Autism Programs: Help Us Choose

I am trying to help my student decide between Uconn and RIT. Uconn not dream school for him but their Beyond Access ASD support program has been unbelievably responsive and appears to be custom made for him. It is also very close to our home in CT and his therapist. They even allowed me to come in and meet with them and when I did there was no hard sell but they said all the right things w/o me even having to ask. RIT (my son’s dream school) has a spectrum support program but they didn’t even want me to stop by. They said there was “nothing to see”. They didn’t seem to pick up on the fact that our family’s decision would be contingent on the ASD support the college would have in place. Could anyone here chime in with what you know with regard to Uconn vs. RIT? Son wants to do Aerospace Engineering which is stronger at RIT than Uconn. I think. I mean, I don’t even understand that much about getting an engineering degree except that it sounds awfully hard and the student has no life. He would not consider any LACs though he applied to Union and Syracuse. Got into both those but Uconn and RIT are cheaper, and have the ASD support. Help!

I just read this thread: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21898322

and it would seem that the most important thing is if your son is on board with using one of these programs.

I have a friend whose son went off to college. He was smart and had a stay at home mom that helped him make sure to do homework. He was undiagnosed aspergers and didn’t even make it to Thanksgiving at college.

Check out:

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/962903-college-for-high-functioning-aspergers-p1.html

Would him being near home help you to be able to go in and check on him more often?

@bopper That’s where we are leaning. Uconn’s close. Proximity is a much bigger factor in our decision making now than I ever thought it would be. Bc we’re in CT and hear about Uconn all the time, it has less luster for kids than maybe something more seemingly exotic. But as he/we stay very focused on his high school senior year and the difficulties he’s having and being able to discuss them more in real time than before his diagnosis (both at home and with his therapist), he is conceding that he’s not ready to take off. Doing everything we can to show that going to Uconn and accepting the supports they have available are kind of a gap year in itself, informing him of how costs change if he loses his RIT scholarship(s), and I think/hope he’s seeing what makes most sense for him right now.

Thanks for the link. I am checking it out now.

Just checked your link. Discussion’s closed. I have found so many threads where parent says we found perfect program! only to see discussion then closed. they’re from 2017. Wish CC would keep these open. follow up so important. I will try to DM (or PM?) those parents in that discussion. I’m assuming if they’re no longer on CC that things worked out.