Our son is a junior at a specialized school for students with ASD. He enjoys math and sees himself as a business or accounting major in college. When he gets down to work, he excels. This is a kid, that when he is in the right environment, he is unstoppable. We all smile at what he is capable of, once he puts his mind to it. So, we need to find that gem.
He will enjoy the social scene at college. I am not concerned about the social part. Although nuances, sarcasm and pragmatics will be a life long struggle we have all come to accept.
His main challenges are some executive functioning issues exists and rigidity. I do not see him wanting special treatment or going out of his way to ask for accommodations. Although, he does benefit from extra time on exams and flexibility in assignments being handed in. I see him doing well in small classes and a school where the professors get Low Processing Speed and appreciate learning differences.
As far as admission worries: The essay will be his biggest bonus, he likes to write. He does not have a ton of EC because he travels 60-90 minutes to and from school and doesn’t get home until 5:00pm. He has managed to balance his workout routine with his school work and boxes 3 times a week. He has been in the last two school plays. His only other activity is D&D which he can do online with his friends in the evenings. He did really well and thrived during covid! I can’t imagine he will score in the higher levels on the SATs, standardized testing has always been his downfall.
Just joined the Facebook group “College Transition and Accommodations Information for Parents”, I own the K&W guide to colleges for Learning Diverse students and I have seen the online Petersons guides and the TCC guides.
What I could use is some feedback and encouragement from this tidy group of parents on which schools worked for your hard working and amazing sons and daughters with low processing LPS.
Hi there,
Another FB page you may want to peruse is: Parents of College Bound Students with Learning Disabilities, ADHD and ASD. The points of view are soup to nuts, but I’ve found some valuable info for my S22 after sifting through the posts. I’d also recommend the Choices Fair - I attended when D22 was either a fr or so, when we were just starting out and it was in person/pre-covid. This year’s is virtual on 10/26.
Do you have an area of the country you are looking at? We’ve visited/researched a ton of schools.
Thank you for the FB leads. I will look into the Choices Fair. We are looking in the North and South East. My son has visited a few that he likes: Richmond University (he visited with a friend, I am not sure it is the best fit) and a much better fit: Champlain College in Vt. We all loved Burlington. I would love for him to experience the South if possible.
Thanks again for all your leads.
If he needs merit aid, he may need scores, but if he doesn’t need merit aid, he could apply test optional and avoid the stress of testing, Here is the best list of test optional schools: FairTest | The National Center for Fair and Open Testing
I assume that he is going to register with the Office of Disabilities wherever he goes. That office gives students a letter for each professor and the student discusses with the prof. At some schools the accommodations will not be listed. The diagnosis is also not included but prof’s can look it up in the student file.
You can write a letter listing desired accommodations for a professional to sign. It is easy to research. Professionals seem to appreciate this, and that way you have all the accommodations that might be helpful, on the letter. Better to do the max on the letter, and then your son has the option not to use.
Landmark programs came to mind, yes, including their program for transition to college. Curry, New England College, Lesley University.
But if your son is bright, maybe he can prioritize fit in other ways and obtain accommodations to deal with the slow processing speed.
I have heard of Lynn, I would like to know more. Do students stay there the full 4-5 years? Landmark seemed like a more temporary place holding college to us.
I don’t have a lot of personal info about Lynn. My friend’s child goes there, not my own. But as far as I know, he plans to continue there through graduation (mid-way through third year now) and my friend never described it as any kind of holding spot.
Colleges and Universities have stepped up to the special needs students. Most have a department dedicated to servicing these students. I have son on spectrum
with SPD and work closely with his team. What’s important is to know what accommodations your son would need and him learning advocacy. I have taught my kids to advocate for themselves, but someone on the spectrum would have had suffered a lot of setbacks that affect confidence so I anticipate some handholding for some time. It is a developmental disorder, so time and effective advocacy are key to their success.
Lynn is not a ‘temporary’ school and students pick it for a number of reasons. It was the host of one of the presidential debates (I think in 2012) and I’m always impressed when small schools are chosen to host as debates are a lot of work.
Lynn is in the Sunshine State conference for sports (division 2) and there are some fun competitions in baseball, tennis, rowing that get all students involved. Lynn’s location gives students good access to cities and professional sports, concerts, city activities. Or the student can just ‘stay home’ and enjoy the things on campus.
We’re not looking at anything farther south than PA since we’re trying to be within an easy drive of family. The one exception is University of Maine, since they offered a really good scholarship, but I think we may have missed the scholarship deadline on that one, so not really on the list anymore. Probably just as well. He’s looking at either Computer Science or Engineering. This is our list right now, I think in order of interest. I had no idea that RIT had any sort of spectrum support until this thread, so I’m really excited to hear that this is a strength of theirs!
Champlain
RIT
Alfred
Clarkson
WPI
Allegheny
Landmark (if eligible)
Did you visit Landmark? Our Vermont family had described it the way you do, but looking at their website it says they added 4-year degrees a few years back. Wondering if they’re still mostly a place students transfer out of, or if they actually have a significant number of people doing their whole degrees there.
Some colleges offer very specific programs which would be valuable to the right students. I think they come at an extra cost. Here are a few I can think of offhand:
Marist College* - learning support program
Hofstra U - PALS
Adelphi - Bridges
*When we looked at Marist years ago with my S the college had lots of tie-ins with IBM so it may be worth looking into particularly for computer science.
I love your list! My husband (ME) and brother (EE) went to RIT. My other brother ( I have five!) went to Clarkson and my BIL went there too! My son’s private high school raves about RIT. I hope you call their student services coordinator and learn all about their accommodations and services. In my heart I know my son has computer engineering in his blood. I am hoping he goes to Champlain this summer and tries out a cyber security course. He absolutely loved his Champlain tour. He HAD to get a t-shirt!
