Our S25 is a dedicated student who has succeeded in high school, thanks partly to accommodations (1.5x testing time, quiet testing environment). He has a support structure that helped him mature and improve his executive function. He has an official Autism diagnosis and a recent IEP covering college documentation.
He has applied to several well-regarded engineering schools and plans to major in aerospace engineering, focusing on astronautical engineering.
Does anyone have experience with Disability and/or Autism support at the following schools?
Ohio State (accepted)
Penn State (accepted)
Case Western (accepted)
Purdue (EA, pending)
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign (EA, pending)
University of Maryland (EA, pending)
University of Colorado - Boulder (EA, pending)
Virginia Tech (EA, pending)
We are especially interested in how effective the disability and autism support services have been in helping students transition to college life and succeed academically. We’d appreciate any feedback and suggestions!
It often takes another parent of these twice-gifted kids to understand all the heartache, triumphs, and obstacles that these young adults (and their parents) have faced in their lives to get them to where they are today.
My niece (dyslexia dx) attended Colorado (and stayed for her PhD). She started in aero engineering and switched to math and physics. There was no
problem with extra time for tests. She registered with disability services and met with professors about accommodations. There was one bump the beginning of her freshman year, but I’m not sure if it was her (not meeting with the professor) or the professor. I know it was taken care of quickly, though.
I have no feedback to share, but I would suggest that your student ask to be connected with students at each school who are willing to talk to potential applicants. This can be done either through the university and/or reaching out through any specific clubs/organizations that are particular for students on the spectrum or are using the school’s disability services.
Congratulations to your son, and I’d love it if you’d be willing to share any feedback/impressions that your family gets as a result of anything learned outside of this thread.
Some of the schools mentioned have secondary admission to engineering majors. Would such secondary admission be a particular problem for the student in the context of the diagnoses?
Thanks for the thoughts! He is competitive for each of the respective engineering schools, so we don’t anticipate that as a barrier. He also goes to a collegiate-focused private school, so he is used to the rigors of a challenging program.
He explains that “math is his first language” and knows how to communicate in an academic context. He can talk for hours with teachers and peers about math and physics, including some personal friends who are local college professors.
Humanities don’t come as easy for him, but he’s come a long way and recently scored very well on both the verbal and math sections of the SAT.
Thanks for the info. Would you know of any particulars? UMD has a phenomenal aero/astro program and a Space Systems Lab where undergraduates and graduates get to work on projects with NASA and Boeing. He said he could see himself “spending 24 hours a day” there.
If this is your area, have you looked at Arizona. It has the SALT program and is one of the top physics/astro schools in the country and a great aero engineering program.
My son is an engineering student (not at any of these, at WPI) and has accommodations for ADHD and Dyslexia, one of which is extra time. I recently asked him how that was going, and he said that he almost never asks to use it. Which of course prompted the Why Not? question - you’ve got a legit reason to need extra time, so why not use it?
He told me that in many of his courses the final is a project or a take home test for which he has several days - so he doesn’t need that extra time. Although, to prep your son for, sometimes the project needs to be presented orally before the class on the last day and that’s part of determining the final grade (although it sounds like he enjoys talking math/science so that wouldn’t be an issue).
For in class tests, though, he doesn’t use the extra time either. When I pushed him on why he told me that often, not occasionally, but often, students will ask a professor a clarification point mid-test and the prof will announce something to the whole room, or the prof will correct an error in the test or what have you. The students who get the extra time and quiet test space are in a different room - they may, or may not, get that info conveyed to them. It really depends on if the professor remembers to tell someone to go tell them I guess. That’s not fair, but that seems to be what happens. So that may just be something else to have your son be on the lookout for, or ask the disability services team how they deal with situations like that etc.
Other than that, no other general insights that I can think of that might be helpful. Just know that your kid will definitely not be alone. It’s pretty clear that there’s a decent handful of ADHD and ASD kids in my sons engineering classes, and fitting in or working with peers hasn’t been a big issue - I think it’s a sizeable enough cohort of STEM-nerds that they take each others quirks with a grain of salt.
Sorry, I do not have details. However, my understanding the bigger the school more mess with support… I bet there are some exceptions to it.
Also in public schools with 300-400 students in introductory classes that are taught by graduate students and recitation lead by TAs, do not expect much support.
Some engineering major secondary admission processes are more competitive than others:
Ohio State: competitive
Penn State: 2.90 college GPA for aerospace engineering (other majors vary)
Purdue: 3.2 college GPA guarantees choice of major, otherwise competitive
Virginia Tech: 3.0 college GPA guarantees choice of major
UIUC and Maryland are direct admission to major, but changing into aerospace engineering is a competitive admission process if the student enrolls in some other major or undeclared.
Thanks for the info, @ucbalumnus! We’ve done a lot of research, but our daughter (college senior) is in business and consumer psychology, so this engineering search is so different.
Our son did apply to the engineering schools and was already accepted into Ohio State Engineering (Pre-Aerospace) and PSU Engineering. As you said, many schools evaluate a student’s GPA before they can declare a specific major.
He is used to academic rigor and advanced topics in mechanics and physics. With all humility, it comes naturally to him and he’s very dilligent. He was selected for and is in his second year of a NASA internship. That hyperfocus and a different perspective can be a big help!
@OctoberKate, I also really appreciate all the information! I didn’t even think of the practical applications of disability support that may or may not help him. That’s something we’ll need to navigate. To your point, UIUC did say 30-40% of their students seeking disability support are engineers! That says something, given they’re a top 5-10 school in many engineering fields.
@tsbna44, thank you as well for the advice on Arizona. We did look at the school, but although we expect him to elevate himself in school (with support), we didn’t feel comfortable with him being across the country. If he’s within a half-day’s drive or within a direct flight, we can make sure he has support if needed.
Great info! I’m trying to see if there’s any differentiation between these big schools. Unfortunately, most of these big schools are also the top engineering schools as well. Some honors programs do have smaller sections of those classes, but they’re quite selective.
We looked at some smaller schools, but he really wants the college experience as well: football, student life, rah-rah, etc. He has no interest in Greek life or partying, but is finally looking forward to finding “his people”. We’re just excited that he’s putting himself out there socially and is finding acceptance over the past two years, because that hasn’t always been easy.
We haven’t found this to be the case at all. S23 goes to CSU and there is a university-wide focus on best practices for universal teaching (perhaps due to Temple Grandin’s influence). My son has always met with his professors about his accommodations, but for the most part, hasn’t had to use them due to the universal accommodations. He even has a less common accommodation (to circle on the test rather than fill in bubbles) that the teacher had the entire class do (circle in addition to bubble). I’m not sure if she did it so that my son wasn’t singled out or because she always does it. Her explanation was that if you got a string on answers wrong, she can see if you “misbubbled”.
Colorado might be a great choice as their physics department is so strong.
Regarding “his people”, ASD does appear to be more common in engineering majors and computer science majors than in general college student populations.
I can definitely vouch for that, as a rare extrovert in information technology! I brought Dr. Emilio Amigo (national Autism expert, “How to Dance in Ohio”) to speak to my company and scores of people came up to me asking for advice, either for their children or themselves.
The disability services and the professors have been great at CSOM! Our son attends and is a sophomore. His sister goes to a very competitive engineering program at another school and I do not believe it would be a good environment for our son. Feel free to message me with questions. We love Mines!