So after having 2 kiddos that have gone through college with fairly severe chronic illnesses (older daughter I would say is in the moderate to severe category and younger one has very severe AS and MANY other conditions, some severe, some not), I have a few comments.
1. I agree that things are a lot easier if you have a child with only one major illness. Kiddos who have more than 2-3 major illnesses or more OR if they have 1 very severe illness should probably stay closer to home or at the very least near a city with a good university/teaching hospital.
If they're seeing more than 2-10+ specialists, every 3-4 months, then they need to be close to the hospital - I would say even closer than 2 hours, if you can manage it.
I know we all want our kids to not be limited by their diseases but we also do not want their care to be compromised.
2. Like CIC said, also think about how easy/hard it is for your child to get home. Are they 1 flight away or do they need to take 2 flights and then a bus? Are they a train ride away - how hard is it to get to the train station from campus? Would they have to drive when they are not feeling well?CIC's incredible daughter managed to travel while septic, but I know my kiddo with severe arthritis could not manage that even if she was not septic! Simply traveling in a car for 4 hours (2 hours to the hospital and 2 hours back) is hard on her, and due to the sheer number of appts. and illnesses she has, we have do it weekly.
3. Many parents have mentioned that with early registration, you can arrange classes such that you have a day off for appointments. This is only true for some majors, we have found. My older daughter double majored and with her English major, arranging classes so that she had a 4 day week was easily possible. For her biology major, it was not possible - science classes are often 3 days a week and then you add lab, which can be anywhere from 3-6 hours and once or twice a week. The same happened with my younger daughter - as a biochemistry major, even with early registration, there has not been a single semester where she's had a 4 day week, except one when she didn't take a chemistry class, she only fulfilled other requirements. Science majors tend to be pretty rigid and inflexible - especially with labs and exams.
Also, with majors, think about endurance/stamina. My younger daughter sometimes says she wishes she had chosen a physically easier major - 5 hour labs are hard on her. And this semester she will have 5-6 hours of lab twice a week. She LOVES her major, but given how sick she is and the severity of her arthritis, a biology major (where labs are less physically hard) would've been easier on her. But this summer she did research in a lab in a wheelchair - so there are modifications, but that means everything is harder for her than other students, since most labs are nowhere near accessible.
4. Also, it is not always possible to choose classes based on timing, especially at a smaller school. A big state school may have many options, but in my daughters' case, science classes tend to be in the morning (which is hard with arthritis - they are most stiff and in pain in the morning) or in the evening, since afternoons are saved for lab. For kids with severe IBD who are waking up many times at night to use the bathroom, morning classes might also be hard. So while their accommodation plans say they should be given priority registration and they do have that, it doesn't really help much in their cases, unfortunately.
5. If your child has severe disease or has been hospitalized many times or has needed many surgeries in high school, get tuition insurance! Both my daughters have had to take medical leave - my younger one more than once. She has had to withdraw during the semester more than once - sometimes for flares, sometimes for surgeries etc. We would have lost a lot of tuition if we hadn't had tuition insurance.
6. Also consider the possibility that your child may need more than 8 semesters, especially if they're taking a reduced course load. Having AP and IB credits REALLY helps so I would encourage those with kids in high school to consider taking some APs. My younger daughter took enough APs that she has enough credit for almost a whole year of college, which has been very helpful and has allowed her to take a reduced course load more easily.
7. If your child is doing injections, either make sure they have had LOTS of practice before college or try and set it up so that health services give them their shots. But remember that health services can only give shots between 9 am to 5 pm.
When my older daughter was a freshman, she didn't want to give herself MTX shots - she had done it when she was younger, but MTX made her nauseous so she hated the shots. I did them for her at home. We set it up so she could have the shots administered by a nurse in the health center, but upon talking to them, she realized that she needed the shot right before bed (to sleep through the side effects), and so they wouldn't be able to do it. So she had to re-learn and do it by herself, which was stressful during the first few weeks of college.