RIT and the Autism program ...

<p>DS has Aspergers. RIT is known to have one of the best college programs for kids on the spectrum.</p>

<p>DS is a high functioning aspie that gets along fine, though a bit quirky, he developed friends in hs etc. He is disorganized and has handwriting issues.</p>

<p>He wants to major in game design.</p>

<p>We are weighing instate and local UCSC, full tuition scholarship at Miami of Ohio, Presidential scholarship at RIT, Rensselaer and waiting to hear from USC and Worcester. USC is also knwn to be ASD friendly and WPI is supposedly good as well. Though RIT is tops.</p>

<p>Any thoughts?</p>

<p>RIT has the nation’s largest ASD student population, which may make it easier for your son to fit in. Its game program is highly ranked, although personally I’d suggest CS major with a game option/minor (do not believe RIT offers the game minor for computing majors). </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>My S has Tourette’s - although you wouldn’t know it since the tics are mostly gone now. But he has some OCD and executive dysfunction that goes along with it - also dysgraphia (horrible handwriting). We looked at WPI for the same reasons. The students all seemed really close-knit. It looked like a very supportive environment. But it felt MUCH smaller and my somewhat asocial son said he’d feel a bit smothered there. RIT, OTOH, was his exact brand of geek.</p>

<p>I think even among those kids with neurodevelopmental challenges, there will be some tech schools that fit better than others.</p>

<p>Hey… middle daughter has ASD too, but won’t go ‘away’ to school. Maybe she’ll be more inclined if my RIT-accepted youngest (Manga girl) is there. My ASD daughter started at local community college this past Fall but we withdrew her when she developed some other serious health issues. Right now she is kind of in a ‘holding’ pattern while we wait six months to see what the tumor will do. The stress with the medical stuff was too much for her to handle with school on top of it. She’s chilling with horses these days (that’s her ‘thing’). We have to consider all the additional medical expenses we’re facing so that is going to impact if we can manage Manga girl’s RIT expenses.</p>

<p>Anyhow, it’s good to know that RIT has a good ASD program. We hadn’t really considered it because the ASD daughter was so adamant about not going away to school. Pace University also has a very nice program for autistic kids - but not the gaming design like your son is interested in.</p>