Would you mind if I asked which school? Our S25 is primarily applying to Big Ten schools, given their top rankings in engineering and locations. He’s weighing their disability support as one of his deciding factors.
Most schools are more willing to talk about specifics once the student is accepted, but I don’t think any school will send you a complete list of all accommodations they offer simply because it’s not like ordering from a menu. The accommodations are granted based on the needs identified. Some will use previous IEPs, but most will want to see a recent neuropsych (although we found this varies widely from school to school).
Also, most Disability Services offices will not speak to the parent. The best bet is for your son to get in touch at the schools he’s been accepted to and set up a meeting. Have him work from a checklist if he needs a script or gets overwhelmed.
Important questions:
What documentation do they need?
Who will he meet with to determine accommodations and what is that timeline?
Do they offer x,y,z? Push for specifics (“Yes, we offer extra time on tests”… ask how that is scheduled, where tests are taken, etc).
My gut tells me extra time on tests and alternate testing location will be universally given.
Unless there is a medical need and documentation for single room, A/C, particular dorm, etc., it’s a long shot. Other “asks” (writing center requirements, priority registration) very likely won’t happen unless the school is known for strong support services. If the school has a specific program for ASD you might have better luck.
Would you be comfortable sharing where he has applied and been accepted?
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Michigan. Great services and just the help for students in general with math labs, science labs writing workshops, peer to peer help, grad help, etc etc. https://ssd.umich.edu/
Also class sizes get small as they go up in years. Many of my sons engineering classes etc had 30 students in them.
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Michigan is known for phenomenal disability and Autism support and a top-ranked engineering program.
I just couldn’t convince my S25 to apply there… he was born and raised in Columbus. 
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One other thing: in many cases it can be very hard to determine how and whether accommodations work at a school. I think it might even be risky to make decisions based on what the O of D says, to be honest. We had the best experience at a college that had no O of D!
The Office of Disabilities can register students but in practice, in our experience, has little role beyond that. The student has to talk to the professor and if there is a problem, then go to an advisor or dean.
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In my experience, as a neuropsychologist, if your son has had an evaluation in the past 3 years, it should be recent enough. Sometimes, I’ve been successful writing an addendum requesting additional accommodations that were not applicable in high school. Some schools will use the most recent IEP, but that would typically only be useful if you’re asking for the same accommodations.
In general, you, or rather the neuropsych report would need to provide a rationale for each requested accommodation and explain how the lack of the accommodation negatively impacts his functioning (academic, emotional, etc). The diagnosis alone is not likely to be sufficient. For instance, extra time may be needed due to slow processing speed/academic fluency, etc. The AC may be relevant if your son has significant temperature sensitivity/discomfort (would likely need to be mentioned in the report). Priority registration may be needed if there are issues with fluctuating attention (e.g., peak alertness and productivity during a specific time of day) or executive functioning (e.g., difficulty with adapting, need for a set schedule).
Other accommodations that may be helpful - if his writing fluency is slow - note-taking services, assistive technology (speech-to-text, though likely not in class). If he has any auditory processing issues - use of recording devices; access to lecture notes.
Like the others said, he will need to advocate for himself, though his office of disabilities should be able to guide him through the process. While the quality of accommodations does vary from school to school, many (most?) seem to be moving in the right direction and making services/accommodations more accessible.
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I’m going to try not to be too redundant in my reply here as other posters have already explained the differences in accomodations at the college level vs high school,the documentation required and the need for self advocacy at the university level. I have two neurodiverse children. The older one is garden variety adhd and was an engineering major and in the honors college at a large Southern public. Younger child is adhd and dyslexiic and is currently a physics major at a mid size liberal arts university widely known for its support of neurodiverse students.
The first point I want to make is that you need to understand the differences between accomodations and modifications at the collegiate level. Extended time, use of the university testing center to provide a distraction free setting, access to a note taker or to the professors notes, permission to record lectures, use of a keyboard or adaptive technology are all examples of accomodations that in our experience are universally granted provided you have documentation and have been utilizing these things throughout high school. Extension of deadlines or changes to the nature of an assignment most likely will be considered modifications and will not be granted. I highly doubt a college will give your kid an accomodation that provides him with someone to help him brainstorm essay topics. As an aside, you may want to look into the permissable use policies for AI. My dyslexiic kid has routinely used AI to help him come up with a topic or thesis without running afoul of the school’s honor code. He can then write a first draft and go to the writing center for additional help
As others have said, housing accomodations can be difficult to get unless your kid has a physical disability. Of course, much of this can depend on the university and the number of singles they have available. My current college kid requested accomodations for a single and submitted a doctor’s letter detailing his adhd. His request was turned down and he was told that if he needed peace and quiet, he should go to the library. For my older child, the honors housing at his university gave him a private room in a four bedroom suite. This was a perfect setup for him, as he had his own space but still had the social experience of living with roommates. I would also add that another benefit of the honors college was priority registration - which my younger kid’s university wouldn’t grant him as an accomodation. All that to say, take a look at what perks a university has to offer outside of “accomodations”. For example both of my kid’s schools offer free peer tutoring and have for fee programs for academic/executive function coaching.
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OP- in addition to Greatpyrmom’s excellent post overall, this bears repeating. This could be a helpful option in terms of brainstorming paper or project ideas prior to a first draft, as long as it’s within the U’s guidelines. And for some kids I know, the peer relationship is a lot less fraught and scary than having to ask a professor for help (even when the professor is very approachable).
