Stanford Students claiming disabilities

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Stanford Students claiming disabilities - calfan - 02-04-2026

https://garryslist.org/posts/stanford-cheating

Great article, very insightful. As Stanford alums, what do you think? This is a pervasive issue at Cal as well. So many kids gaming the system to claim a disability to get more time on tests, reduced courseload, priority enrollment, housing, etc.

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - martyup - 02-04-2026

Until I see some legit backup sources to this poorly written blog by Garry, I'm going to call it fake news.

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - JeebsOak - 02-04-2026

Exactly ^

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - BostonCard - 02-04-2026

1) I do think that more people are availing themselves to accommodations than in the past. No idea if the numbers are right or not.
2) There’s also a wide variety of what an accommodation means. It can be something as simple as accommodating a request to live in a quieter dorm for someone who is prone to migraines or a dorm closer to classes for someone who is limited by mobility.
3) It seems likely that some (maybe many of them) are not strictly necessary.
4) I don’t think that many people are committing out and out fraud, but there may be an element of exaggeration.

5) Good luck trying to determine which accommodations are “real” and which ones are unnecessary. By definition a one-size-fits all policy won’t work here since the whole point is to individualize.

On the whole, I would rather Stanford offer an inclusive environment that makes reasonable accommodations for students who need them and err to include some people who don’t need them than to treat every request with suspicion and in so doing close its doors to some students who could thrive with the appropriate support. Anyone who abuses the system will be in for a rude awakening when they go out to the “real world” so they are only hurting themselves in the long run.

BC

(02-04-2026, 07:20 PM)martyup Wrote: Until I see some legit backup sources to this poorly written blog by Garry, I'm going to call it fake news.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/01/elite-university-student-accommodation/684946/

It doesn’t refer to Stanford specifically, but notes the increase in accommodations.

Quote:At the University of Chicago, the number has more than tripled over the past eight years; at UC Berkeley, it has nearly quintupled over the past 15 years.

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - magnus - 02-04-2026

From the OP link you can find this link apparently by a current student.

https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/40-percent-stanford-undergraduates-claim-disabled-sw99r3k8c

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - PalmTree - 02-05-2026

(02-04-2026, 09:39 PM)magnus Wrote: From the OP link you can find this link apparently by a current student.

https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/40-percent-stanford-undergraduates-claim-disabled-sw99r3k8c

Has anyone actually accessed and read the article? I am wondering what the actual source of the purported #s is supposed to be.

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - Mick - 02-05-2026

(02-05-2026, 12:13 AM)PalmTree Wrote:
(02-04-2026, 09:39 PM)magnus Wrote: From the OP link you can find this link apparently by a current student.

https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/40-percent-stanford-undergraduates-claim-disabled-sw99r3k8c

Has anyone actually accessed and read the article? I am wondering what the actual source of the purported #s is supposed to be.

Interesting numbers. 38% claiming disability at Stanford, Cornell is 23%, Harvard 21%, Penn is 20%, Yale is 15%, Brown, Princeton and Columbia 13%, Dartmouth just 6%. By contrast, community colleges between 3% and 4%.

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - Treebound - 02-05-2026

'Where there is smoke, there is fire."
I firmly believe that some of this exists at Stanford and other elite institutions. These classrooms are competitive and a certain percentage of students will seek out a path to be granted extra time on tests or other accommodations. My kids have talked about the pervasiveness of this approach at Stanford, even amongst their friends and classmates.

What's even more concerning is that this has happened in large numbers at the high school and middle school levels, guided by parents who buy into the arms race to give their kids advantages in test taking and grades - ultimately hoping that it will help them get into "a great school." Who wouldn't want an extra X hours on the SAT, ACT or AP test?

I don't know what the answer is here, but in the era of Varsity Blues, many people will go to great lengths to get any kind of advantage. The current system rewards it.

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - cctop - 02-05-2026

Man, I dearly wish I could get my kid with actual autism & ADHD to ask for accommodations at his school.

He doesn't want to tell people about it because he doesn't like to feel that he's different than other kids.

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - Treebound - 02-05-2026

Perhaps that is the silver lining CC.
If your child sees more and more of his friends and classmates getting the diagnosis and the accommodations, perhaps he will be more comfortable taking that step. My kids have told me that our generation looks at these labels with more of a stigma, whereas their generation is much more accepting that the spectrum is wide and that we are all on it in some way, shape and form.

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - Papa John - 02-05-2026

(02-04-2026, 05:35 PM)calfan Wrote: https://garryslist.org/posts/stanford-cheating

Great article, very insightful. As Stanford alums, what do you think? This is a pervasive issue at Cal as well. So many kids gaming the system to claim a disability to get more time on tests, reduced courseload, priority enrollment, housing, etc.

I'm an instructor at UC Santa Barbara. The typical number of acommodation requests for one of my classes is under 10% of the enrolled students, and it's been that way for close to two decades. Personally, I haven't found it to be a big deal or anything close to a problem. Students with accommodations succeed or fail at about the same rate as the students who don't have accommodations. However, I don't know the campus-wide numbers. Maybe they are higher for certain majors (I teach in the humanities).

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - Papa John - 02-05-2026

Hmm, looks like a lot of this report's data come from a current Stanford junior who describes herself as a contrarian and an editor for the Stanford Review. You can look up her online writings on your own, if you so desire.

As for me, I agree with BC.

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - JeebsOak - 02-05-2026

(02-05-2026, 06:50 PM)Papa John Wrote: Hmm, looks like a lot of this report's data come from a current Stanford junior who describes herself as a contrarian and an editor for the Stanford Review. You can look up her online writings on your own, if you so desire.

As for me, I agree with BC.

