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| Free e-mail Newsletter on Learning Disability News & Advocacy |
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| Free e-mail Newsletter on Learning Disability News & Advocacy |
Posted by Thu Nguyen
I am LD who somehow made it through some pretty tough years of higher
education. I am presently undergoing the Ph.D process. What I have noticed
in my application is that it does not help to label yourself LD because they
generalize you as somehow deficient in reading problems. After applying to 8
schools with with only a GPA of 2.8 and a 3.37, I managed to make it into
one school. It did not help that I told them the reason for my failure in
school was that I was a little brain damaged and that it was caught late. I
still got rejected.
I have NLD with a verbal within the 99th percentile of my GRE. This is
normal for an NLD. This is due to overcompensation. But my verbal apititude
do not co-incide with my efforts nor grades. (I am also a member of Mensa.)
Recently, I learned that it was because I was labeled dyslexic, (and of
course, all dyslexics are suppose to be poor readers.) In any case, to make
a long story short, they thought I was "faking." (Sorry for all you
dyslexics out there.) NLD is a very obscure disability. Most of my profs.
only know one type. The kind that "switches words." I don't switch words.
I strive to be as independent as I can. After all, they don't want to bother
with me. Profs. are too busy and too respectable for that. The are not
neurological rehabilitationists.
There are times when being gifted and LD leads to certain types of general
behavior. I, for one, fake that I don't care, that I am too intelligent for
this. But it is really frustration. Sometimes, I think that I fail not
because of my disability but because of the prejudices of the system. In
this case, I wonder why I do all the work at all. I just put in the bare
minimal just to get by. I am presently feeling like that now.