Help with college list

Parents Forum
41

Hi, I have just been through this exercise with one of my sons who has LDs. We originally thought that his scores would be too low for any schools (his GPA is high) so looked at a lot of the test optional schools. I discovered the following:

  1. If your son is entitled to accommodations (which I suspect he is), please register for them with the ACT or College Board and have him do the test. It is a bear for them (my son had 2x time over multiple days) but it did make the test possible. While he scored in the average range, we were thrilled with that.
  1. He applied to a number of schools where his test scores were well below the average and was accepted, with merit scholarship money. He was very upfront about his LDs and I guess between his recommendations and GPA, they gave the test scores less weight.
  2. My son applied to U of A because of the SALT program but he has decided it is too big. However, University of Denver has an excellent program with support for students with LDs and that is still high on his list. His biggest concern there is that they run on a quarter system. Their program costs extra but has case management, mentoring and tutoring.
  3. Many of the Colleges that Change Lives schools have really good reputations for working with students with LDs. My son's favorites thus far are Goucher (he has not heard from them yet), University of Puget Sound, University of Redlands (but these last 2 are west coast so that may be too far for your son). He has already decided that some of the schools he originally thought of applying to are too large and that small class sizes are of utmost importance.
  4. If you have a good college counselor, it makes a huge difference. My oldest son was in public school and his counselor was essentially useless as she had 400 kids to manage. My son who is applying now got great advice about good "fit" schools for him and was encouraged to reach for some despite his test scores, and like I said, he was admitted with merit scholarships. After my oldest son's experience, I really thought only test scores and GPA counted but if your counselor has a relationship with the admissions reps and the schools, it makes a difference.

Best of Luck on your journey.

42

@Twinmom1007 Unfortunately, the ACT people are getting stingy with their accommodations. You have to register for the exam and then wait for them to decide if they’ll give you any accommodations, and from what I’m told, they are turning people down a lot more than before. I think he may do better on the ACT because it’s more straightforward, and if he does get accommodations, he can take it over 2 days. But that’s a big “if” nowadays.

I would totally take an “average” score! Anything more than what he’s got in the practice tests. He did come up about 50 points between 10th and 11th grade on the PSAT, but it’s still really bad and not at all indicative of his abilities.

I’m hoping his college counselor is a good one. She’s fairly new so I don’t know her very well. We will be meeting with her soon to get her suggestions.

Do you think the test optional schools give more of a pass than a typical college for low scores with a LD? Some of them are not really test optional unless your grade point is over 3.5 or some other restriction is met. I don’t know if he’ll have a 3.5, but I find that restriction a lot in the southern schools.

43

" more than a small size…your kiddo needs a GOOD disabilities office." - Agreed. You can still consider class size. Just know that most schools (including small ones) have will have large freshman classes for the common courses.

44

There’s a big difference between a large intro class of 300 and large intro class of 28. At some LACs anything above 18-20 is considered ‘large’…

45

I’ve been looking for options that have smaller than 100 students in most if not all of their classes. DS currently has very few accommodations (really only needs to take exams in a separate room due to anxiety, distractions, and attention issues for extended periods of time) after attending the extra support class for 5 years that taught him how to organize, take notes, and study. He no longer takes that class and is able to advocate for himself, which is very important. He gets extra help when he needs it, which is one of the reasons a small school is a better option for him. I’m hoping he’ll continue to need very few accommodations.

46

Megan- don’t worry about “very few” accommodations. Worry about the RIGHT accommodations.

47

My daughter attends a flagship, but it is small (10,000). She’s had a few classes that are over 100 (120?) but those always have discussion groups at least once a week. Almost all of her ‘regular’ classes have 15-25 students. Language classes are small, theater and dance classes are small, etc. She knows all her professors and TAs. She originally wanted a very small school, she thought about 2500, but is so glad she’s at a school with more choices, more majors, a few online options (she’s taken 1 and will take 1 more).

48

check out RIT. They offer LD support, small classes, and great photography! Business and tech classes seem solid. But sorry not test optional.

49

Our list right now, although it may change, is as follows:

Ithaca
Marist
Dickinson
Susquehana
Juniata
Gettysburg
Christopher Newport
St. Lawrence
Ursinus
Conn College (probably a reach)

Can anyone tell me if these schools are good with accommodations?

50

Run a couple web searches and pull up a few of the many lists of

A Guide for College Students With Psychiatric Disabilities
20 Best Value Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities
20 Incredible Colleges for Students With Special Needs
50 Best Disability Friendly Colleges and Universities
Plus there have been many similar discussions on this site.

You’re not alone in this, so be sure to get in with the others on the same journey. Not everyone needs to learn from their own mistakes, and experience earned can be experience shared.

51

@StPaulDad . Thanks for those suggestions! Marist came out strong, which is great since it may be his top choice. I didn’t see any of the others listed, but now there are many more to look into. Most are not test optional, however. :stuck_out_tongue:

52

Gettysburg, unless something has recently changed, does not have a full-time designated disabilities office. The people in charge of providing services to students with disabilities have other duties not related to a “disabilities office.” This may have just changed, but I would research this carefully and ask lots of questions. Dickinson and Ursinus both have disabilities offices and seem to have different strengths and weaknesses. Again, call and talk with them. Have a list of questions and listen closely to the answers. Best of luck to you!

