<p>My son is a very bright kid with severe ADHD and has just been accepted to Loyola Marymount University, Fordham, Eugene Lang at the New School and Bard. We are going to visit all of them and wanted to know how to best ask for ADHD support.</p>
<p>In addition, does anyone have any experience at any of these schools who can offer an opinion on how they support ADHD students?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Don’t know how it’s done at these schools, but son’s friend, a very bright engineering major, is able to get extra time for tests because of his ADHD. He had to go to the school’s office of disabilities first. You might want to call your schools and see if they have such an office and what they can offer your son.</p>
<p>We have many friends at Fordham and they absolutely love it.</p>
<p>No experience here either - but ADHD is now so well documented that all the schools I have had contact with offer support. I think you do need a solid diagnosis which it sounds like he has and then he just has to ask for the support he needs. He’ll be fine. There are so many gifted kids with ADHD and other learning disabilities and they all do very well in college once they get what they need from the administration. He would probably start with asking his advisor. But at the schools you visit you can ask at the parent orientation question and answer sessions - or just ask someone in admissions to refer you to the disabilities office/person and ask them privately.</p>
<p>Our kids have had chronic health issues for many years pre-college. What I did was call the disabilities office at each school to see how they would work with students who had our kids’ diagnoses and what would happen if they had frequent and/or extended a been S’s due to their health. Got a variety of responses and crossed a few schools off the list at that point. One told us candidly that if a student missed a total of 2 weeks in any quarter, they’d ask the student to withdraw and lose all merit funding and leave student housing. I double-checked that response with elsewhere at that school and we decided that was unacceptable, especially since S had missed at LEAST two weeks/quarter for the past many years due to documented chronic health issues. </p>
<p>Ultimately the school S chose indicated they had successfully worked with many students like S and were looking forward to working with him to make him successful at their U. D ended up at same U that was supportive of S. we met with the head of the disabilities office. They suggested we come a week before school began and have our S have appts with several of their med school docs, so he’d have docs to see if his needs were beyond the simple first aid the student health center offered. </p>
<p>You may want to call the disabilities offices at these schools to get a feel for what they are like. It may shorten your list considerably. It is exhausting for us to have too many Us to compare and consider. You can ask what accommodations they offer ADD/ADHD students and what documentation is needed. </p>
<p>It surprised me that one of the smaller Us was the most inflexible and least willing to work with S. It was secretly my favorite but rapidly fell and S had no problem crossing them off his list.</p>
<p>Something to consider: Is your kid able to manage his school work (due dates, getting things finished, getting things turned in on time, planning work) by himself, or are you or someone at school helping him with this? </p>
<p>If the former, not so much of an issue. If the latter – some big caution lights. Big ones. Most colleges don’t have anyone who fills the “mom” function. Professors aren’t likely to remind him personally that he has an assignment due, remind him to submit it or bring it to class, … Hoping that it is the former.</p>
<p>Most of the schools should have a disabilities office. DD was at Rice and theirs was wonderful for her. The professors were great with the accomodations, too. Just check with the web site or admissiions folks to make contact with them. They can let you know what is required for accomodations at that school. DD had to have more recent testing results.</p>
<p>I think it would be best to contact the disabilities office at each school before you visit and make an appointment with your son to meet with the office at each school. Every school does things a little differently, and you need to get the info from the disabilities offices themselves rather than through a general accepted students forum or admissions officer.</p>
<p>The disabilities office should be able to tell you what their requirements are for documenting the disability (which will probably be more specific than may have been required in high school). They should also tell you what support services they offer. In addition to arranging for extra time during tests, this might include note takers, coaching, etc. The larger the school the more likely these services are formalized rather than ad hoc.</p>
<p>Your son will be the one dealing with the disabilities office of the school he attends, so he should feel comfortable with the program and set up. If a university offers great support services but the student doesn’t take advantage of them things may not work out so well.</p>
<p>Typically the disabilities office will certify to instructors that a student is entitled to a specific accomodation, without specifying what that accomodation is appropriate. Try to find out how that actually works at the schools in question. Do professors routinely grant accomodations requested through the disabilities office (as I think they are supposed to), or is the reception of such a request by the professor more difficult?</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Echo the above, but a few other suggestions…
1 - start NOW looking for an ADHD coach to assist as needed. I researched on the Internet, and found one who met once in person with dd, and all future meetings were email or phone. Very important that someone other than you support them as a transition step.<br>
2 - read threads on learning disabilities on this forum. This topic has come up ther many times. Great suggestions.
3 - consider teaching other practical skills if you haven’t already so there are less new things (checkbook, laundry, budget, Heath management)</p>
<p>We were very nervous about the transition, and DD blew us away with her success. I sometimes say that she took all the suggestions the teachers/parents/coaches had given her through the years and decided to actually apply them all at once. It was TERRIFIC!</p>