A Sense of Belonging

First-year students that identify as having a learning disability are an at-risk subgroup of students self-identifying on college campuses. Many of these students choose not to disclose their learning disability upon admissions to the university because of their concern about being accepted in the university culture. This research is from a two year study of the experiences of a group of first-year students with learning disabilities transitioning to a private, selective, coeducational, 4-year University in the Midwest. Qualitative data of focus group interviews and semi-structured individual interviews present the findings of the study. Chickering (1969) and Chickering and Reisser’s (1993) stages of student development theory are presented through Hadley’s (2009) interpretation of their experiences.