Q&A: How to Choose a College When You Have Celiac Disease
An interview with Nicole Kessler, the founder of The Celiac College Guide
One thing I hear a lot from people I meet in the celiac community is how hard navigating college is with celiac disease. I was diagnosed in my early 30s, so this isn’t something I went through — but I know it was a really difficult experience for a lot of my friends who were diagnosed earlier in life.
Many of them were stuck paying for meal plans they couldn’t actually use, got sick from cross-contact in their school cafeterias, and had to deal with roommates who didn’t understand the first thing about setting up a celiac-safe shared kitchen.
I’ve also spoken with quite a few parents of celiac teens who say they’re anxious about the upcoming college search for their kids. Finding the right college is already stressful enough before you add a chronic health condition that necessitates adhering to a strict gluten-free lifestyle to the mix — and sadly, as I’m sure many of my readers can attest to, not every school does a great job at accommodating celiac students.
Thankfully, there’s a newly created resource that aims to make looking for a college a whole lot easier for families. Enter The Celiac College Guide, a not-for-profit organization that helps celiac and gluten intolerant students make informed decisions as they go through the college selection process.
The Celiac College Guide was founded by Nicole Kessler, a career educator with over 20 years of experience and a mom of two celiac daughters. Nicole’s oldest daughter is currently a sophomore in high school (and has a twin brother who doesn’t have celiac disease), while her youngest is in middle school.
I met Nicole at the Wicked Gluten-Free Expo in Massachusetts last fall and knew I had to interview her for my newsletter! Ahead, Nicole shares what inspired her to start The Celiac College Guide, how you can use The Celiac College Guide to help you during the college search, and her best advice for other parents of celiac teens who are starting to look at colleges.
The inspiration behind The Celiac College Guide
There were a few reasons why Nicole wanted to start The Celiac College Guide, which she officially launched in the summer of 2024. One is an older survey from the National Celiac Association, which found that 23% of celiac college students skipped one to two meals weekly and 30% skipped three to five meals weekly due to gluten concerns.
17% of survey respondents, meanwhile, reported getting glutened at least a couple of times a month. “This was wild to think about, just knowing what that would mean for my kids and for many kids,” says Nicole.
She sat on the idea for about a year, and then as her family got closer to starting the college search for her older daughter, she started realizing how much added stress there is when your child has celiac disease.
“With celiac disease, you’re layering on having to figure out how to meet your basic needs,” says Nicole. “I heard all these reports about kids struggling to find food they can safely eat and having required meal plans — plus, they’re supposed to be learning on top of that.”
Nicole noticed that a lot of parents in celiac Facebook groups ask questions about whether anyone knows if specific schools do a good job of accommodating celiac students.
In her searches, she saw that different groups and websites offer bits and pieces of information on colleges here and there, but a comprehensive resource didn’t exist. “I think this is where the educator in me comes in,” says Nicole.
She thought there had to be a better way and decided to create a college directory, which took about a year to build out as she was contacting schools to get information from them on how they handle feeding celiac students and what sort of gluten-free college meals are available on their campuses.
How to use The Celiac College Guide during your college search
Here are some of the top features on The Celiac College Guide that can help your family navigate the college selection process:
Use the search functionality
Nicole says The Celiac College Guide has a robust search feature that makes it easy to learn about what different schools offer. You can search directly by school name and view their profile to see what they offer in terms of accommodations, such as safe gluten-free college meals.
You can also search by location and filter for things like “gluten-free kitchens,” “gluten-free stations,” and “dietitian on staff,” as well as school size and acceptance rate. There are currently over 1,000 college profiles available in the search directory.
Look at college-verified profiles
Verified profiles are schools that have claimed their listings and have entered even more detailed information. These profiles will have additional details about what kind of allergen training the staff has, how celiac students can get accommodations, and different support systems in place.
Take a look at Michigan State University, for an example of what a college-verified profile looks like. They have a dedicated gluten-free dining hall, allergen-conscious areas stocked with common gluten-free items, and allow celiac students to request housing near this dining hall.
Download the accommodations guide
The Celiac College Guide has a free downloadable accommodations guide that has a ton of information on the types of accommodations that may be available for celiac students at different universities. These may include dietary, housing, transportation, and academic accommodations, as well as meal plan flexibility, nutrition counseling, and referrals to resources.
“I've developed an accommodations guide because sometimes people don’t know what all the possibilities are,” says Nicole. “If the dining service isn’t meeting their needs, what are the other options? Can they get an air fryer in their room? Is there housing available with a kitchenette? Do they try to get a car on campus so they can go out to buy groceries? There are a lot of possibilities.”
You can sign up to receive the free accommodations guide from the college search page on The Celiac College Guide’s website.
Read the reviews
Of course, you probably want to read reviews from other celiac students during your family’s college selection journey. Nicole has been working on getting more people to leave reviews of their schools for this very reason.
You can sort your search result by star rating (with a 5-star rating being the best) and most reviews. If you were in school recently (or are currently a college student with celiac disease), please leave a review of your university to help other celiacs!
Other advice on how to navigate the college search with celiac disease
Beyond using The Celiac College Guide during the college search process, Nicole says you should always do your own research and reach out to the dietitian or dining contact at any school you’re interested in to make sure you’ll be able to access safe gluten-free college meals on campus.
“When you’re at the point that you’re getting serious about it, I wouldn’t just do a regular college visit — go check out the dining options because every school takes a different approach, and different things are going to work well for different kids,” notes Nicole.
For example, some colleges may serve the same gluten-free food (like grilled chicken, rice, and broccoli) over and over again. Some celiac students might be totally satisfied to eat the same meal each day, but others might not be so happy with that. You’ll also want to talk to staff and ask what other accommodations are available for celiacs, such as preferential housing, says Nicole.
The bottom line: “Recognize that this should be part of what you factor into your college search,” says Nicole. “In order to have kids thrive at college, you want to figure out how to make sure they can eat safely there and that it’s not going to be a significant added stressor for them on top of everything else.”
How you can support The Celiac College Guide
Nicole’s goal is to keep The Celiac College Guide free and accessible for anyone who needs to use it. If you’d like to support her mission, there are a few ways you can do so:
Make a donation to help Nicole and her team provide the most up-to-date information so celiac students have the resources they need to make an informed decision.
Share The Celiac College Guide’s resources with anyone you know who might benefit from them.
Leave a review of your school to help other celiac students during their college search.
Follow The Celiac College Guide on Instagram and Facebook and promote their content on social media.
Are you currently navigating the college search process (or are you a parent of a teen who is)? Drop a comment and share how it’s going!
Oh my goodness thank you for this!
I was sick with celiac disease all through my college days, but not diagnosed until a couple of months after I graduated. What an incredible thing Nicole Kessler is doing! This will help so many students heading off to college who suffer from celiac disease. Thank you for sharing this mission!