@typiCAmom , hope you have a great trip next week. I’m writing to respond to your comment about UCI being a safety school. You might want to look at the admitted student thread for UCI and consider rethinking that categorization. We
have just gone through the application process with my older son (a current HS senior) and learned that many people who expected to be admitted to UCI were not. My son was
admitted, but not to the Honors CHP, despite quite high stats, course rigor, decent ECs, etc. Many applicants with similar qualifications were
denied and were quite shocked.
I’m not even sure why some of the UC’s still have honors colleges.
@audballpdx
Welcome from one recovering-tiger-mom to another 
A few years ago I listened to a talk by John Elder Robison, who has Asperger himself, talked about the neurodiversity program at William and Mary, I don’t know whether that program is still in place but if it stil does, you might want to check it out?
I also think Arizona State has some initiatives related to kids on the spectrum.
Please also google “Colleges for Students with Asperger’s: The Very Friendly Ones”, as CC would not allow me to post the link here.
It is not easy to be a high school kid these days and your DD must be facing even more challenges, just as the saying aptly puts “it is not a sprint, it is a marathon”! Good luck!
Thanks so much, @makesmesmart! I’ll definitely check out the links and William and Mary. I think maybe University of AZ (Tuscon) has the program for students on the spectrum? It’s nice that there are now more choices for kids. I just started compiling a list of schools to investigate from local (Portland State University, Bellevue College, Univ. of Montana) to schools which are farther away (Syracuse, BU, Western Kentucky).
I have to say, acknowledging that I’m trying to help my D20 find the right school for her choices/needs has taken so much pressure off the whole college thing. Even though DH and I went to competitive schools (and S22 would like to go one some day), looking at what students are facing to prep for the college application is daunting. I don’t think I would have gotten into my college if I had been applying now!
Thanks again for the information!
Way behind on this thread! All attention and time has been on D18 but now revisits are done and the decision is made…Elon University it is!
Next week my D20 and I have a college information night at her school so I am sure to be here a lot more. Feel like I can lead the meeting at her school after going through this year with D18 but I will put on my happy mom face gather up all my enthusiasm and embark on the journey with D20.
Just wanted to let all of you over on the Parents Class of 2018 page we have had some 2019 lurkers come forward so for the past few days the senior parents have been posting advice based on our experiences this year. You may want to pop over and read the posts from the last 3-4 days …some really good things I wish I knew before this year.
@MinnieFan Thanks for the heads up on the Parents Class of 2018 page. Lots of good stuff there!
Just finished a visit to UW (Seattle). Beautiful campus with historic buildings (including gorgeous library/reading room), cherry blossoms blooming on the sprawling quad, good tour guide, the student body looks diverse and happy, even though it was raining all day. By the way, most don’t use umbrellas, only the out of towners!
180 majors offered, some difficult to get into via direct admit (e.g. engineering 10%, business 25%). Those that don’t get in directly can apply to that intended major after two years. WA residents have higher acceptance rate. OOS students are all considered for the Purple & Gold merit scholarship that runs between $1500 and $8500 per year. About 50% receive some merit. Big D1 school with 700 clubs/activIties. COA for OOS about 50k per year.
They are in the process of building and completing new dorms and student ID card gets you into everywhere, dorms, dining halls, busses, Seems like a safe campus with own police force and a dozen emergency alert stations, also free night service to escort you back to dorms, etc. if needed.
A few drawbacks. Freshman/sophomore years will likely be large classes/lectures with some 500+ students. Some majors are not direct admit and it might be difficult to transfer into within the 2 years? Students need to be proactive as you are competing with 30k undergrads. The constant drizzle/rain might get old for some students not use to the damp weather. Expensive for OOS especially if not getting the maximum P&G scholarships.
Overall, D and family liked the college, students, facilities and vibe of the campus. Definitely a strong maybe application in a year and a half.
@MinnieFan Thanks!
Thanks @socaldad2002 - visited UW with my D17 but it wasn’t her cup of tea - plan to re-visit with D20 as I think she might like it. Never got as far as looking into merit scholarships with D17, good to know those are available.
Getting excited for my trip to see colleges with D20 and her BFF this coming week. Decided to skip Occidental and put in Loyola Marymount U instead because she doesn’t see herself at a school as small as Oxy and she might be interested in a film minor so LMU would be good to see to compare to Chapman, which we are also seeing this week.By the way, I found out that LMU offers separate tours of their film school (as does Chapman). We already had one scheduled at Chapman so I looked at LMU’s and they showed as all full for our dates. However, I emailed their film school and they said no problem and put us on a tour. So in case anyone is in a similar boat, wanted to mention that.
