General Advice & College Recommendations for ADHD & Neurodiverse Students

Applying to College Learning Differences and Challenges - LD, ADHD
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We reached out to all of the schools we applied to to ask what documentation would be necessary. S23 was last evaluated the summer between 8th and 9th grade. I believe every school told us as long as they had accommodations in high school, that was all the documentation they needed. If you are paying for a new neuropsych solely to add more accommodations, I’d say it’s not worth it because they are probably not ones that all schools will consider reasonable. IF you are doing it so that your students can understand their learning style and needs better than it may be worth it. I would hope that whatever schools are on your list require a current neuropsych would accept your old neuropsych/accommodations with the understanding that you are waiting on a new one.

Once the Office of Disabilities saw that S23 had a specific dx and received accommodations, they actually offered him MORE accommodations (that he decided he didn’t need) and asked if there was anything else he thought he would need. Every school will differ, so don’t be afraid to have your student call.

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I would also recommend contacting the student disabilities services of every school you are considering. I have found it to be very useful to see what documentation they require, what additional services (paid and free) are available to help students with disabilities. They will also provide a timeline for when they will meet with the student to write the new 504 before school begins.

Most schools said current 504s or IEPs and an official letterhead from the doctor if the student is currently under medical care (medication, therapy) is sufficient. Diagnostic tests can be submitted but they don’t have to be recent.

I was told by several departments that they don’t expect everyone to be able to get these expensive tests done for college.

I have been very impressed with the student disabilities support at some colleges while others seem very vanilla. Most departments respond to emails within 24 hours. A few took almost a week to reply to questions and we took those off our list. It is a big factor in trying to find the best fit.

Parent FB pages are also a good resource to find out if kids with accomodations are thriving at the schools your kid is considering. You can ask parents to PM their experiences.

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43

Thank you. That is really helpful. I was planning on getting the new evaluation specifically for college, I think, and I believe all of the support professionals he works with believe, that even though 2 to 3 years old, the prior neuropsych testing was very accurate and applicable. They really hit it all on the head so I would not anticipate anything new in the reports, just an expensive new version. (I will though stay on the waitlist just in case!)

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44

One of the accomodations recommended for my ADHD/ASD kid for college is speech to text note taking so he can focus on the slides and the material in class and take his own notes with a backup. We have already put this into his current 504.

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45

Can I ask more about this accommodation? Is this on your child’s own device and the accommodation is permission or are you asking the teacher to do something? I think this would be great, and I am just wondering logistically what to ask for

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I am not sure if some schools require students to use specific software. There are many options out there and I would hope that whichever one the student is most comfortable with would be approved.
Apple, Google, and Microsoft have their own free dictation/transcription apps.
Otter, Dragon Naturally Speaking, and Descript (video to transcript) are others that many students recommend.

The accommodation would be to use the software that is on the student’s personal device. And for video lectures, you could use a video to transcription software.

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Ok great, thank you. We are in Massachusetts and have sort of unique wiretap laws. (can you record someone else without their explicit permission) which I think are great, but they make requests like this tricky. As I said I teach in higher ed, so I give my permission, (or can withhold), but the question becomes more about what about the other kids in the class etc. We have, in higher ed, generally put a disclaimer in student enrollment forms- you may be recorded in class etc. but obviously at the public school level there are no such disclaimers so often this software if it records someone audio (even if it transcribes it) could violate the law. I always tell my students to use these- all of them- so it never came up as an issue or specific request in my class. I may ask our disability service person how they address that here.

SO, I never tried for these for my son knowing what a logistical nightmare they would be despite how incredibly valuable they would be. However, in light of some of the comments- that colleges will kind of look to the IEP for guidance for accommodations, I may ask them to add it to his IEP now, (and tell them we get the legal scenario so don’t worry) and explain it is to put in a precedent for college. It sounds so messy but it really, really something my son could have used and would have greatly benefited from, I just knew it was going to be a hard sell here. Thank you for the details.

ETA I just realized- that is why our office of disability services is always desperate to pay student notetakers for my classes despite the ability to use all of these services that I consent to- what if I changed my mind etc. I do not have to legally agree so they way they provide the services and comply with wiretap laws is by hiring students to be physical note takers. And that is why in my son’s IEP it is all about getting written notes. Sigh, sometimes it can be right in front of your face but with so much going on . . . I will see what I can get written into the IEP now just in case it is evidence the college will want to see, maybe they are much more chill about in other states. (that said- outside of the disability side- and the side where you cannot record abusive telemarketers, it is a law I like)

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48

Yes we put it in his 504 very recently, for college.

