Recommendations? 3.5 GPA, needs both rigor and support.

[Anonymous]

My son, at a bigger school, told me that he has issues with office hours at times. They are all on the same days and times and he has to pick which one to utilize at times. I wonder if smaller schools students have the ability to "drop" in more often.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son, at a bigger school, told me that he has issues with office hours at times. They are all on the same days and times and he has to pick which one to utilize at times. I wonder if smaller schools students have the ability to "drop" in more often.

Your son needs to speak with his professors. He can email and make an appt if office hours conflict with other office hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son, at a bigger school, told me that he has issues with office hours at times. They are all on the same days and times and he has to pick which one to utilize at times. I wonder if smaller schools students have the ability to "drop" in more often.

Many smaller schools are better at that. At my kid's school, the entry level Chem 101/102, bio 101/102, Calc 1&2, etc. have TA hours daily that are across all the sections, because all profs follow the same "lesson plans"/material taught. So you can go freely to any TA hours any day. The profs themselves have office hours 3 days a week typically. My kid struggled freshman year with one of those courses, and the prof went above and beyond to help them, since my kid was always at Office hours (both prof and TAs). For example, Sunday after thanksgiving, the prof was at the office (despite having 3 younger kids at home and it being a holiday weekend) to meet my kid at 7pm---my kid landed at 6:15pm and went straight to office hours with their suitcase. There was a big exam that coming week and prof knew my kid needed help. THat's going above and beyond...and it's what you often get at schools where they value students and want to help them and the profs are expected to do more than just research. And if my kid couldn't make office hours or TA hours, they just contacted them and requested a meeting at different time and usually someone accommodated---as long as it's through out the semester and not just the day before a final, most want to help

[Anonymous]

Your son sounds like mine, who is thriving so far at Rose-Hulman. Workload is intense but there is great support available. If he’s interested in STEM or engineering, check out Rose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are some less selective schools that offer great merit aid and/or affordable out-of-state tuition and excellent student support (advising, executive function help), but still have solid/rigorous programs? Schools that might give money to a really bright but somewhat scattered student taking demanding courses and pulling about a 3.5 unweighted (higher weighted because of the rigor)? Student has an ADHD diagnosis but no IEP and does not receive any accommodations in high school, so probably won't in college either, but will still need a supportive environment with good default support. He is also a strong reader and thinker and would get bored in a sea of unserious or unintelligent peers. The lower GPA is from being scattered, occasional late work, etc., but not from lack of conceptual understanding. Any affordable-ish schools you'd recommend for this kind of student (ideally no more than 45K all-in, per year)? Prefer Mid-Atlantic or New England but would consider going further south. Does this exist?

What about distance from home, rural vs suburban or urban? What size school?

I found by the time we considered distance from home (ideally no more than than 4 hours) suburban/urban, school size (not too big that professors don’t know their students and not so small that socially confining) and budget - there would have been no schools on the list if an ADHD specific program/support was also part of the criteria. There was also some schools that were mentioned as supportive that were in a quarter system and my kid had a preference for semesters. We ended up a a medium size, liberal arts school; paying for private virtual EF coaching. We made sure our kid did the paperwork for disability services at school - they use the extra test time and taking the exam in a distraction free environment.

I can’t think of a single four year college or university that doesn’t have a disability services office which will help your kid get accommodations. You don’t need a specific ADHD program. This is what disability services do - help ADHD kids.

PP here. I’m not explaining it effectively but there were some schools with more comprehensive offerings, usually for an additional fee, like UConn’s Beyond Access https://beyondaccess.csd.uconn.edu/about-beyond-access/what-is-beyond-access/. For example if you are looks for an option for a check-in cadence where a student might learn a new study strategy to use for their upcoming exam, break down and schedule their upcoming schoolwork etc. as well helping them with strategies for career readiness, that’s beyond what is typically offered within disability services.

For my kid there was a trade off in that if they focused exclusively on schools that offered a more comprehensive support model, they would have to be flexible on other college search criteria. In the end, while the medium LAC school offered somewhat of a better match in that they were engaged, had professors encourage them, and socially was more their speed , the smaller environment didn’t eliminate the need for EF support which they had to seek outside of the school.