<p>My son is a junior in high school so we have started the college search. He would like nothing more than to go to a big football school like his sister did. Due to his learning disorder his case manager has suggested University of Arizona for their SALT program. Anyone have experience/information on this? Any other larger schools you may know about that also have comprehensive programs?</p>
<p>Thanks so much</p>
<p>Most state schools have programs, some better than others. What geographical region does he want to look in? By big school do you mean Big 10, ACC, etc? Honestly though, he would be better off at a smaller school with more personal interactions with profs, etc.</p>
<p>The SALT program is considered excellent. One of my kids did attend Arizona but was not involved in that program so I don’t think I can help much there. </p>
<p>There are different levels of services and, most state schools do not necessarily have comprehensive services. There is a book you may find helpful which may be at your library called K&W Guide to College Programs for Students with Learning Disablities. </p>
<p>The bigger schools that often pop up over and over again (so I think they all have comprehensive services) include Northeastern, Hofstra, Fairleigh Dickinson, RIT, UCt, U of Iowa and American. You should call the appropriate office at each school to find out exactly what services they offer, the cost (some have an extra cost) and documentation requirements. Some is online but you want to be sure that they offer what would work best for your son. </p>
<p>Can his high school tell you where other disabled kids have attended? That might give you some more ideas, some more parents to talk to and maybe a few local options.</p>
<p>University of Denver’s LEP program is much like Arizona’s SALT program, but in a more beautiful building. Both are centrally located on campus. We looked at both with our son and he thought Denver’s sounded a bit better, but he thought it might be because it’s a much smaller university and therefore a smaller program. The staff we met at both programs were universally smart, kind, and helpful, and treated my son very respectfully and professionally. </p>
<p>I believe the additional cost for both programs is about $7K. They both are housed in their own separate space. Your student (if accepted into the program, and it seems like if you have documented LD’s you’re in) is assigned a specific LD advisor who meets regularly with the student as frequently as necessary, helps them choose classes, strategizes about how to get their work done each week, and helps with accomodations such as extra time on tests or arranging for notetakers. Each of these programs has its own tutoring staff just for these kids, which is awesome. This last fact seems to be the thing that distinguishes these programs from departments at other schools: A separate tutoring staff, trained to work with LD kids. Hence the $7K, I think.</p>
<p>The one thing they stressed when we visited SALT was to apply to the program as soon as you have submitted your application to U of A (You don’t have to wait to be admitted to the university to make your application (SALT app requires 2 essays) to SALT). Space is limited and they cannot accomodate everyone who ultimately applies.</p>
<p>We found you have to just sit down with the people in the learning support department at each college to find out how this would play out for your kid. U of Redlands is excellent. You absolutely would NOT know this by viewing their website, however. Ohio Wesleyan is reported to be excellent, too. </p>
<p>Ultimately, my son (a senior now) decided on a strategy of applying to U of A and Denver, and several other schools he liked even if they didn’t have SALT-like programs. Depending on where he gets in, we’ll thoroughly check out the LD support at those schools. We simply did not have the time on our multi-college tour trips to set up those appts. (Generally those folks weren’t available on Saturdays, for example) If you have time this year, I’d encourage you to try to arrange those appts when you visit the colleges. </p>
<p>Do ask your high school GC about LD students’ experiences. That’s how we found out about U of A, and Denver.</p>
<p>There is a section on this web site called “Learning Differences and Challenges”. It’s towards the bottom of the main discussion page.</p>
<p>OP: I should have added above that my son has been admitted to the U of Oregon, a HUGE football school, and we will be going there to check out the LD support in January. (He’d love a big football rah-rah school, too.) I’ll let you know what I learn then, if you are still interested.</p>
<p>When colleges have program for, or say they have services for, LD students, what exactly does that mean? Are there only certain kinds of disabilities or are all included? What makes a program or college work for students with special needs?</p>
<p>I have a sophomore in high school and am currently going through the process of applying for accommodations through College Board for his vision disability (correctable by surgery but son refuses to consider it right now), math/calculation disorder, and diabetes. </p>
<p>Without accommodations, there’s no way I see him in college. With untimed tests and breaks as needed, he tests very well. Without those things, he cannot finish work on time. (We homeschool)</p>
<p>How would a college accommodate a child like that? How do I begin to look for schools? Denver might be a possibility but not U of A. Will we have to pay extra at all colleges for special services?</p>
<p>For information on the program at the University of Denver, try PM’ing the poster CardinalFang…she has a student in that program. I think it has been working well for her son.</p>