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49

When my D22 reached out to the Office of Accessibility at her LAC they presented her with a laundry list of options (none of which she had in high school). Is that common?

My S24 currently has no accomodations (according to the high school, it is because he is performing too well). But I made them give him a 504 anyway so that he would have one to pass along to a college. I argued if he was in a wheelchair they wouldn’t deny him a 504 just because there were ramps going to his classroom. In other words just because the disability isn’t affecting his school work at this very moment doesn’t mean there isn’t a disability. I also think the disability was affecting his work (even if he was getting As), but I didn’t know how to fight it.

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50

S23 went to private school since 4th grade, so technically he hasn’t had a 504 since then. His high school was a school that specialized in ADD/Dyslexia, so although he technically had a learning plan, it wasn’t used as all teachers used universal accommodations. His school wrote a document with the universal accommodations that were provided and highlighted or added any the teachers felt were particularly important for him to be successful.

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51

S23 had done a full neuropsych evaluation before 8th grade which was his original ADHD diagnosis. He was in private schools so this carried through HS, including an extra year.

But his college specifically required an evaluation that was less than 3 years old - and he is also an athlete so NCAA required one for the medication exception too. I believe every school is different, but a recent full evaluation is not an uncommon request in order to provide accommodations. My son mostly just has extended time for testing and the option to use tech for note taking. His professors all post assignments online and that is tremendously helpful. As are the small class sizes at this school.

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52

This is amazing. My son would LOVE this.

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53

The most helpful issue for S23 has been choosing a college with the minimum number of courses he dislikes. Those are the ones he finds difficult to focus on and be successful in. He’d love to do nothing else but STEM courses.

So the main criteria was ruling out colleges with a large GE core (including LACs). In the end he chose the big (in-)state school with the fewest GEs, and not the one with the best LD support. Fortunately he hasn’t needed to access any support and has done well on his own. It’s also comforting he’s only an hour from home.

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54

In case this is helpful for anyone, wanted to discuss my son’s experience at a school with four seven week terms, instead of two semesters. He’s a current sophomore at WPI, he has ADHD and dyslexia and I was very very nervous about short terms. Instead of the (I think?) typical 5 classes per semester, he takes three classes per terms. They do, indeed, move quickly and it’s important to stay on top of things. But I think that actually has worked in his favor - classes meet more often - some, particularly those with a discussion section - could meet five times a week. Because the classes meet frequently, and there are only three classes, it’s made it easier for him to prioritize - he knows he can’t put something off, because class is the next day. This isn’t necessarily true for the more humanities focused classes, but with typically 2 of 3 meeting 4-5 times a week, it’s easier for him to just focus on what comes imminently next, not “how do I plan my time over the next few weeks”. He also only has three classes to balance against each other, not five, which helps him really focus on those three and, again, makes the time management less complicated.

I have definitely seen parents talk about how it moves too fast for their student, so I don’t think this is true for everyone (really, what is) but it’s definitely been a good thing for us. He tends to do best when he’s busy and there isn’t so much time that he wastes too much when he should be working, and the short terms help with that. He hasn’t had a ton of interaction with the Office of Accommodations (or whatever it’s called) but he had no problem getting his IEP accepted and supports put in place. He does need to remember before each term to put in a request to send his accommodations to his professors, then he needs to also remember to ask his professors to use them (things like his extended time on exams) but every time he’s asked, permission has been granted with no extra hoops or anything to jump through.

Our biggest challenge has been his meds - where we live (in VA) you can get a prescription filled something like 7 days before you run out. In MA (where his school is) you can get it no early than 2 days before you run out. And our home doctor can’t prescribe across state lines. He’s had no problem with the campus health center writing and sending the prescription, but it is kind of a PITA - because the prescription can’t be too early, he really only has limited days in which to get in to see the doctor (they want to see you every month, at least freshman year and so far sophomore year - I think to also do a mental health check and make sure everything is ok - this is a school policy, not state) and then go pick up his meds. Because he doesn’t have a car, and there is no super close pharmacy that takes our insurance (well, within 1.5 miles) he ends up either doing a lot of uber to pharmacy or bum a ride with friends. The campus health center team has, however, been super helpful at doing legwork to see which pharmacies have ADHD meds in stock and pointing him to others when they know stock is out or low at one location.

