[quote=“MAmomto4, post:1, topic:3630914, full:true”]
We’ve had some thoughts recently that he might have attention/executive function issues. We haven’t had a formal evaluation done (checked and they were $6,000?!) but we did hire an executive function coach to work with him and it has made a huge difference in his time management and focus. I’m not sure what that means about college, except that he won’t qualify for any help from disability services without a diagnosis but those issues could still affect his experience.[/quote]
Despite the fact that your son is home schooled, he is legally entitled to an evaluation by staff from your local school district at no cost to you. I suggest that you contact the Director of Special Services/Special Education and request that s/he convene a PPT to receive a referral from you regarding the impact of his executive function issues on his learning and instruction.
Union has one I’d the best student advising systems you’ll find anywhere. That should be very helpful to him. They also have about 25% of their students involved in fraternities & sororities, which might not be very helpful. Not a particularly political campus.
Conn College is very individualized in planning a program for each student. That could be helpful to him.
Springfield College is one of the friendliest, most accepting campuses I’ve visited and that impression has been reinforced by a friend who has 2 daughters there. Unusual for a small, liberal arts colleges, they have business, education, and health sciences in addition to traditional arts & sciences. They are also one of the cheapest privates I’ve seen with all costs topping out at less than $59,000 including room & board. In the info session they stressed that they meet 100% of need and on the tour we were encouraged to appeal a financial aid award if we felt it was insufficient. I expect that your son would qualify for a merit scholarship of some amount there. They have a variety of dorm options and might be able to accommodate your son’s needs after you discuss them with an admissions advisor. The campus was is very nice with a mix of old and new buildings & it’s in a nice part of town.
U. of New Haven (CT): In the preferred geographic area, has about 5k undergrads, offers ABET-accredited industrial engineering, would probably be likely to choose CS as a major, and also likely to give your son very generous merit aid.
Some other schools that offer ABET-accredited industrial engineering that might be worth checking out are:
Bradley (IL)
Gannon (PA )
Quinnipiac (CT)
Western New England (MA)
Worcester Polytechnic (MA)
Some schools with linguistics programs that you may want to check out include:
Brandeis (MA)
Caldwell (NJ)
Gordon (MA) - I don’t know whether this is an insular environment or a Trumpian school, but I have heard that it’s influenced by religion.
U. of New Hampshire: It’s a flagship, but significantly smaller than U. Mass as NH only has about 11k undergrads.
U. of Southern Maine appears to have a very robust linguistics program
As your son has some potential interest in linguistics, perhaps @dfbdfb might be able to provide some suggestions?
There’s nothing wrong with big schools or LACs. And btw, the majors offered at LACs do generally cover what many people want to study.
Everyone looks for the mid sized unicorn. They are out there, but there aren’t that many of them. And the famous ones are impossible to get into. HYP and similar.
Binghamton is actively courting OOS students and is midsized. He might get offered merit aid. Tulane loves genuine interest. Wake Forest might work. Those two schools are both reaches though. Lehigh is worth looking at. Bucknell too. Santa Clara, U Richmond, Pepperdine.
I’d say of the ones I listed, Binghamton is a solid choice if merit aid is needed.
Oh, I know in state usually gets little or no merit, I’ve just noticed getting into honors at UMASS is a reach for high stat students who are offered honors elsewhere (my kids got into honors everywhere they applied except for UMASS and Rutgers).
Seems that a boy who may have made national merit should have NO problem taking the GED cold, and passing it. I am glad to hear that theyre requiring this, but seems to me that it would be more appropriate to simply require a threshold SAT or ACT. Of course, with test optional, it would be considered discriminatory to require tests only of homeschoolers. Requiring a high school diploma or GED applies to every student.
@MAmomto4 may (or may not) want to clarify her son’s specific situation, but I’ll chime in on these points as someone who once knew very little about homeschooling but currently has a previously homeschooled student who is a sophomore in college. I think our experience is not all that unusual (given what I’ve heard from many other homeschooling families we knew - not only in our state but in many places across the country).
My son who homeschooled for 5th-12th does indeed have a high school diploma. Our state’s policy was that as long as we followed the homeschooling rules of the state, we had the legal authority to grant the diploma. In some states, there is someone coming to look at a portfolio of work every semester or every year (not true in our case). Most colleges accept this diploma as equivalent to any other high school diploma - my son applied to 10 and this sufficed for all of them. We researched many additional colleges while building his list and only rarely ran into a college that required a GED or dual enrollment. The transcript supplied to colleges for a homeschooler is many pages long as it includes, for each course taken, a course description, textbooks used, concepts covered, etc.