<p>Do all these programs require documentation? The ones I’ve looked at do. I can see why they might if they are state schools and largely tax-payer funded. I also can see why it would be required for certain accomodations like extra time on tests. However, if a child needs additional assistance such as mentoring to make it through college and a parent is willing to pay extra for it, I wonder if they’d accept the student. </p>
<p>My D has years of special ed. documentation, but was de-classified last year. That doesn’t mean she is cured, or no longer has any disabilities. Her eval. still shows some significant issues. It simply means she’s compensating extremely well for NOW and getting A’s, but only because so much revolves around memorization and because doing your homework gets you a bunch of 100’s. Once more critical thinking and analysis is required, I expect her to struggle more. Thoughts? We could have her re-tested in a few years, but the fact that she did fine in school without an IEP will work against her.</p>
<p>My daughter has LDs and we have dealt with them since she was in first grade. We had her tested but only to figure out more specifically what she needed. From the school point of view she was never officially classified; we live in a small school district and all her elementary school teachers, the principal, and even the superintendent knew her situation and we all worked together to provide her with the best possibilities within the school district, including extra time for tests when she needed, spelling not counting, etc. (She even met with her French teachers to discuss how they would know if it was a “disability spelling error” vs her not knowing the word spelling error.) She was “unofficial” until high school when we knew she would have to take the more formal standardized tests - NYS Regents, SATs, APs, etc. We had her retested and officially given a 504.</p>
<p>We were very uncertain as to whether she would survive in college. All the schools we looked at for her had to be small LAC with idiosyncratic students and lots of nurturing and support for their students and with a loosely defined set of requirements. There are a lot out there. For our daughter a large university where she could easily get lost would have been a disaster, she is too shy and insecure. She needed a school where it would be noticeable if you were absent from class or obvious to a teacher that you were struggling and that a teacher would also notice if you shined in an area. Plus they needed some sort of formalized office/program for LD kids who needed specific help.</p>
<p>We narrowed it down to about 6 schools all over the country with one rolling admissions safety to start her feeling good about the process. She was admitted to all the schools she applied to (much to our surprise as there were some reaches on the list) and each one worked hard for her acceptance and we felt they already knew her strengths and weaknesses. Since she doesn’t like to admit her LDs we never presented her needs until we narrowed the schools down to the final two. </p>
<p>In the end we spoke extensively with the final two trying to see which program would be best for her. Since she is acutely sensitive to admitting she has any LDs it would all have to be handled like it was throughout her school life and not with any large group program or special class. The school she chose actually asked for us to fax over her testing report (it was 3 years old at the time and I believe it’s needed every 4 years) and he would unofficially tell us what was and wasn’t possible - all this before she even said “yes” to the school! We were very happy with his response; one of her biggest concerns was the language requirement and he believed that given her test results that requirement could be eliminated. He also suggested that she would not need the first of two math requirements.</p>
<p>This is a very longwinded way of me saying that many, many schools have programs that cater to different learning styles and needs. Choose some schools that would have many of the “wants” of your son (sports, majors, performance, city/rural, whatever) and then work backwards to see if they are able to accommodate his LDs. You might be surprised at how many can.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>TheGFG - Our experience has been that colleges don’t care what happened in high school from a classification point of view. They do want her testing results but will establish their program for the student based on those tests not anything that has happened in high school. One of the conversations I had with the Learning Center head was that my daughter got good grades in her foreign language and math classes in high school but at a price and I don’t think she would survive that stress and frustration in college without a very strong support team. She still may take a foreign language (against her parents thoughts) but we’re hoping that the Center and profs will help the hateful process along.</p>
<p>amtc,</p>
<p>Congratulations to your daughter and to you for your diligence! Is she finding the workload to be intense or are the accommodations she’s receiving helping to alleviate that intensity?</p>
<p>Identifying schools that might fit my son is the challenge. He’s a pretty staunchly conservative young man and quirky, liberal schools would not work for him. But I agree that a smaller school would be much better for him. Also, given his diabetes and the lack of consistent self-management (at this age; I can hope he’ll be much better in three years), we’re not sure how far he should be away from home, if at all. The good news is that we’re seriously considering moving after my dh is eligible to retire, and we’re pretty flexible.</p>
<p>The other challenge is paying. Our oldest will likely graduate debt free, both because of heavy need-based aid and outside scholarship.</p>
