Colleges for smart kids with learning disabilities

[Anonymous]

3-4 hours from MCPS, I’d look at SMCM, Goucher, Loyola MD, Dickinson, St. Joe’s, Bryn Mawr, and Mary Washington to name a few schools that are supportive and nurturing for smart kids with accommodation needs. I bet your student would qualify for merit aid and scholarships at several with that high GPA!

Colleges that Change Lives could also provide a helpful starting point list.

https://ctcl.org/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High Point teaches life skills.

This kid has a 4.7 GPA and can aim higher. Lots of top-rated schools will be able to offer the needed accommodations. Plus, HPU is more than 3-4 hours from MD, which was one of OP’s parameters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Highly recommend joining the FB group:

Parents of College Bound Students with Learning Disabilities, ADHD and ASD

+1 for this group

Please join this group! While many in this thread are likely well meaning and have good intentions, they don’t seem to fully grasp this student’s profile. Sounds like a twice exceptional kid who is very bright but struggles with processing/exec function. She will have plenty of great options!

[Anonymous]

We had great conversations with Lehigh and Franklin and Marshall about their process and accommodations for our 2E kid. Examples, Lehigh has a very interesting e-note taking system, F&M has 1:1 tutors trained in EF skills. There is more to each, but for a 2E kid like yours, these seem like good schools to visit.

[Anonymous]

My dd is at W&M and has pretty serious adhd, but her only accomodations are for lecture recording and written instructions/due dates (this is enough for her). So far she's only had issues with one professor. All the kids have access to free tutoring, and they also have graduate students who setve as academic coaches (also free).

She had a peer notetaker her first semester but they aren't allowing that accommodation for anyone anymore.

[Anonymous]

I bit further but Connecticut College for sure. They have an amazing academic support center. And they have a cultural center designed for kids with all sorts of learning issues to have quiet space to study, meet like minded friends, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High Point teaches life skills.

No way I'd send my kid here

[Anonymous]

MIT has some of the best supports for kids with LDs or autism. They know their market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High Point teaches life skills.

No way I'd send my kid here

Why? Just curious.

[Anonymous]

Honestly this describes many many kids at every college. These are pretty common “disabilities” now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly this describes many many kids at every college. These are pretty common “disabilities” now

Why did you put disabilities in quotes? Are you saying they aren't real?

[Anonymous]

What about UMDCP? I know it's big, but sometimes big schools have decent supports in place. TO may be a problem though. And honestly, if it is, it's probably not a good fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High Point teaches life skills.

This sounds like far under-reaching for the OP's daughter's academic profile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think small and mid-sized colleges that prioritize undergraduate education would be better than huge RI universities where your kid may be taught by grad students in lecture classes of 100+ students.

I'd look at American, St. Mary's College of Maryland, and William & Mary to start.

Scratch W&M. I have a kid there with ADHD who does not need accommodations at this point. She says if she did, she’s be in trouble. Love the school. But it’s a hard a## about ADHD accommodations.

Sent a different ADHD kid who needed more accommodations Oberlin and was very pleased with how the school handled it.

Uh-oh. My kid with SLD and ADHD just committed to W&M! She was sold by the size, campus, and undergrad focus. I’ve just started working with the accessibility office but I’ve been encouraged so far. I’ll report back once I’ve got more data.

I’m the PP. and do not want to panic anyone. This is sample size one kid— with ADHD— who has done exceptionally well at W&M. She has not needed accommodations— like many smart women, she compensates for low PS/ high GAI well. And she worked with an EF coach in HS and was prepared to manage the load. And paid attention each semester to course balance— not all reading or writing or. Labs in one semester— a mix of classes so she didn’t have, say, two classes reading 500 page novels. Also like many women with ADHD, she has anxiety, and WM was exceptionally helpful at sitting with her and helping her find good, walkable counseling on our insurance (as in the school evaluated her to see if short term, on campus counseling would work. When she decided she wanted more than that, they scheduled three sessions, helped her write emails to therapists and screen therapists and set up appointments with a couple so she could choose a good fit, vs kids I know at other schools who were handed a list and told good luck). This was at one point when some situational stressors made her decide to get help with the anxiety.

Her opinion that W&M isnt accommodating isn’t first hand experience. She is going off of what friends say about getting things like extensions of time. Which is not that it isn’t granted. But more that they require the documentation to all be there and will only give what the documentation shows. Basically, she says friends say it’s a PITA. Not that it isn’t there. I don’t want to panic anyone. For all I know, these friends don’t have the testing and are asking for more informal extensions, which W&M isn’t generous about.

As a parent of an ADHD kid, I will say this. COLL 100s are 4 credits and they must take one each of the first 2 semesters. Any foreign language classes are 4 credits. They need 2 fine arts credits. Kids usually come in with a decent amount of APs. Mine is graduating next year on time (8 semesters plus a summer abroad program) with two very demanding majors, both of which required a lot of pre-recs before she got to the major itself. She needs only 5 classes senior year to graduate with both majors and 3 to graduate with a major and a minor. She could technically get out a semester early with a double major, and easily with a major and a minor. But she loves it, it’s paid for, and I want her to have a wonderful, fun, (hard working) full senior year, and enjoy her friends, the traditions, the works. She took 4 classes instead of 5 both semesters freshman year (15 credits, because 2 COLL 100s at 4 credits each and 2 foreign language at 4 each and 2 1 credit music classes both freshman semesters, plus 2 3 credits classes— I’m not counting her 1 credit instrument lesson that was pass fail as a class). This was an excellent call. Some kids take 5 because they are all over achievers. There is no reason to do that a freshman with ADHD. Encourage your kid to take 4 classes instead of 5 while they get their footing— even if no foreign language and it’s 14 credits. Better to do 4 well and get decent grades and a solid start to college than 5 and falter and start in the hole grade wise.

Good luck, and Welcome to the Tribe!

Thanks so much for taking the time to share this. It was helpful to me and others I’m sure. I will definitely encourage DD to take 4 classes freshman year if she can. If a freshman had 4 years of language in HS, aren’t they excused from the language requirement?

I think so. There’s a list on the website. BUT, I know IR majors need more than that (with econ plus the language requirement, you really need to start IR immediately). My DD’s second major is a foreign language she started from scratch (a “critical language” not generally offered in HSs). So she had 4 semesters of daily foreign language classes, which were 4 credits, not 3. But that’s not the norm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High Point teaches life skills.

No way I'd send my kid here

Why? Just curious.

Has a culty vibe. Also we are full pay and I feel like my kid would get a better quality education at community college.