i.e., successful tutoring services for any class, etc.
Tutoring services are available at all schools. Are you talking about needing accommodations and more specific support?
@jym626 yes, that is exactly what I meant
If you feel tutoring is something you will need you will have to dig deep and get specific answers from individual schools. All school will say they offer tutoring, but the reality may not be as great as it sounds, so don’t accept the pat answers. I have 2 college students and here are examples of the tutoring available:
College A: Tutoring is only available for a handful of specific introductory classes such as intro Calc, Chem, Physics, Econ. For those classes there are specific time slots each week with very limited availability. If you have trouble in a course other than the few that are supported, you have classes or ECs that conflict with the tutoring hours, or you don’t pounce quick enough on the limited tutors when the weekly online sign up opens, oh well.
College B: There is a tutoring directory. Students can sign up to be tutors and list their names and phone numbers on the directory. If you can find a student listed to support your course you try to get ahold of them and see if you can work something out. Its not really formal so you don’t know if they are going to answer, whether they have time or availability, not to mention that they have no formal tutoring training. The college compensates them $7.25 an hour if you manage to hook up with one.
Personally I think both systems really inadequate, and bottom line, if you run into trouble you are pretty much on your own. As to your question, College A is top tier and College B is a smaller mid-tier.
I think it really does depend on the college. There are a number of threads here on CC about colleges that provide good support and services for kids with all kinds of disabilities. I suggest using advanced search to find some. I think there are also pinned posts in sub-forums for kids with disabilities. I don’t think top tier universities and colleges are any better than lower ranked colleges for providing good services. You might try posting in the college search and selection forum if you want specific suggestions for colleges that are known for being good in regards to certain types of support.
Reading other posts, you are finishing your jr yr of college, yes? If you have a disability and qualify for accommodations, the disability services office should be of help. But you have to have the documentation in place and submit it to your disabilities office and see if they will approve accommodations.
It looks like you are considering engineering at Temple and UMD so I’m not sure which is the smaller school. Or is there another option on the table?
In any even I think you’d need to research what is available at each school you are considering. I don’t think it would be wise to make a generalization that big or small, mid or upper tier schools would have more tutoring services available. If you have a disability talk to the Office of Disability Services, if you just feel you would need help see what kind of tutoring the different departments offer, see if there are tutoring centers in different areas (ex. math, writing etc) and so forth. Posting this question on CC cannot substitute for doing your own detailed research…
Every school offers disability services, but they aren’t all of equal quality. It is generally the case that students have a letter from the disability office showing needed accommodations, but it is up to the student to negotiate with each professor how those accomodations will be implemented.
Sometimes students are not honest with themselves about what they need. (That was high school, but in college I’m going to be “normal.”) Sometimes they know what they need but are too Intimidated to explain that to a professor. (Some professors make the the process easier; some quite frankly pressure kids so as not to inconvenience themselves. But at some schools, professors know if they give students a hard time the disability services director will be breathing down their neck.)
On a college visit, you can tell a bit about how a college feels about these services by where on campus the office is, how run-down or clean it is, how big is the staff relative to the size of the student body, etc. Ask questions about what sort of paperwork is needed to receive accomodations. Is it straightforward, or do they seem to be making it more bureaucratic compared to other places you’ve visited?
If you decide not to disclose a disability on your application, you can contact the college disability services office directly to arrange a visit without going through the admissions office. If they do not have time to meet with a prospective student because all their time is spent with enrolled students, you should worry about the office being understaffed, especially if you are visiting mid-term as opposed to when they are getting a big influx of new students accommodated in the fall.
Compared to high school special needs services, colleges offer something like a high-school “504 plans” under the Americans with Disabilties Act. They do not offer “IEP Plans” which fall under the IDEA act. If you have an IEP, many of the accomodations you receive may still be available at college, but your rights are to “reasonable accomodations” not to “an appropriate education.” Depending on how your needs have been accommodated earlier in your education this may or may not be a noticeable difference.
@AroundHere - all that is very true and well said, but the OP is a rising college senior. As an aside the department of justice has made some updated recommendations to colleges about accepting accommodations that a student had and used in high school if that accommodation is available at the college level without requiring additional/updated testing.
@jym626 - is there a post with the backstory somewhere?
@AroundHere You can click on that poster’s name/avatar and see their previous posts in their post and thread history.
I do not have disabilities, I was just curious as to where I could get multiple support if necessary (I should have made that clarification earlier, my apologies); I’m the type of person who learned the most by hogging office hours as much as possible, and in a few of the courses I struggled in I found an amazing tutor at UMD to help me out; I just do not want to lose these services if I switch over to Temple’s much smaller College of Engineering.
I plan to visit Temple within a few days to get more information on their resources.
Thanks for clearing that up. If you are at UMD and found the help you need there why would you consider leaving? UMD is a great engineering school.
@happy1 I kinda screwed up one semester: I freaked out and didn’t study (I regret this so much, because if I did not freak out, that would only leave me at only 7 repeat credits)…and that put me at 14 repeat credits at the end of junior year; UMD has a policy where you cannot repeat more than 18 credits, and if you do you have to ask the dean for permission (I spoke to advisors and they said 18-credit repeat exceptions may or may not be accepted).
Temple University does not have this policy where there is a limit to repeating credits; I am definitely reaping what I sowed for that one semester 
And if you will be a senior needing help with senior level classes, you may be limited to your peers as there will be a few who have already taken these classes other than peers or faculty unless there are grad students available
Hmmm… ok you confused us when you said yes to accomodations in post 2. Accomodations is a disability services term.
You have 14 credits to repeat, but you don’t think you can get through your degree at UMD without having to repeat 18 or more credits? Why? Are you in the right major for you? If you’re struggling at one school, why do you think it would be easier somewhere else? Can you avoid having to repeat in the future by taking lighter courseloads or dropping courses before you fail?
Repeating classes is an expensive and time consuming way to finish a degree, not really a recommended strategy.
I’m not sure running to a new school will solve the problem. Engineering is very difficult wherever you are. If you have to repeat that many credits perhaps you are in the wrong major?
Didn’t see the post about needing to repay multiple credits when I posted about being a senior. Will you be considered a junior or a senior? Agree that switching schools may not be the solution. Have you addressed what made you “freak out and not study”?