Indiana is not shutting down disability support, and their weird law doesn’t apply to private colleges (the one in Ohio does). My son decided not to attend Purdue when we had a very negative experience with their Disability Services department, but we knew ahead of time how bad they were rumored to be and tried to give them the benefit of the doubt (they lived down to expectations). I have spoken personally with Earlham’s DRES director, showed her a required accomodations list, she was like “we can do all of this with basically zero issues, especially in a major where he might only have 2-3 other students in his classes.”
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I can understand how the federal restrictions are impacting your son. Thank you for sharing a real world example of the realities of this craziness coming out of Washington. I now understand much better why you are leaning toward Earlham and why what seemed like a good range of options back when you applied has completely changed in the past few months.
I will only add that I have a nephew at Illinois-Chicago in Information & Decision Sciences and he’s very happy there. It works for him and what he wants to accomplish.
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Yes UIC is great. I am always impressed with it!
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Be sure that you and the student know the details on the Columbia Combined Plan:
Columbia’s materials engineering class sizes are not that large, due to it being a small major. However, some other engineering majors have larger class sizes.
Consider also backup plans of less selective schools with materials engineering to transfer to if Columbia does not admit or is not affordable.
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For a tiny school, Earlham is fabulously well-endowed, and this is why they can back up their inclusive, Quaker values with solid resources. I completely understand why your son feels that a school like this, that is committed to his success and offers the kind of educational experience he wants, is worth getting off the proverbial “fast track” in engineering, which could be a rough ride for him.
Given the great financial support that Earlham has offered, it’s worth noting that it is not a stark choice between leaving for Columbia, RPI, CWRU or WashU after the third year, or passing up the engineering path altogether. It is clearly stated that " Students may also choose to stay at Earlham for four years to diversify their academic and co-curricular experiences, continue playing with their varsity team, study off-campus, or simply to complete their B.A. coursework and have the option to apply directly to master’s programs alongside the dual degree offerings. Your path is up to you!" So if he goes to Earlham and loves it, he can do all four years and still do either the dual-degree transfer, or an entry-level masters in engineering. Does he want to study in Japan?
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From everything you’ve shared, it seems like Earlham is the perfect fit for your son in many ways and that you are all going into the decision knowing all the pros/cons of the 3/2.
I honestly can’t remember anyone on this site doing a 3/2 from Earlham so unfortunately I don’t think you are going to get any first hand experiences here. Hopefully the school will be able to put your son in contact with a current student or an alumni of the program to hopefully reassure you all that it’s the right decision.
That said, I wouldn’t second guess yourselves if Earlham “feels” right. Your son is likely to be more successful if he’s in an environment where he’s happy and feels well supported. Congrats to him on what sounds like a very successful application process!
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Thanks all. My son is still officially undecided but seems to be leaning more towards Earlham by the day. I’ve suggested that if he wants a traditional ABET engineering program to consider UIC (lots of support, admitted to honors program) or maybe Ohio University Athens if we can get some traction with their disability services department (they seem to be rebelling against that new Ohio law, at least). He has already withdrawn his application from nearly every other university that admitted him. He was waitlisted at CWRU and Northeastern and withdrew those apps too.
Earlham does have basically a 100% success rate transferring 3/2 students to Columbia if that is the student’s first choice (we checked.)
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And he is still sort of considering Illinois Urbana-Champaign under pressure from his dad. But yeah, meat grinder there, especially now that they got $1Billion-plus in federal grants revoked by the current administration…
Best of luck to him. I like how you are so well well thought out as you go through the process.
UIUC seems like a no win situation - given he’s going to need support and you didn’t think it was there. The “highest ranked” isn’t necessarily best…and many kids choose alternative paths.
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UIUC has good Disability Services/inclusion, but that’s why Trump Admin cancelled all of their federal grants!
But UIUC also says “yeah we provide this support…within our regular structure.” So he’s not gonna get out of giant meat-grinder lectures just because he has an IEP. Visual impairment is not supported well at any university because it’s so rare.
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My daughter had a professor at College of Charleston - a career diplomat - and he’s blind. She’s seen him on the street, walking, etc. He’s amazing - so you can do anything.
Today, he has HR McMaster zooming into to talk to the students - so well connected, travels to Europe multiple times a month…and so there’s a bright future for a brilliant kid like your son. He just has to work harder - and he apparently does!!
