Hi,
My son, a senior, is finally hearing back from colleges. He is on the spectrum and applied to schools nearby, some with structured LD/academic success programs and some without. I am worried that he may not be an effective self-advocate in college, but he is maturing a bit so I could be wrong. He has difficulties with organization and time management as well as writing.
Here are the colleges he has gotten into:
Mitchell College
Mount Ida
Western New England
Endicott
University of Hartford
Roger Williams University
University of Rhode Island
He hasn’t yet heard from Clark, Wheaton, Curry College, and Stonehill.
Does anyone have experience sending a son/daughter with learning disabilities to any of these schools? Or any interactions with disability offices at the above schools?
Thanks!
I do not have a child on the spectrum but have a friend who does…My friend’s son didn’t even make it through the first semester as he was not attending classes.
Although your son may be maturing, keep in mind that at home you make them their food, make sure they wash their clothes, take showers, make sure they are up for school, make sure they have done their homework. At college they have a new room, new food, new friends, new teachers, new classrooms that are farther apart. So you may not be aware how much support you are giving him when he is on his own and EVERYTHING is new.
So my advice is to look strongly at the ones with structured support esp. when they have Executive Function issues. Neurotypical kids also have trouble asking for help (tutors, office hours), so having extra help up front is only beneficial. If he keeps maturing and can handle things on his own, then he can transition out of any structured program.
I agree with bopper. Also look and see if they offer tutors for all classes or just some. Is it group tutoring or individual? If you don’t find the answers on their website, email their disabilities person for the answers.
I am familiar with Mitchell College, and know a couple of grads. Mitchell has an excellent disabilities office and good supports. Your son will need to access those…but they are there for him.
We know one grad of Curry, and she also did well…and sought out their supports.
Both Curry and Mitchell have a good reputation for helping students with disabilities get through college. It’s kind of what they are known for.
Some of the other schools on your list are really more “regular” colleges…and while they might have good disabilities offices, it’s not what they are known for.
Are any of his acceptances at places with good disability programs…and within commuting distance from home?
We are from Rhode Island, so everything on the list is relatively close. But certainly Mitchell and Curry have well-known LD programs, although Curry’s program has a disclaimer that it is not specifically designed for kids on the spectrum. I am in favor of Mitchell but my son is concerned it is too small. Some of the other colleges have lesser-known academic support services or disability offices that are often cited as being good in guidebooks (Endicott, Mount Ida, Western New England, Clark).
None of the colleges are realistically within commuting distance, except Roger Williams. My concern is that if my son commutes and stays at home he will stay too dependent and never be forced to do things on his own. Plus he wants to go away.
My friend’s AS child also did not do well during her first year. She’s very bright, graduated second in her high school camp, had gone away to summer camp every year, but having to do it all her first year proved to be too much. Managing food, sleep, medications, social life, and academics was just too much all at the same time.
She’s back home and doing very well in a local university.
Since he’s not good at self-advocating, I would think a more structured LD program would be better. Being a self-advocate would take a lot of organization and self-awareness that he may not have. My son is a Junior in high school with a LD, but he’s learned through the years with a learning support teacher’s help how to be more organized and ask for help when he needs it. It has made all the difference in the world. If your son has not learned those skills, however, then I would suggest choosing some place that can keep a better eye on him. Do you have a support person at school that knows him well that you can discuss this with?
I know he thinks some school is too small…but maybe he would do better at a small college…where there is more likelihood that the professors will get to know him.
Remember…there isn’t going to be a special education case manager chasing him down for homework assistance, or project completion, or anything else…like there is in high school.
It would be VERY easy to get lost at a large school.
>> He has difficulties with organization and time management…
This sounds like my D. She was classified as “profoundly gifted” but her organization and time management was a big 0. She ended up at a flagship university about 1 hr from home. Recognizing her short comings, she requested an apartment (we were fortunately able to afford one just across the street from campus), and asked Mom (and Dad) to come once or twice a week to help her with scheduling and house-keeping chores. She came home almost every weekend.
She is now 22 yrs. old, 3rd year of a PhD program, and can more or less manage life all by herself. But it took a lot of patience, respect, and love from everyone to get there.