Lots of drivel that screams underlying mental illness, including claiming a Chinese spy targeting her with no substantive evidence.

“ I have no interest in being inflammatory for its own sake. Provocation without substance is boring” the irony is not lost on me lol contrarian in her own words

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - Papa John - 02-05-2026

Unlike the folks on the Internet who are howling about the atrocities of accommodations, I wonder if Stanford and other universities are trying to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and perhaps other laws related to religious rights. Regarding the ADA, for the first time in my life I looked up the text of the law and found the following definition of disability:

Quote:The term “disability” means, with respect to an individual—

(A) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of such individual;

(B) a record of such an impairment; or

( C) being regarded as having such an impairment (as described in paragraph (3)).

(2) Major Life Activities

(A) In general

For purposes of paragraph (1), major life activities include, but are not limited to, caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, lifting, bending, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating, and working.

(B) Major bodily functions

For purposes of paragraph (1), a major life activity also includes the operation of a major bodily function, including but not limited to, functions of the immune system, normal cell growth, digestive, bowel, bladder, neurological, brain, respiratory, circulatory, endocrine, and reproductive functions.

(3) Regarded as having such an impairment

For purposes of paragraph (1)( C):

(A) An individual meets the requirement of “being regarded as having such an impairment” if the individual establishes that he or she has been subjected to an action prohibited under this chapter because of an actual or perceived physical or mental impairment whether or not the impairment limits or is perceived to limit a major life activity.

(B) Paragraph (1)( C) shall not apply to impairments that are transitory and minor. A transitory impairment is an impairment with an actual or expected duration of 6 months or less.

This is a legal definition, not medical, not social, not religious, etc. So, whatever the true numbers are about how many Stanford students have been granted disability accommodations, isn't it possible the school is erring on the side of caution so that it is in compliance with the ADA? And contrarians might think that students are "gaming" the system, but in reality the majority of those students are taking advantage of their legal rights?

I wonder if we have any legal scholars here who have some expertise in this area.

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - 82lsju - 03-04-2026

Quote:Students with disability-based accommodations or religious observances will be unable to join or form roommate groups in this year’s housing process, according to application instructions released Tuesday.

Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) assigns students with approved accommodations their housing in advance to ensure reasonable accommodations. In previous years, students were able to extend their housing priority to assignment groups, granting their roommates the same early housing process.

“We were essentially prioritizing students for reasons that I think had a net effect of leading to some unequal outcomes for other students,” Michelle Rasmussen, Vice Provost for Student Affairs, told The Daily.

The change comes on the heels of growing complaints among students over OAE accommodations being exploited to secure more desired housing.

“We’ve heard a great deal from students…around the overall ability to access the kind of housing they want to live in,” Michelle Rasmussen, Vice Provost for Student Affairs, told The Daily. “These changes have been informed by a desire to be responsive to what students have told us, or some of their pain points in the room draw process.”

Students with accommodations will also be unable to form or join a group during their housing application, meaning they will be unable to select roommates ahead of time. This aligns with the process for Residential Assistants (RAs) and students selected for pre-assignment into a themed house.

“This is an opportunity to make sure that we’re giving the priority and first assignment to the students who belong in those groups, but we’re not bringing in other students who don’t actually qualify for those different assignment processes,” Rasmussen said.

https://stanforddaily.com/2026/03/03/oae-rules-block-roommate-groups/?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=mailchimp&utm_content=Mar-04-2026?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=mailchimp&utm_content=Mar-04-2026

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - newguy - 03-04-2026

(03-04-2026, 08:34 AM)82lsju Wrote:
Quote:Students with disability-based accommodations or religious observances will be unable to join or form roommate groups in this year’s housing process, according to application instructions released Tuesday.

Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) assigns students with approved accommodations their housing in advance to ensure reasonable accommodations. In previous years, students were able to extend their housing priority to assignment groups, granting their roommates the same early housing process.

“We were essentially prioritizing students for reasons that I think had a net effect of leading to some unequal outcomes for other students,” Michelle Rasmussen, Vice Provost for Student Affairs, told The Daily.

The change comes on the heels of growing complaints among students over OAE accommodations being exploited to secure more desired housing.

“We’ve heard a great deal from students…around the overall ability to access the kind of housing they want to live in,” Michelle Rasmussen, Vice Provost for Student Affairs, told The Daily. “These changes have been informed by a desire to be responsive to what students have told us, or some of their pain points in the room draw process.”

Students with accommodations will also be unable to form or join a group during their housing application, meaning they will be unable to select roommates ahead of time. This aligns with the process for Residential Assistants (RAs) and students selected for pre-assignment into a themed house.

“This is an opportunity to make sure that we’re giving the priority and first assignment to the students who belong in those groups, but we’re not bringing in other students who don’t actually qualify for those different assignment processes,” Rasmussen said.

https://stanforddaily.com/2026/03/03/oae-rules-block-roommate-groups/?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=mailchimp&utm_content=Mar-04-2026?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=mailchimp&utm_content=Mar-04-2026

looks like a step in the right direction.

RE: Stanford Students claiming disabilities - TrumpCard - 03-05-2026

FWIW, at the middle school level (which my wife teaches at a parochial school), she does not suspect any abusive claims for accommodations, but she has students for whom she's prohibited from giving the accommodations that she strongly suspects they would be eligible to receive upon appropriate testing (which the parents have not arranged).

Also, FWIW, my wife says that she has students who "get" the material, but perform worse on tests than she would expect because of time limits. She says this is borne out by scoring showing lots of correct answers at the beginning and then no response for questions at the end.

Of course, none of this implies that students at Stanford are or aren't requesting accommodations based on fraudulent diagnoses, so just take these second hand observations for what they are.