@CAtransplant, cool to see a “Duck Fan” on the board :)!
This week I meet with D20’s college counselor. She attends a very small school, so I have to wait for the soon-to-be exiting seniors to get settled with their college decision-making process. We’re going to discuss (future) curriculum and where she may see D20 at college based on her interests and strengths.
Have people already looked into ACT/PSAT/SAT prep courses for the summer? My head is spinning with the offerings.D20 took the PSAT this year (as a sophomore) because her school thought it would be a good experience. She took it without any accommodations (although the college board quickly sent her a letter saying she could receive them with her autism diagnosis for her next testing dates) and scored 560 in EBRW and 440 (gulp!) in the Math. I know we should look into prep classes for her, but honestly, just going to school takes a lot out of her. I don’t know how I’m going to convince her to take any prep courses!
Also, has anyone weighed out the value in hiring a college consulting coach? They are ridiculously expensive 
…
@audballpdx
How does your DD like to learn from Khan academy (online)? We didn’t use it for P/SAT prep, DS used the college board “official practice tests”, which Khan also has. DS’ GC actually told us to put in his PSAT results to Khan and have the Khan provide areas to work on (he has not done it so we don’t know how well it works, but it is an free and flexible option out there).
We are not planning to hire a private college consultant.
Has anyone attended college fairs? Is it useful? TIA.
I attended a college fair at Ds HS and the best part of it was the excercise when we parents wore AdCom hats and reviewed and ranked 3 pseudo college applicants for admittance to a college.
A few takeaways.
- AdComs spend very little time on applicants file, between 5-15 mins
- Yield protection is real. An AO from Syracuse said she would reject one of our over qualified applicants because she thought he wouldn’t matriculate at their school.
- on occasion, AOs look at social media to gauge “fit”. One applicant they rejected was a neo-nazi who had photos with Swatikas, guns and postings included hate speech.
- the actual college fair included a lot of colleges that I have not heard of but some were households names like ASU, Syracuse, Marist, University of Dayton.
- IMO. If you are interested in a college at the fair it’s a good opportunity to get to know the regional rep and get as much insight from then as possible.
My d20’s school has their own little college fair each year in the school cafeteria and a lot of reps come to the school. Unfortunately some of the more selective schools from the region don’t attend but it is still a good opportunity to get information about a lot of schools.
College fairs are key!
If schools are tracking Demonstrated Interest (and many, many do) this another way to get more DI in. Last year at on one college fair my daughter was sent a bar code on her phone and every AO we visited scanned it. Saved from filling out lots of address labels but more importantly showed how much tracking is huge.
Great opportunity for AO and student to have a contact point ( especially if AO does not go to the student’s school). If they have met before it is a reinforcement.
Also at the beginning of my daughter’s search it was great way to have her approach schools and present herself in a quick one minute conversation (as I write this I am amazed at how far she came from the beginning of junior year to now with this). Remember on the college search your student is the one who should be doing the talking, emailing, calling and so forth. The more comfortable they get reaching out to adults (especially those in admissions) the better they will present themselves…also side note when visiting schools the STUDENT should be going up to the desk and checking in not the parent…it does make a difference .
Finally college fairs are a great way to get the student acclimated with different schools and explore. At our first one my shy daughter had only one or two schools she wanted to see…I told her we were not leaving until she talked to 10 and she did. Really got her thinking outside of the small circle of schools she thought of as interests before we went to the fair.
The bar code is a great idea @MinnieFan. Who organized that? Her school?
Many thanks @socaldad2002 @janiemiranda @MinnieFan I was debating whether it is worthwhile to go as there will be more than 200 college reps coming, and I felt overwhelmed already. Lol.
@makemesmart I can understand why you feel that way, but maybe try to focus smaller. Choose 5 schools (or any number that you feel is manageable) and make a point of seeking them out. Speak to the reps & get their contact info. Any others that you stop to talk to is just icing on the cake - but make it your mission to see those 5. Have fun!
Good idea! @GMC2918
Follow @MinnieFan’s lead, I will ask my DS to do that.
We’ve gone to the last 2 years of college fairs (1 per year) and I have DS do the talking to the reps. As a freshman he was super shy about it but it broke the ice. This year he was much more confident with the reps and discovered 2 universities that really peaked his interest due to the conversations he had. He has emailed back and forth with one regional AO since that night, learning more about the programs he is interested in, financial aid packages for a specific criteria he is eligible for and has been introduced to a dean of the specific subject as well.
College fairs are good practice of nothing else