You do tend to hear a lot of positives about SALT but I would caveat that with a few observations (S23 was accepted to U of AZ and SALT, but ultimately decided not to attend when he got off the waitlist at a UC much closer to home that was much cheaper and offered free disability support, albeit something he’s not used much so far):
- U of A is essentially open access with many unprepared kids who tend to fail out (due to partying too much or just inability to know how to deal with the responsibility of living independently)
- in that context, SALT is inevitably viewed positively by parents (“my kid got through the first year and their friend X didn’t”)
- SALT has done a great job of promoting itself to college counselors, child psychologists etc. This is at least partly because they have budget to do this and every extra referral brings them more money, whereas for a regular disability support program, more participants just means their budget is stretched thinner.
- The program is self-supporting through high fees ($7000 per year) and to some extent allows U of A to avoid providing (or at least avoid highlighting) some of the supports that many other universities provide for free, such as peer mentors. For example, there’s a university tutoring center, but you are made to feel like SALT’s tutoring is superior. Maybe it is for ill-prepared students, but it wouldn’t be for higher level courses (eg SALT only tutors up to the level of Calc BC).
So I would suggest viewing the hype about SALT in this context.