Looking back, I don’t think she would have done as well if she, say, had gone to a school 3000 miles from home.
@Pentaprism correct me if I’m wrong…but if your DD is 22 and in the third year of a PhD program…she was very young when she started college…right? Lots of 16 year olds have organization issues!
I would hope this family…and student…choose a college with the right supports at the college…so that the student can succeed without having parents come on a frequent basis.
>> but if your DD is 22 and in the third year of a PhD program…she was very young when she started college…
That’s correct, @thumper1
>> Lots of 16 year olds have organization issues!
That’s too correct. But my 16-year-old’s issues were much more pronounced than those of most other 16-year olds.
>> hope this family…and student…choose a college with the right supports at the college…so that the student can succeed without having parents come on a frequent basis.
I do hope so, and did want to. But unfortunately - or fortunately depending on how you look at it - there are many levels of success, and, at least in my D’s case, they were closely related to the level of parent’s involvement.
But that’s just it, thumper1. My friend’s daughter did go to a school with a lot of support, with daily calls from her mother, with other relatives nearby. It wasn’t enough. She really needed someone to talk to, to be there, to ask if she should take another pill or just go to bed. The school can help with schedules and organization, but cannot help with medications, when to pay bills, with whether to go to an event or stay home.
It just works better for her to be closer to home. For her Phd program, she’s planning something similar to Pentaprism’s child at a school about an hour away where she’ll probably stay on/near campus M-F and then come home most weekends. It just makes her more comfortable to have the personal support.
I can only speak to one school on your list, the University of Hartford. I am well acquainted with the “support” they provide (I used to be on staff there) and, unfortunately, I can not write in favor of that option. Hartford staff are well meaning and the office will promise to provide whatever support is needed, but they truly lack the resources to do this well. Best of luck choosing a college for you son.
Thank you so much for your insight, WhileRomeBurned. That kind of first hand experience with a particular school is the sort of thing I am really looking for. I guess I don’t necessarily trust glossy college brochures.
Speaking of which, wondering if anyone has had a son/daughter on the spectrum who attended Curry College, and what their experience was like. I think Dean and Mitchell are a little better known for being spectrum-friendly, but just wonder if anyone else has input. One would think Curry, with its PAL program, would be good for students on the spectrum.
No experience with the above colleges but I have experience with the Disabled Student Program at my school (both trained to support kids dealing with accommodation issues and as a disabled student myself). Something to look at is how your kid gets services. My friend is attending the same school as me with a spectrum disorder and his parents set up his accommodations during senior year before he arrived on campus. I had housing accommodations setup before arriving, but had to self-advocate for my classroom accommodations including an accommodation I discovered I needed partway through the semester. Find out what the process is if your kid needs an adjustment to their accomodations as it was a tedious process at my school that would be hard for many students to handle. Additionally, will the schools program reach out to professors for him or will he be responsible for those conversations? At my school, we receive a letter to give our professors, but we are the ones responsible for giving it to professors and most professors have policies that require DSP students to talk to them within the first two weeks of class about accommodations. Might also be worth talking to RAs at your kids preferred school to see how often they checkin with residents.
My oldest son is 2-E, Asperger’s. He didn’t make it through one semester at the local CC even though he was signed up with an all encompassing disabilities program geared to kids on the spectrum. He never set foot in the classroom. After a year at a different CC, where he accumulated 14 credits, I pulled the plug and sent him to work. He is now a mailman, doing well and talking about possibly going back to school. He is in his late 20’s and I have seen his brain maturing in many ways in the years since his abortive college experience.
I wish that I had not pushed my son to college immediately. Even though he is intelligent enough (his HS psychologist said she had never seen anyone with as wide a fund of general knowledge as my son), he wasn’t motivated. I wish I had had him join USPS then. He actually came upon it himself when I told him he was just a year away from aging out of my health insurance.
Good luck with college but if it isn’t a success, there are many other paths for our children.
I posted this a while back; thought it might be interesting for the OP.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1858407-the-brighter-side-of-autism.html
To OP:
Background: we have a HS junior with ASD and possible ADHD (inattentive type). He’s “highly gifted”. We homeschool, so he’s had lots of structured support. We are considering a gap year deferral after letting him apply and gain admission next year. We’d use that year either to help him ourselves, go to an ASD residential “camp”, or set him up in town in his own apartment.
