Colleges for C & D Students
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Anonymous
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I have a kid like this too. He is now a senior. When he hit high school, he got to take some electives. These helped his GPA ... a lot. Throughout high school, I was the bad cop. We argued about schoolwork a lot.
I think of it as a modest win when he studies for a test. It is a huge win when he studies over 3 hours for a test. We don't have huge wins all that often. And sometimes after a huge win, we have a letdown. That is just the way it is. We are on the home stretch, and I have let him have senioritis. Told him that I don't want any F's on tests. I also keep telling him that he will need to read, go to office hours and study 2 or 3 days in advance for a test if he wants to be successful in college. |
Anonymous
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Does your kid have an IEP? If so, it sounds like it needs to be tweaked. If not, I’d push for one.
As a parent of ND kid with learning disorders, intensively work with them now. Or hire an executive function coach if they won’t take direction from you. It’s important skills they’ll need throughout their life. Waiting for maturity & for them to get it means they’ll spend years with lower self-esteem. |
Anonymous
Get back to us after your kid's sophomore year in HS. |
Anonymous
| This kid needs intervention. It's not too late. The LACs listed were all wrong, but there are a lot of schools that could work out. We know one kid who got tutoring thoughout HS and is now at Boulder. |
Anonymous
| Bennington for artsy neurodivergent |
Anonymous
Bennington is struggling financially with declining enrollment and may not be around by the time this middle schooler is actually heading off to college. OP needs to focus on supports and accommodations, not college recommendation. Others should stop throwing around random college recommendations! |
Anonymous
| Get a neuropsych evaluation and accommodations. Don’t just resign yourself to having a C/D student. Build the scaffolding now and accommodations to help with executive function skills. |
Anonymous
| Look at the lower rated state schools and smaller privates that take anyone. |
Anonymous
| Op, look at online tutoring. There are a few different companies who have tutors under $10 an hour to work on reading comp, math, etc. best thing we did. |
Anonymous
It's also crazy expensive (but maybe they now give tons of merit aid) with generally terrible student outcomes. |
Anonymous
| This was my kid, and we worked with him (to no avail!) to help him with his grades. 504 plan. meds, coaching, etc. He worked for a year after HS, then attended CC for a year, after which he had his pick of colleges to transfer to including UVM, CU Boulder, Colorado State, Towson, and others. It's not easy when your kid doesn't take the expected route to college and life! But there are still plenty of options. |
Anonymous
This is exactly what we do - just to keep the kid from failing. We are thrilled when DC gets Bs and Cs. |
Anonymous
OP doesn’t need to be looking at any college now. The child is in middle school. There is plenty of time to turn this around rather than throwing up hands and talking about community college. |
Anonymous
This. Like, a thousand times over. It's not just that the C's and D's might constrain future options: It's miserable and soul-crushing for students to show up every day somewhere and be told they're not good enough. Even if they're learning the material, the task completion hurdles are massive and real, and pretending it's just a matter of working harder is wrongheaded and misaligned with what neuroscience teaches. And definitely don't listen to the ignoramuses here who think ADHD and autism are made up and say dumb shite like "it's called parenting." It's profoundly stupid and it's cruel to boot, and you'll learn nothing from them except stupidity and cruelty. FWIW my MCPS kids had a "reduced workload" accommodation. Had to fight but once they were graded on mastery of subject matter and not their ability to grab the "easy" points, their grades looked a lot better. Also, medication is a game changer for many students. ADHD is more responsive to meds than about anything else in the DSM-R. And you are right that as DC gets older and more mature that will help, too -- the brain development stuff is real and I've seen many ND/LD young ppl have a massive "growth spurt" in exec functioning around age 18-20. Middle school is pretty much the nadir. Do not despair! It definitely gets better. Last thing: Schools are increasingly offering a wide range of programs and services for neurodivergent students. There's so much out there. The biggest constraint might be your budget -- but even then, there are ways. Good luck OP. And stay away from the college forums for a while, OK? A lot can change in a few years. One thing at a time. Neuropsych eval, treatment if prescribed, and 504 or IEP first of all. |
Anonymous
Bullshit |