<p>I have asked about my daughter's situation before, but wanted to ask a bit more after reading the thread about the student who left school due to depression. My daughter is still in high school. She missed almost the entire year trying to stabilize her bipolar and will be staying an extra year. She is an A student. My question is 2 fold. My daughter has decided not to apply to top colleges due to her medical situation. She would like to go into business, probably finance and would like a school in a warmer climate. Any suggestions? </p>
<p>Also, we have been told we will have to explain what happened to the missing year of high school. In this situation could we be more general and say she had a medical illness instead of saying she is bipolar?</p>
<p>Story, my DD has similar interests. From what I've seen, most finance jobs are pretty stressful and may not be the best choice of your DD has a problem handling stress. That siad, what about U Michigan, NYU and Indiana for programs for smart kids but not the very top.</p>
<p>Have you looked into some of the smaller colleges like Santa Clara University in California, Scripps and Claremont also in CA? I don't know if you are east or west coast, but closer to home might be good, too. If she can easily come home for the holidays, it can make school less stressful.
UVA, Chapel Hill , Vanderbilt and University of Georgia are warm-climate schools with excellent academics along with that great southern feel.
Any of these schools would prepare a student for a business career, as well as offer a lot other areas to explore.</p>
<p>I don't know about bipolar per se. I do know that Ohio Wesleyan, which has majors in finance, accounting, international business, etc. has a sterling (and fairly well-known) reputation for dealing well with students with various learning "differences" and "disabilities". I don't know to what degree this one might fall into that category, but it might be worth contacting them and seeing what they say. It is also a very fine school on its own terms.</p>
<p>I don't have any suggestions for specific schools or how to deal with this in the application process. I just wanted to remind you to look for schools that have excellent counseling available, a hospital on campus or in town (for med problems, updates, or changes), and an overall supportive environment (vs. a cold, sterile, or chaotic environment). You may want to consider schools that are relatively close to home or close to a family member or family friend.</p>
<p>University of Denver has a very good business school. The school is small and personal. It's in a major city with excellent medical facilites. And, while not always warm, it's almost always sunny (310-320 days of sun per year).</p>
<p>My g/f went with her dtr to the counseling center, interviewed psychologists and spoke with the psychiatrist. Everything set. Nonetheless, the D was careless about appointments. Best thing was that college within 2 hour drive from home. D saw her "home town" doctor on occasion, by choice.</p>
<p>Interesting, this girl has been doing great, far better than in HS. </p>
<p>My personal opinion is to search for schools within driving distance.</p>
<p>U of Denver does have a nice business school. I would strongly advise against it unless your D has a car. My child went to Denver and had a really hard time getting good mental health care. The counseling center is staffed mainly by interns and they are not experienced enough to deal with bipolar. There are not therapists within walking distance or an easy bus ride. My D found it impossible to find a therapist who had a time slot available when she didn't have class. The student also has to have enough time to travel to the appt plus 50 minutes of therapy and make it back to campus on time for their next class. Another problem she encountered was that while friday was a light day for her she could not find a therapist who worked on friday.
As much as I am a fan of going away to school in this case I would suggest as Bookworm suggested a school within driving distance. College is stressful enough for the traditional student. Someone with any mental condition is going to have the added stress of dealing with getting to therapy, taking meds on there own and living in an enviroment that is hectic and loud most of the time. Also if you are within driving distance she can come home to either check in with her Dr or to just have a quiet weekend away from the dorm.
Also most health centers do not stock the medication she will be needing so easy access to a pharmacy is important.
When your D decides where she is going your local therapist and Dr should begin looking for therapists in her college town. Many of them have sporatic hours in the summer so it is best to start looking in the spring.
Good luck to your D.</p>
<p>LOYOLA MARYMOUNT--Los Angeles. Although the school itself does not have medical facilities, she can use the excellent facilities locally including UCLA
medical center. The school itself is has a very supportive inviroment. And I can attest personally to the great mental health care facilities at UCLA.</p>
<p>The University of Texas at Austin has an excellent business school, and it's <em>definitely</em> a warm climate. Also, I don't know much about this, but one of my friends has a son in school there. He is a psychology major and has been working in a clinic studying bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders. That could be a good thing if there is some work going on there in that field. It is a huge university though, so I don't know if that would be ideal for your daughter.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the wonderful suggestions as well as the advice so many have given. Some schools she has visited and liked or plan to visit soon are University of Texas-Austin, Trinity University in Texas and Stetson, University of Tampa and University of Miami in Florida. </p>
<p>We will look into the other suggestions. She would really like to be somewhere warm, as she thinks that will help her. We, on the other hand, are in MN. She still has more time to change her mind, though, as she will be in high school for 2 more years. Thanks for all the help.</p>
<p>I also thought about Santa Clara University and Scripps. These are good schools, with warm interpersonal and climatic environments, that also have big city therapists near by.</p>
<p>We made a big mistake sending our son. who also has a mental condition, to a college about a two hour drive away. We thought he had stabalized enough to attend college away, but he quickly deteriorated without the in- person structure and help we could provide. Very frustrating trying to deal with it all from a distance. You feel kind of helpless. We ending up pulling him out about two months into the first semester. We enrolled him in the local community college where he has done really great. We've been able to closely monitor him, make sure he stays on his meds, and intervene quickly when we see problems before his studies get impacted. It's been tough on us at times tending to him, but not near as frustrating as when he was away. He is also able to continue seeing his normal therapist as well which has done him a ton of good. He just graduated with high honors with an associates degree and is transferring to a nice, small private liberal arts college right here in town this Fall, where he can continue living at home, and we can continue to monitor and help him. Also ended up with a much larger scholarship than he had in his first college. Will actually be cheaper going to the private college (and living at home) than going away to a state university. Is he learning to be independent? Probably not, although we see signs that he is slowly maturing, so maybe some day. Will he be graduating from a prestigious college. No, but his college is still nice and the people very friendly and caring. However, our main concern was him actually making it through college at all while being challenged with his mental illness. I don't think he would have had a chance at making it if we hadn't ended up going this route.</p>