Here are my experiences and thoughts:
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Contact the student services/disability office at every college on your “final cut” list. Every single one I’ve emailed has replied within 2 days, most within hours. They will meet you during a visit, or talk to you by phone, and it is confidential; admissions office won’t know unless you tell them. I’ve visited with several, and will meet face-to-face with 2 more later this month. Ask lots of questions and have your son be in on it if possible: how many students do you serve? What range of accommodations are you used to making (dorm life, class room, etc.)? How much family support and visitation is typically needed? You will learn quickly what kind of ASD students they are used to helping and what they offer.
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If your son is academically motivated but struggles with executive functions (like ours), that is very different from the spectrum folks who lack direction. Oversleeping an 8 AM class and not organizing for a long-term project are concerns for our son; showing up to classes and taking tests are probably not going to be a problem. Take-home tests or extended test times are accommodations colleges are quite used to making.
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Colleges are required by ADA to make “reasonable accommodations” that don’t sacrifice the college experience for others or the individual, but that definition is loosy-goosy. You will quickly learn to discern which colleges do the bare minimum and which do more. Weekly meetings with a counselor to “check in”, ask about hygiene, social life, and academic focus are routine. Anything more structured, then you need to look at colleges with a more specific program. See this link, and even if you are not Catholic, don’t shy away from the Catholic schools: http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/10-impressive-special-college-programs-for-students-with-autism/
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Every spectrum kid is different, so don’t back away from maternal intuition about what your son is ready for. And don’t feel guilty about “helicoptering”, even as well-intended friends subtly or not-so-subtly suggest you are obsessing or overprotecting. Junior college should not be ignored as an option; I went to juco for a while, and ended up in professional school/ great career.
Some of that ay be road you’ve already traveled, so apologies if that’s redundant.
I would beware of relying too much on disabilities offices while evaluating schools. Some disabilities offices function almost like “guard dogs of the curriculum”, as one article put it. The standard for accommodation at the college level is lower than for high school: accommodations cannot pose undue administrative or financial burden on the school and cannot substantially change the academic program. As another poster said, this is a bit “loosey goosey” in interpretation and is being clarified, basically, in the courts case by case.
One of the best experiences we has was with a small school that did not even have a disabilties office, but the school provided a weekly meeting with someone who helped with communication to secure proper implementation of accommodations, and who helped with time management and so on.
At a school with a fully functioning disabilities office, we found their main function was to provide letters for professors which the student then took to professors, where the student was then supposed to negotiate accommodations. Some were clearly allowed, but some were murky and varied with professor (like excused absences.) In that school the real help came from deans, MD’s and other professionals or staff. When a problem arose, the dean would communicate directly with the professor and make things work (sometimes backed up with documentation from an MD, therapist, whatever applies).
Some parents use coaches, paid privately, most of whom will work online or by phone. We could not afford that.
I agree completely with the idea that it is best to start transferring connections to others beyond parents, for future life. But I see undergrad years as sort of training wheels, so being close may be helpful. I would leave it up to the kid to choose because there ARE ways to make schools work that may not be apparent on the surface.
It really is hard to ascertain the reality and depth/breadth of supports before attending unless the program is well-known or specifically geared to the disability.
I would put a word in for Endicott, which is small and personalized and not too far away (90 minutes?). Curry does have a good reputation.
I strongly believe that kids with disabilities should make their choices like anyone else: based on size, location, academics, and “vibe”. But that’s me. Your son may have a preference that has nothing to do with services.
He has been very successful with admissions- congratulations! Something is working!! The transition can be more like a gentle slope than a cliff, and with a concerned and supportive parent, that is all the more likely, regardless of distance or disabilities program.
One other thing: one of mine did fine the first year but chose to leave, lives with friends, works and does school part-time in an extension program. Work helps her structure her life. We have had to learn to be open to whatever path she chooses and she has done an admirable job as she grows into independence.
ps write any letters regarding accommodations yourself after researching ,and then have the professional sign it (and amend if needed); we have found surprisingly that professionals appreciate rather than resent this and we know what our kids need better than anyone