<p>This son is so different in achievement, I expect there will be no outside scholarships, so cost is a major concern, as well.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your responses. I know my son would be better off at a small school but he really wants the experience his sister had. Of course they are opposite ends of the academic spectrum.</p>
<p>Glad to hear some first hand info on U of A and Denver. East Carolina, (probably my son’s first choice), also has a program called STEP, but they only take 10 students a year. Probably because they do not charge extra, yet it is a comprehensive program. </p>
<p>For those who asked, all schools offer some accommodations for LD students but if you want to be accepted into a program you have to have current evaluations. </p>
<p>I will check out Denver and Oregon also but living in the northeast, they are so far away 
I got used to South Carolina for my daughter guess I will do the same for my son.</p>
<p>Good luck to all.</p>
<p>NewGamecockMom–Denver is an easy, direct flight from anywhere in the northeast, so in a lot of ways it’s easier to get to than schools without easy airport access.</p>
<p>GFG–Univ. of Denver is a private school, not a state school, so I don’t know how that plays out as far as access to the special LD programs.</p>
<p>Look into Marshall (“We are Marshall”) in Huntington, WV and their Higher Education for Learning Problems (H.E.L.P.) Center. My LD nephew has done very well there. It might strike a good balance between between LD supports and big spirited football.</p>
<p>3 sons we actually went to Marshall this past August. My son wasn’t thrilled with it. </p>
<p>Unfortunately my son doesn’t really hmm accept?/ believe?, he has a learning disorder despite being classified since the third grade. Actually he doesn’t get the fact that he doesn’t get things. Although his guidance counselor and case manager recommended either a small school or a large one with a comprehensive program he thinks he will be able to do college on his own. So this is going to be a long and challenging process.</p>
<p>Op- what is within commuting range for you? Based on my highly unscientific survey of kids and parents with various learning issues, it seems that the living autonomously is more often what creates failure or sub-optimal college experiences, and NOT the academics. Perhaps a year living at home and commuting to successfully manage the shift to college level academics and THEN a transfer once he has he sea legs?</p>
<p>I think the most supportive academics and kind professors in the world won’t change the fact that your S will need to do his laundry, get money out of the ATM when he’s broke (and manage those funds); buy laundry detergent and shampoo, navigate the registrar’s office if he’s assigned to the wrong section of a class, make sure he doesn’t schedule himself for two classes with a ten minute interval between them but that take place a mile from each other.</p>
<p>Getting him launched academically when he doesn’t have to worry about dorm and food might be an approach?</p>
<p>My D2 is at a small high school with a strong LD program, so the counseling staff is pretty knowledgeable about finding colleges for this type of student. Most of the kids do end up starting at community college, even the ones who are academically ready for four year schools. It’s because they don’t feel ready to go off on their own. They then transfer to well-regarded schools while staying somewhat close to home (e.g. UCLA, USC). Frankly, they’re often better schools than the students would’ve gotten into straight out of high school. </p>
<p>D2 wants four-year from the start, and wants to stay near home in the SoCal area. I started looking for possibilities for her long before location became a priority, so I’ve got some notes gleaned from the LD forum here on CC and elsewhere. Some possibilities in the east: UConn, Farleigh Dickenson (regional center for LDs, search for posts by taxguy about this on the LD forum), Marist. I’ve also been searching for schools that classify their curriculum as “experiential”, because that tells me there’s going to be options other than straight lectures.</p>
<p>TheGFG, Most schools (public or private, doesn’t matter) want ‘current’ testing so that’s what matters. Talk to each school before you have your daughter retested, though, because their definition of ‘current’ varies. </p>
<p>Some colleges have additional support that does not require documentation. Lots of universities have writing centers and tutoring/ math centers. I mention RIT often in connection with lds because they have mentoring/ organizational support that does not require documentation.</p>
<p>For kids who need even more support, there is this. It’s expensive but I know of one student who got through college with it:<br>
[Autism</a>, Asperger’s & ADHD Support for College Students | AHEADD](<a href=“aheadd.org”>aheadd.org - This website is for sale! - aheadd Resources and Information.)</p>
<p>Newgamecockmom, as a fellow gamecock I almost hate to say this 
but seems there was another thread similar to this where the poster really liked program at Clemson but don’t remember specifics.</p>
<p>To all who suggested community college first, I absolutely agree that is the way to go. Unfortunately neither my husband or daughter agree with me, so I don’t have any support. They feel if he is forced to go that route he won’t put in the effort and will certainly fail. But if he gets to go to a school he wants he will work hard to stay there. As I said this is going to be a long road. </p>
<p>scmom12? does that mean your child graduated this year, because so did my daughter. clearly I should change my screen name lol. Clemson huh, well maybe I will check that out. I actually know of a family who had a child graduate from each school.</p>