, let's give him some money, he probably needs it."

Suckers. :D


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MountainLaurel
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04 Nov 2011, 7:56 pm

I think it's more probable that disclosing your Aspergers will increase your chances of admission. Schools seem to need to show a broad diversity in admissions and challenged (please forgive the term) students are a necessary part of that mix.



wavefreak58
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04 Nov 2011, 8:11 pm

What country? What school?

In the U.S. they cannot deny your admission if you have Asperger's.


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diniesaur
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04 Nov 2011, 8:14 pm

Asperger's didn't hurt my chance of admission to school, but it may have cost me admission to the honor's program. I take honors classes at my college, and the people I've talked to keep asking me why I'm not in it since I'm apparently pretty qualified. Someone told me that the admissions officers may have decided not to admit me since they might have thought the honors program would be too demanding for me... :? I'm not sure if that's the case, though.



wavefreak58
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04 Nov 2011, 8:17 pm

diniesaur wrote:
Asperger's didn't hurt my chance of admission to school, but it may have cost me admission to the honor's program. I take honors classes at my college, and the people I've talked to keep asking me why I'm not in it since I'm apparently pretty qualified. Someone told me that the admissions officers may have decided not to admit me since they might have thought the honors program would be too demanding for me... :? I'm not sure if that's the case, though.


Admission to an honors program is usually based on SAT scores/GPA or both. Denying you for having Asperger's would be a violation of the ADA. Unless you are not in the US


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MaxPower
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04 Nov 2011, 8:19 pm

wavefreak58 wrote:
What country? What school?

In the U.S. they cannot deny your admission if you have Asperger's.

Do you believe this? They can deny for any or no reason. Just like an employer may not be able to legally discriminate against an individual for race, gender, disability, etc., doesn't mean that it doesn't happen, or that there's any possible recourse whatsoever unless it was blatant.

"We are choosing to not admit you due to your autism spectrum disorder" would lead to an easy win in a lawsuit. "We are choosing not to admit you" is not actionable.



wavefreak58
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04 Nov 2011, 8:43 pm

MaxPower wrote:
wavefreak58 wrote:
What country? What school?

In the U.S. they cannot deny your admission if you have Asperger's.

Do you believe this? They can deny for any or no reason. Just like an employer may not be able to legally discriminate against an individual for race, gender, disability, etc., doesn't mean that it doesn't happen, or that there's any possible recourse whatsoever unless it was blatant.

"We are choosing to not admit you due to your autism spectrum disorder" would lead to an easy win in a lawsuit. "We are choosing not to admit you" is not actionable.


Schools have no incentive to deny your admission for this reason. An employer doesn't want to risk losing money on an unproductive employee a hence will make up some false reason for not hiring. A university get's paid no matter the quality of the student. In fact, having a certain percentage of "disabled" students in the population looks good.

It's easy to think people and institutions invent specious reasons to discriminate against the disabled. But there has to be a motivation behind that discrimination and universities don't have a good one.


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Tambourine-Man
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04 Nov 2011, 8:47 pm

Fill that sucker out! Loud and proud!

Seriously though, it will improve your chances a lot.


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MaxPower
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04 Nov 2011, 9:58 pm

wavefreak58 wrote:
Schools have no incentive to deny your admission for this reason. An employer doesn't want to risk losing money on an unproductive employee a hence will make up some false reason for not hiring. A university get's paid no matter the quality of the student. In fact, having a certain percentage of "disabled" students in the population looks good.

It's easy to think people and institutions invent specious reasons to discriminate against the disabled. But there has to be a motivation behind that discrimination and universities don't have a good one.

You're absolutely correct. I was just trying to point out that an organization won't be stopped from discriminating against someone even if their reason for doing so is less than legal.



Jacoby
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05 Nov 2011, 2:18 am

Unless you need services I wouldn't mention it. I don't think they'll reject you because of it on it's own but if you're on the borderline I don't think it will help you at all.