FACT 5: There is no cure for LD but lots can be done to help. One of the most important things you can do to help yourself is to understand what your particular LD is. It is also important for you to recognize and work on your strengths. Your guardians and teachers will help you learn about how to cope with your learning problems better by teaching strategies that can minimize their effect.
Source: Reprinted with permission from the Learning Disabilities Association of BC
(9) Make sure you aren’t working “around” an undiagnosed learning disability.
If you have been continually struggling in school and it has been showing up in your grades and test scores, make sure that you have been tested for learning disabilities. It is possible that you have an undiagnosed issue that has caused you to develop a different learning style. Talk to your guidance counselor or family physician. Many of the colleges today welcome students with various learning disabilities and they have special programs geared especially for them.
Not sure what qualifies as a learning disability? It’s a blanket term that covers everything from not being able to sit still in class to not being able to read very well. There are many people who dislike the phrase “learning disability.” They believe that instead of calling areas of challenge “disabilities,” people should realize that some students simply have found other approaches to gaining knowledge that are perhaps different from most people’s ways of learning.
Review the information about learning disabilities from an organization called the Learning Disabilities Association of BC. Know the facts about learning disabilities.
Worried that learning disabilities will interfere with your education? There are many successful people who have made the “LD” list, such as Whoopi Goldberg, Magic Johnson, Nelson Rockefeller, Jay Leno and Charles Schwab. Not too shabby, eh? You wouldn’t mind being in such good company, would you?
(10) Take classes at your local junior college.
Start your college career while you are still in high school by taking classes at your local junior or community college. Many of these institutions are open to the idea. Terry O’Banion, former president of the League for Innovation in the Community College, explains the possibilities. “In the last decade or so, many high schools and community colleges have created articulated programs to allow students enrolled in high school to take courses for community college credit,” she says. “Called ‘dual or concurrent enrollment,’ the practice is very widespread and is likely to expand in the next few years.
“The practice emerged because able high school students often exhaust the supply of solid courses by their senior year; there is no reason to wait until they graduate from high school to begin taking college-level courses,” adds O’Banion. “Additionally, community colleges and high schools in the same region share common purposes of preparing students for the workforce or for further education, and they can enhance that purpose by creating opportunities for high school students to take courses at the local community college to round out their schedules,” she concludes.
Tonia Johnson, associate director of admission at Guilford College, also discourages students from leaving school early in their senior year. Just because you have all the credits you need doesn’t mean you need to cut your year short. A better plan is to use this time to do something that will impress admissions officers. “Take courses somewhere, get involved in an internship, but use the time wisely,” she says.
Regardless of the stage at which you need to make changes, don’t look back at your mistakes: look forward to your possibilities. Making that difference can be enough to get your admissions application placed in the “accepted” pile instead of that other stack. Write out a list of the top ten things you want to change, pin it up and give it the attention it needs. You might be surprised at the results!
CHAPTER THREE
GPAS, SATS AND ACTS, OH MY!
Let’s face it. If you’re reading this book, it means those wonderful acronyms in the title of this chapter are not among your strong points. For one reason or another, your overall GPA or your test scores are just not that remarkable.
What can you do about that? One possibility is to check out the colleges that do not require standardized test scores as part of their admissions process. “What?” you ask in amazement. There are colleges that don’t want those all important numbers? That’s right. In fact, there are more than 700 of them and they can all be found at www.fairtest.org.
Why would some colleges choose not to rely on ACT and SAT scores? Here is how Fair Test explains it:
“Test scores are biased and unreliable. Standardized college admissions tests are biased, imprecise and unreliable, and therefore should not be required for any college admissions process or scholarship award. If test scores are optional, students who feel that their strengths are reflected by their SAT or ACT scores can submit them, while those whose abilities are better demonstrated by grades, recommendations, a portfolio or a special project are assured that these will be taken into full account. Sometimes admissions officers use low test scores to automatically reject qualified candidates without even considering their schoolwork. That’s simply not fair.
“Test scores are nearly useless in college admission. Research shows that the SAT and ACT do not help colleges and universities make significantly better admissions decisions. The University of Chicago Press book, The Case Against the SAT, found that the SAT is ‘statistically irrelevant’ in college admission. It also proves that the SAT undermines the goal of diversity by reducing the number of qualified minority and lower-income students who are admitted.”
If you are applying to a school that requires SAT or ACT scores, Fair Test encourages you to ask some important questions including these:
How does your school use the SAT and/or ACT?
Are cut-off scores used? If so, do they apply to general admissions or to particular programs?
Does your school use any statistical formula which includes SAT/ACT scores to judge applicants’ academic records?
Do you take possible coaching into account when considering ACT or SAT scores?
How does your college report SAT and ACT scores in handbooks and brochures?
Does this college report simple averages or a range of scores? Does this include all entering students’ scores in these figures, in compliance with the Good Practice Principles of the National Association for College Admission Counseling?
So, if all of this is true, why do most colleges rely so heavily on the results from standardized tests? It’s a matter of “measurement.” If you think about it, an A at a high school in Chicago may be different than an A at a high school in Los Angeles. In fact, an A at two high schools in the same school district or even with two different physics teachers at the same high school may be different. Because schools have varying ways of awarding grades and varying levels of difficulty, colleges need a uniform way to measure students. The SAT and ACT have become those measures. A great deal of importance is given to the scores achieved on them.
In fact, a good performance on college-entrance tests has become the focus of many a student’s “free” time past the hours when the high school doors are closed for the day. In recent years, “test prep” has become more than just an option. It’s a booming business! During the last few years, it has grown from $100 million to more