S24's Journey (3.5, learning disabilities)

Applying to College Admission Stories
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Hi, all! I have found these forums to be a font of wisdom about the college search, and would love some more feedback and ideas for our third child.

S24 has dyslexia and dyscalculia (math disability). The only accommodation he has received since freshman year is extra time. He learns best in small classes which include questions, discussion, etc. He is pro-active about finding study groups, and will definitely go to office hours and the tutoring center in college.

High School:
S24 is a junior at our public high school, which is in the top 50 in NY State, and top 1% for math proficiency. 94% of graduates attend four year colleges.

UW GPA:
3.56
A’s for history, English, Psychology, Sociology, and science (except freshman Bio). B’s in Spanish and math.

  • One advanced class - APUSH. He has an A for the 1st two quarters. Will take AP Gov and APES next year.
  • Only two years of Spanish. He would like to do a study abroad/immersion in college, but does not want to try textbook Spanish again. (It was a herculean effort for him to hold on to a B for two years.)

ACT:
S24 took the ACT once. His math score is low. He may retake in the summer. If not, he’ll go test optional for all but his “likely” and some match schools.

EC’s:

  • Three seasons of varsity running each year. (Fast enough to walk on/tryout for DIII, but does not want to be a varsity athlete in college due to time needed for studying and life.)
  • Sailing. (Many accomplishments and awards, but doesn’t want to sail varsity–see above.)
  • Volunteer work every week with two community organizations throughout high school.

Personality:

  • Good-natured and even-keeled. Gets along with everyone. Insightful, flexible, curious, happy.

Wish list for schools:

  1. Small classes.
  2. Traditional campus.
  3. Not a dominant party/Greek culture.
  4. Prefers closer to home (NYC area).

List:

Likely
Washington College
St. Mary’s of Maryland
Roanoke
*Elon

Match
Wheaton (Mass)
*SUNY New Paltz
Hobart & William Smith
*Marist

Reach
*Dickinson
*Gettysburg
Clark

High Reach
*Connecticut College
*Franklin & Marshall
Lafayette

Thanks for any thoughts as we help S24 find a good place to grow!

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I may have missed it, what does he want to study?

Also (although you didn’t ask) here is a great resource for language learning. Upside is it is super fun, you get a year’s worth of high school credit in just 1 month, and the learning is mainly experiential/immersion rather than book learning. Downside is the expensive price and how far from home (although it draws nationally, so kids from the coasts wouldn’t feel out of place.)

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Does he have a major in mind?

Similar colleges to some you have on the list
Juniata
St Lawrence

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Large but U of Arizona is a safer
Thy. They have SALT program.

https://salt.arizona.edu/

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S24’s top possible majors are history, government and Psychology.

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You list looks to make sense.

If he would be served well by a special supportive type of program I know Marist offers one (for a fee).

When it comes down to choosing a college, I’d encourage you to visit the Office of Disability Services at his top choices. Understand where he would take exams (depending on the arrangement with the professor students using extra time may take exams in the disability center), learn how the system will work to get extra time (he will need to advocate for himself more at the college level) etc.

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Thanks! Our tour guide at Marist has dyslexia, so that was helpful.

My D21 is registered with SAS (Student Accessibility Services) at her college, and has taken a couple exams in their center. It’s hard to know whether S24 will need extra time, but he will definitely register as a student with disabilities wherever he goes. He is good at advocating for himself. One thing he will likely need which we aren’t sure about is audio versions of some of his courses readings. He will also balance his course load to make sure he doesn’t have too many reading heavy courses at once. He scores very high in reading comprehension, but he’s slow, and needs breaks.

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Your son sounds delightful. I’m going to come back later to post more, but how does your son feel about writing? Meaning, how would your son feel about writing essays for 13 different schools? Or are you planning to streamline the list some more before applying?

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Language Immersion Program | Concordia Language Villages looks amazing! What a good idea. Immersion without needing to go abroad. Plus, I love summer camp. Even families can go.

I do wonder how they get everyone to buy into the “live the language” philosophy. With a group of teens, I imagine that it could be very hard to enforce no English. Also, it could be lonely and exhausting for a verbal, social kid who doesn’t already have passible conversational skills in the target language. Maybe they have English breaks?

In any case, wonderful concept. It is not easy to find the right situation abroad where a kid can experience full immersion. Likely too late for my son to do Concordia as he will be working as a junior instructor at his day camp this summer, but great idea. If he can not get a language waiver in college, or substitute a study abroad, maybe he could do this to prepare for a semester of Spanish.

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Concordia language programs are just as great as they seem! They really do manage to motivate kids to speak in the target language as much as possible, it’s amazing! The family programs tend to be a good deal–my hypothesis is they charge less to get families to try it out, and then it is so fun they are hooked. My kids and I did family weekends a number of times, my kids went to 1 week camps a number of times, and I worked there as the “camp nurse” part of 1 summer. Working there is a great opportunity as even the kitchen workers do their best to stay in the target language (often they are former campers.)

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deleted sorry!

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Thanks! He is the sunniest teenager I’ve ever experienced (especially after his rollercoaster sisters).

His plan right now is to decide whether he likes one of his reaches enough to ED. Although he liked both Dickinson and Gettysburg, he says he didn’t love the locations enough to ED. He couldn’t put his finger on why, but I’m thinking too small town PA?

If it is the isolation and small town atmosphere he wasn’t loving about Dickinson and Gettysburg, that may not bode well for St. Mary’s and Washington College on the eastern shore of MD. However, they are on the Chesapeake which is another factor as he loves to be out on the water (but he says no water is not a deal breaker).

Conn College is the front runner of the colleges we’ve seen right now, although Marist was right up there, and Elon would be too if it weren’t for the travel. We will visit Lafayette on April 1st.

You’re right that if they all have supplemental essays and he doesn’t get good news from ED, I think he’ll prune the list.

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They do have a one month immersion program for high schoolers, a year of HS language credit in one month. But maybe a tough sell for a rising senior with a summer job, etc. I get it.

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Offhand, I know that Connecticut College and Hobart William Smith have no supplemental essays. I don’t think SUNY New Paltz does either.

Your list looks very well-balanced to me. Are the asterisks for the ones he will definitely apply to??

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I pretty strongly feel that smaller colleges (LACs) are best for kids with learning differences. It is really hard to fall through the cracks at them, and quite easy at larger schools.

I was thinking of St. Lawrence too. Is Denison too far?

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They want smaller AND closer to NY. U of Arizona is neither of these things.

I would suggest looking at the Colleges That Change Lives website or book. Most of these are smaller schools. You will need to check the level of support offered.

If you are looking for something larger, University of Rochester has good support programs.

Maybe I missed it…but is cost a factor?

If you are looking at Elon (which isn’t exactly close to NYC), then Denison is worth a look see.

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I would start looking at the foreign language and math class requirements to graduate from each college.

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I don’t always read or comprehend fully - a shortfall of mine. I meant to say safety - not safer :slight_smile:

I don’t have a kid with a learning disabilty - but I would make sure I talk to school disability offices as probably not all are created equal.

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Another endorsement for Concordia language camp. My wife did it for 5 years growing up and now two of my kids are going.

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