Accommodation Nation

Administering an exam used to be straightforward: All a college professor needed was an open room and a stack of blue books. - Rose Horowitch

At many American universities, this is no longer true...

Over the past decade and a half, however, the share of students at selective universities who qualify for accommodations—often, extra time on tests—has grown at a breathtaking pace...

The increase is driven by more young people getting diagnosed with conditions such as ADHD, anxiety, and depression, and by universities making the process of getting accommodations easier. 

The change has occurred disproportionately at the most prestigious and expensive institutions. 

• At Brown and Harvard, more than 20 percent of undergraduates are registered as disabled. 
• At Amherst, that figure is 34 percent. Not all of those students receive accommodations, but researchers told me that most do. 

The schools that enroll the most academically successful students, in other words, also have the largest share of students with a disability that could prevent them from succeeding academically...