West Coast Colleges with Learning Centers

<p>Can anyone recommend west coast colleges (California, Oregon, Washington) that are known for having excellent learning centers for disabilities? I realize all schools must provide accommodations, but some are better than others. The best I've run across are at the University of Arizona and the University of Denver, and Wheaton College, but none on the West Coast. Any ideas?</p>

<p>You might not think of them right off the bat, but Berkeley and Stanford both seem to be extremely sensitive to students with physical and learning challenges, including well-staffed centers that offer individualized assistance. The Bay Area has long been a hotbed of advocacy for inclusion with physically challenged populations that are well-organized and vocal. Perhaps it rubbed off. I haven't spoken with anyone at Berkeley, but did have a conversation with a Stanford administrator that was extremely heartening in terms of S's willingness and ability to support high achieving LD and physically challenged students, including flexibility around courseload. I have also heard very good things about the support offered at Occidental, a LAC near Los Angeles.</p>

<p>Also, hasn't emeraldkitty's daughter had a very positive experience at Reed in Portland?</p>

<p>Here is Reed's official position:</p>

<p><a href="http://web.reed.edu/academic_support/disability_services.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://web.reed.edu/academic_support/disability_services.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>emerald can perhaps attest to how it works in practice.</p>

<p>Berkeley and Stanford are a reach for most students with learning disabilities. Reed is interesting.</p>

<p>I just posted this elsewhere on CC but i will copy and paste it-</p>

<p>Having an LD sure helped me get into college. In high school i had a 3.3 unweighted gpa and a 1080 on my SAT's (this was with the old SAT). When i was applying to colleges my mom remembered that one of my LD tutors had suggested that i should apply to berkeley because they have a good LD program. I thought she was nuts but i decided to apply as a joke. And low and behold, i got in. I was really confused because a normal applicant could not have gotten in to berkeley with that SAT score. So i had a meeting with my LD councilor when i got to school and she said that when you apply to a UC and you say you have an LD they send the application to the LD office and they compare how bad your LD is to your grades etc. So some schools are awsome and really look at students with LD's.
Berkeley has an awsome LD program, in addition to extended time you get free note takers, free books on tape (including text books), and they also have a program where they scan your homework and a computer reads it back to you, you also get first choice in classes (students with disabilities and athlets get to choose before everyone else). Also, they hate doing this but they will, if you are really, really, really bad in a subject (like math would be mine) and you cant seem to pass math, they will wave the requirment for you. They also have a lot of programs that are open to all students. Like group tutoring sessions that you get credit for (so awsome). They also video tape alot of classes and put them on the internet so that you can rewind when you need to.</p>

<p>I have talked to alot of other students like me who basically got B's in high school but worked hard who got into Berkeley because of DSP (disabled students program).
i have also heard that the university of oregan (thats what its called right? i think so) has a great program.
Good luck! If you have an questions message me cause i did alot of research on westcoast LD schools</p>

<p>Dear PV -- Stanford and Berkeley are reaches for most students, not just LD students. My take is that LD students have a wide range of abilities, levels of motivation, and achievement. Unless their LD's are recognized and properly accomodated, they will never perform optimally, though, and a full range of college opportunities may be denied them. Clearly, there are some schools at every level that recognize this and allow LD students to achieve to their full potential by offering them the support and accomodation they need. As oprano's post demonstrates, with proper accomodation, a high achieving and highly motivated LD student can fit in at his or her dream school given the student's qualifications and the school's support. </p>

<p>Oprano-- Your info couldn't be more appreciated, and congrats on the intelligence and ingenuity that got you to Berkeley. Would you consider posting a bit more of what you learned in your quest for a college that would work for you? Otherwise, I have the feeling that a whole bunch of us are going to be PMing you.</p>

<p>Yeah sure, uhh if you have any specific questions you can ask. Most schools did not look at me as closely as berkeley did. Berkeley was the only school i applied to (including ucla and uc irvine) that sent me an additional LD application after i mentioned it on the UC app. They asked me more specific questions about my LD and the kind of accomidations that i had recieved in school. So they were great! I asked alot of schools about LD programs and alot of them didnt have anything, USC and LMU come to mind at the moment. I found out that yale has a great LD program (although thats even more of a reach). There is a woman there doing research on LD's who believes that some LD students shouldn't have to take multiple choice tests, woohoo!<br>
PVmember i would definatly suggest doing some research on your LD and write your college essay on it. I thought that alot of people would write about it in their essays and that it would be stupid to write about it but my councilor told me that most students wont even tell teachers that they have LD's let alone write their essays on it. Ask your parents if you can read your documentation as well, it can be really difficult to read because it talks about alot of negative aspects about yourself but it will help you write your essay. So yeah, if anybody has any more specific questions just ask.</p>

<p>I have heard now of several students who have been sent additional questions from Berkeley. Another student who was a transfer from a City College had a phone call asking about her disabilities. I have not heard this about any other UC.</p>