If your student has severe anxiety...

[Anonymous]

My anxious child (with other disorders) ended up at GW. He applied to a variety of small, large, urban and rural schools, and visited them all. We realized that what he really needed was lifestyle comfort (nice dorms, good food, handholding, for lack of a better word) and a strong Disability Office. UMD Honors offered him a renovated dorm building in the center of campus, but being a large state U, we had doubts about the Disability office and its support for individual students. W&M's food, despite the recent overhaul, is still terrible, and the dorms we saw weren't great. Disability office meh. GW was immediately welcoming, the dorms looked great, the dining halls were much better, and the Disability office was recommended to us. When he enrolled, it all turned out to be true.

So there's more to it than numbers of students.

[Anonymous]

^ I think there might be a private vs. public divide there, but can't say for sure. GW was supposed to be significantly more expensive, but he received merit aid.

[Anonymous]

DC with anxiety, depression, and executive functioning deficits plans to apply to colleges in our state so they can keep seeing their therapist through telehealth visits. Does not want too small of a school because doesn't want to feel like everyone's in eveyone else's business.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you all so much for your kind, helpful responses. This gives me a lot to think about, particularly around disability services at larger campuses. (and the ability to also blend in a bit)

[Anonymous]

My daughter with GAD did not want a small school because she didn't want discussion type classes. She prefers the larger classes where you can stay relatively anonymous. It's worked for her so far.

[Anonymous]

My niece with anxiety didn't want to leave away from home so she enrolled at the community college with the hope to transfer to an University in two years.

[Anonymous]

I'm one of the pps whose DC is mostly looking at Medium to Large schools. I wanted to add, they do have 1 smaller school on the list that has about 2500 students. It is a little over an hour from home. We are trying to include a variety of sizes and distances just in case DC makes a last minute change in April as to what feels comfortable. At this point, I think the list has 2 large publics, 4 medium publics, 4 medium privates, and 1 small private. All are within a short drive or an easy, frequent, non-stop flight.

To help with application anxiety - only two of those are reaches. The rest are pretty likely. DC already has an admission in hand (a rolling admission at a school where they met the automatic standards. Not a top choice, but they could be happy there and they wanted the reassurance of knowing they had a place). We plan for them to do multiple overnight visits in the spring so they can find a place where they are comfortable. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

My kid didn't have anxiety in HS so we didn't consider any of this, but has a severe case right now for various reasons. Kid is in school in Boston, and we've found Boston to be very easy for flying home on short notice. We have a ton of frequent flier miles (from a credit card and no travel during covid) and it's been really easy to make/cancel/remake flights for kid to come home or a parent to get there.

[Anonymous]

Could your child visit different size schools, and see which one feels least daunting. An overnight visit might be ideal.

I also stress the need for him to be a drive away. So if you are worried or he is struggling, you could be there by lunch.

We know someone whose child was across the country, and it was an expensive disaster.

[Anonymous]

Friend whose daughter has very severe anxiety had to drive there pretty much weekly. It was 8 hours, one way.

Keep the kid close.

Make sure he is high stats for the college. No reach schools.

[Anonymous]

Please do your due diligence about the supports available at the school. Obviously, some are better than others. Most schools have a disabilities coordinating office that can give you more info about how students are supported.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is interesting. My DS with anxiety has said he wants a small liberal arts school. These posts make me wonder if that's not the right path.

It was the right path for my DS with anxiety.

[Anonymous]

During the search/selection process, we decided it was best to stay within a reasonable drive (four hours) with pretty good therapeutic support.
The closer the move-in date came, the higher our kid's anxiety level got. Drop off was fine but misery set in fast. I don't think it was just the anxiety. Not a great fit (remote school), immaturity, etc.
Transferred to a smaller school and less remote school and navigating it better. Two and half hours away.

[Anonymous]

from the 10:06 poster: Don't rely too heavily on the school's disability services. I know this varies by school but they are typically stretched pretty thin. If your child has a Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Depression or other mental illness diagnosis, try to have an existing therapy support in place. Virtual has been amazing. I think our kid wouldn't have lasted in school a week without it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:from the 10:06 poster: Don't rely too heavily on the school's disability services. I know this varies by school but they are typically stretched pretty thin. If your child has a Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Depression or other mental illness diagnosis, try to have an existing therapy support in place. Virtual has been amazing. I think our kid wouldn't have lasted in school a week without it.

+1 A kid with GAD may find navigating the new institution systems an added burden right at the start of school--better to continue virtual therapy. But one of their actions should be to work with the disability services to get their accommodations on file. That way they have recourse, for instance if they have a panic attack and miss something important--there is established grounds to reschedule the test or have their absence considered excused.