In terms of SAT/ACT, pre-Covid, I know there were many colleges that were test-optional in general but not for homeschoolers. (Not the case everywhere - I recall Bates being test optional for homeschoolers, too). But homeschoolers are generally aware that they’re going to need some ways to validate the student’s preparation and experience - SAT, ACT, AP scores, writing prizes, honors and awards, etc. There were also schools on my son’s list that required interviews of homeschoolers though the interviews were optional for others. So colleges do sometimes require things of homeschoolers that they don’t require of others (but generally do accept the homeschool diploma, I think).
I’m sure there are lots of students (homeschooled ones included) who are better matched to staying closer to home than to going far, but it’s also true that “homeschooled” doesn’t necessarily equate to schooled-at-home or to not-ready-to-go-farther-for-college. Due to the flexibility in a homeschool schedule and the variety of curricular priorities families may have, there may be more room made in a homeschooler’s high school experience for travel, for jobs, for having adult mentors and teachers from a variety of places, etc. all of which might prepare a student that much more for going far. My son didn’t look anywhere closer than a 10 hour drive from home and ended up twice as far as that. I think whether a student is ready to go away to college is still student/family dependent and not specific to being homeschooled.
While this is correct, I live in the same area as the OP and it’s almost impossible to get a school to test for, let alone diagnose, executive functioning issues. Fortunately, you can get excellent outside evaluations in the area but they are very expensive and have long waiting lists.
Our situation is similar to what @nichols51 described. I can issue S24 a diploma, but UMass Amherst (and only UMass Amherst!) say they will only recognize it with 27 college credits OR a letter from our local superintendent that says S24’s education was equivalent to what he would have received in the public high school. Our superintendent is a nice guy, and we have had enough (positive) interaction that I am sure he knows S24’s education was sufficient. He signs off on our education plan every year, and sees the documentation I provide of kids’ results. I don’t know whether he would be willing (or even allowed?) to write a letter stating that, though.
Anyway, if UMass Amherst ends up being a possibility and the best choice, we’ll jump through the hoops. I’m not worried about the feasibility, just annoyed with the extra work since it seems like a high enough SAT (and hopefully AP scores) would serve the same purpose. UMass Amherst says they have no flexibility as it is a state regulation, but the other UMass branches don’t require it so I think UMass Amherst is just wrong.
Waiting time seems to be inversely proportional to cost. I realized in January we had to get one for S23 for (only informally identified through the school system 6 years ago) ASD before college. The only place we could get it done in time was $6000. There were places half the cost that would be an 18+ month wait.
I don’t remember all the details (happily, it has been a while) but DC was tested (privately) in 8th grade. Plus this was probably when DC was in grade 10 or 11 (??) and they knew DC/DC wasn’t failing out etc.
I am not saying I agree with it, that is just what I was told (and maybe incorrectly!) I felt like if a kid was doing really poorly, then a kid got attention…because we don’t want those precious county stats looking bad (but I am not bitter or anything ).
This is the way in our district. My S23 was tested in seventh grade because after his little brother was diagnosed with severe autism, we began to suspect he was also on the autism spectrum, and that accounted for a lot of his executive function issues, and anxiety and emotional outbursts. The school did the testing, and said that he “showed signs of being on the autism spectrum“ but that he was too academically advanced to qualify for any help from the school district. They recommended we put him in the school starting in 8th grade where they could “keep an eye on him“ and “help him out when he needed it.” We did, but they didn’t give him any help, his anxiety went through the roof, his executive function issues were causing problems with getting things turned in, and all of that was also increasing his anxiety. When we asked them for help, they said, “He’s getting Bs. He doesn’t need help.” We pulled him out and got him private executive function coaching and a counselor for the anxiety.
OK, I spent the day looking through the schools mentioned in this thread, and another one that was linked. And in that I realized that maybe when my son says he’s interested in linguistics/psychology/computer science that cognitive science would be a good fit. So I did research on schools that have cognitive science programs. Unfortunately, a lot of those are very selective schools.
But, ignoring what I think are the really selective schools, here are the ones that I am thinking suggesting he research more:
Franklin and Marshall
Fordham
Lehigh
Hofstra
University of Southern Maine
Brandeis
Binghamton
U of Rochester
UConn
If he checks those all out, but loves Northeastern more than any of them, maybe he would have a chance if he EDs.
He still has UMass Amherst & Connecticut college on his list to research.
Fairfield University offers a BS in Behavioral Neuroscience. My D20 has a friend pursuing a BS in Psychology there. I think the campus culture might be a good fit.
I realized in January we had to get one for S23 for (only informally identified through the school system 6 years ago) ASD before college. The only place we could get it done in time was $6000. There were places half the cost that would be an 18+ month wait.
).
We pulled him out and got him private executive function coaching and a counselor for the anxiety.