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55

Thank you, we are still waiting on WPI and those have been my concerns as well- and I was hopeful that there might be some advantages. I am in Massachusetts and my doctor wants to see me every month but when I say “see” it means a phone call once a month. My son has Telehealth appointments once every 3 or so months. We had to go in person once b/c of state law for prescribing ADHD medications, but now it is all Telehealth. Definitely something for us to think about when choosing a college, thanks for putting it on our radar.

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56

Yes, this is exactly what S23 is experiencing (he’s at UCSC which is on quarters and they take three 5 unit classes each quarter). Its proving much more straightforward to keep track of just three classes (especially compared to 6-7 classes in high school). But at some quarter-based schools (including other UCs) most courses are 4 units, so some quarters will require 4 classes (unless you have lots of AP credit).

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With you being from MA I’m sure you know plenty of other WPI families, but please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions if you have them - here or DM or whatever. I’m really really happy with how he’s doing at the school. He’s managing his LDs seamlessly, and the school (and his peers) are clearly used to kids with a little bit of quirk going on. If your child does end up going there, the one other super early bit of advice I’d give is that, as you know, one of the big draws is the term-long IQP project. Many (most?) of the locations are outside of the US. When my son was putting in his list of places he was interested in going, he needed to make sure the foreign countries he was considering allow him to bring his ADHD meds. Frankly, that was more research than he was up for so I did that for him. Main take-away is that the Asian countries are much much more stringent wrt ADHD meds, so unless that’s a dream location for your child, I’d lean towards something else.

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58

I never even would have thought of that, thank you. totally take it for granted that they can take their medication anywhere. (totally take for granted that I can take my medication anywhere! Thank you)

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My 2 sons with adhd went to college in Texas and Georgia, and we live in NY. Their regular doctors up here wrote the prescriptions for their meds, I filled them here, and mailed them to my sons. Although it is illegal, it would be a waste of law enforcement resources to prosecute (imho) when the prescription itself was legal and filling it in TX or GA was impossible. My sons’ schools health centers did not write prescriptions for adhd meds.

Just passing this info along in case it’s helpful.

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60

This has been a great thread, thanks for starting it @AustenNut. And thanks everyone for sharing your and your kid’s personal stories, struggles and successes. My late diagnosed C21 is at a small HWC and they deal with their accommodations with the support team and directly with the professors. It’s worked out well for them. OTOH they also have severe food allergies, which the school has been less helpful accommodating. But they’ve gotten to know the campus safety crew and cooks very well.

One thing I wanted to mention here that I mentioned on my initial thread was that given my C21’s medical issues and that they went to college out of our home state, we purchased the school insurance policy as well as kept them on our home state policy. That has been a godsend for getting their prescriptions and other medical needs (such as ER and doctors’ visits) taken care of and covered by insurance. If you can manage the additional $2-3K/yearly it adds to peace of mind.

My S24, also with ADHD and EF issues is not as mature or further along in “the adulting” as my C21. My initial thread focused on quarter vs semester schools, and that’s still a consideration now that he has a few schools he’s considering. Still waiting on a bunch of RDs. He thinks he’ll be fine given he’ll only have to focus on a few classes at one time instead of 7 or 8. I see his point, but also worry about all the other things he’ll have to manage, as well as that seemingly unlimited free time you have in college, all conversations we’ll be having as well.

We’ve talked somewhat about a gap year, so thank you for all the suggestions up thread. Initially he was really into it but as things are coming closer to the end, I think he really wants to start college asap. I worry that if we wait too late to look into the programs, we might be missing out on some opportunities.

I also appreciate hearing all your thoughts on accommodations plans. Mine went through the process in 9th grade, but I did hear from others that colleges want neuro-ed consult done within the last 3 years. Will definitely check that out on the websites of the schools he’s been accepted to. There has been a lot of growth since 9th grade, as well as some set-backs, so a new consult might be in order.

One thing that I’m also doing this semester is taking a hands-off approach to his homework and other stuff that I’ve taken care of in the past like medical forms. I basically told him that he’s almost 18 and going to college soon, so he needs to work to stay on top of this stuff. We’ll see how it goes. Is going to be a quick way to see if he’s up to the challenge.

I wonder what colleges think about all these kids coming out of the wood-work with ADHD/EF issues that were mentioned nowhere in the application for fear of it being a red flag. From all I’ve heard, it’s a big no-no to talk at all about such issues, as well as any mental health issues such as anxiety/depression, in the applications prior to admittance, but the schools must know that kids are suppressing these issues in the applications, and shouldn’t be surprised when the calls for accommodations come in prior to admittance. Thoughts?

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