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How many per year?
Other thing to consider is whether Columbia would be a reasonable fit in various ways for the student.
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We were told it was between 2-5 per year. When we visited Columbia, they told us Earlham students are highly sought after for the 3/2 program.
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Can they meet your needs is the bigger question or if not them, WUSTL, CWRU, or RPI because it’s a fit thing again.
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It really sounds like you’ve done your research on Earlham and the alternatives and that it’s the right fit.
Every time 3-2 programs come up, many of the concerns raised here surface. It’s true that many students who start on this path don’t end up pursuing the second degree – for any number of reasons. Other who pursue it discover downsides they hadn’t anticipated or believed would be meaningful to them. But there are also students for whom this is a great opportunity in that it allows them the academic freedoms of a LAC, the LAC experience, and an engineering degree. If students weren’t interested and completing it, it wouldn’t exist. For the student who sees this as s way to avoid a difficult decision, it’s unlikely to be satisfying. For the one who is fully committing to two pursuits, it can be a terrific option.
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We know that Columbia can based on what we’ve learned from the visual impairment community. Not sure about the others but RPI probably could.
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Earlham is seeking ABET certification. It is my understanding that once they obtain the certification, it is retroactive to those that completed the program. My sense is that it’s a general engineering path. Would it be possible to do that and minor in chem than do grad school? Would he need to make that choice right away, or could he start in 3/2 and have 4 years of gen engineering as an option, or vice versa?
S23 also uses disability services, some for vision, so I know how important the support is. While I had huge concerns about lecture classes, my son didn’t. I was concerned with the visual exhaustion and that it would affect his endurance, which would then affect his ADD-I/executive functioning, but he says he likes them, because in the big classes, they mirror all of the screens so that he can see them on his laptop. It makes it easier for him to see and he can take notes right onto the slides. If your son is already advocating for smaller classes because that is where he feels he will learn better, I think you need to give that a lot of weight.
As for cuts to disability services, I think you are much safer at a smaller/private school, even if they are targeted by a state law, simply because if equity and inclusion are part of the school culture, professors will still structure their teaching to accommodate everyone. Even at S23s large state school, he hasn’t had to use his personal accommodations in certain classes because those professors have extended these accommodations to everyone. However, there are many teachers that don’t do that, particularly in engineering, and would definitely protest if they were forced to.
Example of universal accommodations one of my son’s professors has instituted at CSU:
My son meets with his professors at the beginning of each semester to go over his accommodations, one of which is to circle the answer on a test rather than fill out a bubble sheet. His professor said that she’s had students miss one bubble and then mess up every answer following the missed bubble and that if she had everyone circle their answers on the test, it would allow for a backup if this were to happen to a student in the future. She now allows everyone to circle their answers on the test and then transfer to the bubble sheet (the bubble sheet is just so they can be graded quickly) so that she could give credit to anyone who misbubbled even one answer. Students are allowed to have her check any answers they feel they misbubbled after the grade comes out and the circle on the test takes precedent so that people can’t purposely do two answers. It seems like a small thing, but it benefits all students.
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Earlham’s engineering major is described here: Engineering | Earlham College . Yes, it is more general, rather than offering more depth in specific areas like materials.
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It’s my understanding that DS17 has the option to do the general ABET-accredited (by next year) engineering degree at Earlham and he has until end of sophomore year to decide either that or 3/2. If he is doing an American Chemical Society chemistry degree at Earlham, the curriculum basically matches the engineering degree there exactly with a chem minor. He would come in with a large amount of AP classes which would make that easier. I think that is why he’s interested.
My son is half-blind. His accommodations are not optional. We’ve had so many conversations with teachers thru the years to the effect of “Well he doesn’t seem blind to me” or “he’s so gifted, he doesn’t need accommodations” and “audiobooks aren’t reading” that we know to defend hard against that. When he was at a middle school that refused to give accomodations to him as MD-recommended, DS17 became suicidal. It’s not something we will ever compromise on. We had to pull him out of that school in the middle of the year rather than keep fighting them. He knows what works for him and knows to self-advocate.
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We’ve also fought the accommodation battles and have had to switch schools for the same reasons. I think both you and your son feel “safe” at Earlham and that means a lot. Go with your gut. If you have to work around other stuff, so be it. People learn best when they feel safe.
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