53

With experience of sending three kids to college all needing accommodations (one for severe medical conditions), I can tell you it is very difficult to tell how a school is going to fare in terms of being understanding, and some things are still at the discretion of the professor after your kid does some negotiating with them. Generally a disabilities office will provide letters for each professor that the student then hands to the prof. and talks with him or her about what is needed. The letter often won’t list accommodations at all, though some do, nor will it say what the disability is, though the prof. at some schools can look it up in a file. Overall it is up to the student to talk to the professor in advance.

The disabilities offices are more “guard dogs of the curriculum” at some schools, meaning they are there to filter out requests and make sure the program is not substantially changed, and that no undue financial or administrative burden is created- criteria for refusing accommodations. They are often nice people and eager to help, and certainly clear cut needs like wheelchair access fall within their job descriptions, but in our experience they are more like triage and the real stuff happens through deans, doctors and professors.

Some schools with apparently wonderful disabilities offices pose struggles for students in reality and some schools with no disabilities offices do a great job, sometimes relying on the personal support of deans and advisors.

It is important for the student to know how the system works at each school but honestly, sometimes it takes some time on campus to figure that out.

The standard for accommodations is lower at colleges than at public schools, but accommodations can be very helpful. They may be granted by the disabilities office or not, but in the end, it is where they are carried out that it matters- and that is in the classroom. To that end communication between student and professor is crucial as is support from a dean or someone else in administration who knows the kid well. If there is a medical problem, then each incident requires a doctor’s visit and then the MD communicates with a dean who then communicates with the professor- in our experience.

By all means visit and get the vibe of schools. That is very important. But know you may not always be able to tell how well accommodations will go and tell your student that it is essential to figure out the system early on to make things go smoothly.

I was going to mention Clark, Goucher, U. of Puget Sound, College of Wooster- and suggest Colleges that Change Lives in general despite a liberal tendency. Curry and College of New England are reputed to be good with learning challenges. Not sure about Endicott or Quinnepeac, but maybe. Conn College is pretty selective.

Good luck!

54

Might not be a political fit, but have you looked at Hampshire College?

Test optional, all about individual attention, part of consortium with UMass and Amherst, and seems to be very sensitive and accommodating to learning disabilities:

https://www.hampshire.edu/oars/office-of-accessibility-resources-and-services

“The office of accessibility resources and services (OARS) strives to support students with disabilities holistically, through relationship building, coaching, appropriate accommodation, and intentional referrals. We provide services to students with documented physical, learning, sensory, psychological, developmental, and other disabilities, and also support students who cannot or do not want formally to disclose.”

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@beenthereanddone No, Gettysburg has not changed, which is one of the factors that concerns me about that school.

@compmom Thanks for all that insight. I’m not sure how you tell from a visit or by speaking to a disability director on the phone how good they really are. Of course, they will promise the world, but you never know the truth until you actually get there, which is a bit too late.

@Postmodern Thanks for the suggestion, but we actually visited Hampshire when my older son was looking at Amherst, and we absolutely hated it. Plus, it’s extremely liberal and totally not what DS is looking for.

We met with the college counselor today. She was somewhat helpful, but thankfully, I’ve done a lot of research on my own because she didn’t seem to grasp the fact that we needed a school with good accommodations and preferred test optional. She did let me know that I was on the right track as far as a list of schools that are a good match for DS, which is what I really needed to hear.

56

Legally, of course, accommodations should not vary from school to school :slight_smile: It is really all about how they are executed.

And just want to repeat that one of the best schools we experienced in this regard did not even have a disabilities office or person.

57

^ can you name it?

58

@compmom How can one of the best schools in this regard not have either an office or person responsible? Who organizes test taking, translating information, ordering electronic versions, disseminating information to residence life, etc.?

59

In our experience a small private school with fewer staff actually was more helpful, though one large university was stellar once my kid figured out the system. Again, the function of a Disabilities Office is complicated and involves protecting the college as well as the student. There are many helpful people on a college campus who also play a large role in these things.

My main point is just that it can be hard to tell from appearances. There are many factors to a decision about where to go, and many of them are easier to ascertain :slight_smile: Once admitted I think a student can get a deeper sense of how things will go.

60

IMHO the function of a Disabilities Office is not that complicated. They need to look at the medical documentation supporting the need for disabilities services and then provide the services needed in order to level the playing field and allow the student with disabilities to be successful. To suggest that a school that doesn’t have a person responsible to do this can provide adequate support is probably a function of an admissions office that doesn’t admit students with disabilities. And we all know they exist.

I would agree that there are many people on college campuses that can play a role in helping students be successful but if we are talking about sending a first year student with a disability into a new environment, who no longer has an IEP, and expecting them to know how to access all of these individuals spread across different offices is asking this student to do way more then we are asking of any other student. A good disabilities officer can help access the appropriate people that can add to the success of the student.