<p>Wedgedrive, </p>
<p>I suspect-- and I’m just working on hunch here-- that your daughter has an expressive language disability, the sort that benefits from work with a speech pathologist. One of my children has this sort of disability and people-- even teachers-- are not as familiar with it as they are with dysgraphia or dyslexia. But it’s hard (at least here) to qualify for speech therapy through the school system especially when one is older. (And, not coincidentally, he loves music, math and science.) Anyway… from what I’ve seen with my son, the weakness is sort of always there. You have to learn to work with it. If she can organize her thoughts well verbally, then I think that Curmudgeon’s ideas are very good. If she struggles orally also, she needs to find a formalaic way to answer essay questions. </p>
<p>Those are not schools I think I would have chosen for my son-- who fits your daughter’s profile. My daughter, however, applied to about half of those schools (so our girls may well be in school together next year)-- but her strength is her writing (she earned an 11/12 on her SAT writing). I think your daughter will get into some of those schools but I think the writing will be a challenge. That doesn’t mean she can’t do it. Her SATs are strong for Skidmore, for example, so I suspect she will get through with higher math/ science grades than English grades. But they are not, perhaps, the best fit. </p>
<p>There are schools that have an ‘open curriculum’ and those may have fit her better but I don’t know if any still have dates open. There are smaller tech schools that may fit her. But, again, I do think she’ll get into some schools on her list. </p>
<p>When she gets her acceptances, I would look at the general school requirements. She may want to downplay schools that have a large writing requirement or that require many English and Social Studies classes. Bates does have a required thesis. Students in <em>some</em> majors can opt to take a massive exam and I understand that option is there primarily for math majors-- so there is a way around the requirement for her but it will only hold if she doesn’t change her major over the next 4 years. </p>
<p>I do think that I would work to prepare my daughter for her writing requirements this summer. Have her take a summer writing class-- even if it’s at the community college-- just to get her ready. I would have her audit. She doesn’t want the credit; she needs the knowledge. Either that or see if one of the English teachers will tutor her privately this summer.</p>