Has your kid tried peer type tutoring in HS? If that has worked (whether for reviewing, going over concepts that might have been foggy the first time) that’s a good sign that a college with those tutors available could work, even if Peer tutoring doesn’t fall under the category of an official accommodation.
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I have three kids with a variety of disabilities (including some serious medical issues) . Not a single one ever experienced the Office of Disabiltiies " guiding" anyone for anything.
I know I have made this point before but I would not want people to rely on the O of D. Every school is different but again deans and advisors are most helpful once on campus.
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I’m sorry to hear that, must’ve been frustrating for you and your kids. Perhaps “guiding” was too strong a word. To the best of my knowledge, the SDS is the office that determines eligibility for accommodations in most, if not all schools. Were your kids able to get them without the SDS involvement?
@Ewost I think you are misunderstanding. My post was not intended to be negative, only to be clarifying. In our experience, the O of D’s only function was to evaluate “disabilities” and register students when appropriate.
Accommodations are done through the professor, usually, and when problems arise, advising and/or deans.
My kids registered and got letters for professors. They were able to get accommodations via the professor. When a professor might be problematic, the dean emailed them to accommodate. At times doctors got involved too.
We were dealing with some serious medical disabilities but I believe it is true across the board. Generally the O of D does not do the accommodating. They do the registering. Things tend to work out once the student understands how to work the system. I think it can be hard to evaluate in advance.
The O of D may take care of some physical needs, like a dorm with wheelchair access , a dorm with single rooms, or adaptive technologies.
My main point for prospective students is not to rely on evaluation of the Office of Disabilities when considering a school, or rely on them for the type of accommodations in the original post here.
Kid with medical issues is now a professor and my impression continues.
If someone else had a different experience I hope they will post.
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Yes, debating this as a double/edged sword. Might be good to have a space for him to decompress but agree this does not help social skill building.
We have heard that some college writing centers require a first draft before they will give help. But if the problem is thought organizing (i.e., flow, persuasion, taking others’ perspectives), then that does not provide the support.
Like the idea of peer tutoring but thinking this would not be an accommodation. This has been used with pre-arranged partners in writing class with some success. But this would need to be structured when social conversation is an area of weakness. If this is a standard program at a college that anyone can access, then I suppose no accommodation is needed. If it’s not offered, then it’s a moot point.
Creative idea! Unfortunately, did not turn up much useful information for S25 set of schools.
You might get more productive feedback if you are comfortable sharing which schools your son is looking at. I am just going to expand a bit on my suggestion above to consider resources beyond accomodations. There is just a lot more to finding the right fit for a neurodiverse student than coming up with a laundry list of potential accomodations. (Not that accomodations aren’t an important consideration - but the reality is pretty much all universities are going to provide basic academic accomodations and are in fact legally obligated to do so). You just really need to make a much broader consideration of what your child is going to need to be successful.
In my experience going through the college search process with two neurodiverse children, most universities offer academic supports to the general student population. For example, here is a link for peer tutoring at Georgia Tech: https://tutoring.gatech.edu/
Every college my kids considered had a writing center. Take a look at their web pages. For both of my kids’ schools those pages specifically state that they work with students at any stage of the writing process. So they will in fact help students brainstorm, formulate a thesis and map out their papers. No accomodations needed there. I also mentioned some colleges offer academic coaching (usually for a fee). That might be another option for your student.
Another thing you should take a look at are the gen ed requirements at the colleges of interest. Depending on the school, your kid may be able to go through the entire four years with a minimal number of writing intensive classes. This is particularly true at most public universities if a student is coming in with a lot of AP credit. My engineering student literally only took one humanities class to satisfy the university writing requirement and it was something along the lines of " the history of technology". Open curriculum colleges can be another great option.
My last piece of advice would be to take a look at honors colleges and living learning communities if you are applying to public universities. Both will come with better housing options (newer apartment style suites are common), priority registration, and other perks that fall outside the scope of accomodations but can be a game changer.
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Yes my S23 chose colleges based on minimizing required gen eds and maximizing classes in his major (astrophysics). He also looked carefully at his choice of APs for senior year and the required scores to get GE/language requirement exemptions (he took AP Latin and scraped a 3, which was just enough). Public universities may be much better than private colleges in limiting undesired requirements, but even there the non-major courses ranged from 15% to 30% of total courses over 4 years (some private colleges were 50%!)
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Deleted because I am probably going off topic
Out of curiosity, I did a search for “university I teach at” and “neurodiversity” and that brought me to a pretty good page on our website that had lists of resources for students, faculty and staff. I recommend giving that a try.
I agree with others that no school will make promises on accommodations before seeing the professional documentation, but from my experience, extra time on exams and taking them in a separate location are straightforward accommodations. As for night-time exams, the test center usually tries to schedule the exam for the same or similar time as the in-class exam, but it isn’t open at night, so that would likely be straightforward, too. My program is small enough that overrides could be given from the department head on a case by case basis, if needed. There might be some extra resources available for developing drafts (or outlines) of writing assignments–that seems like an easy fix, but I don’t know for sure. I can’t speak to dorm accommodations.
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I really think there’s no universal answer to these things. We’re going through process now as well, and for all the top contenders, once D is accepted, she knows she needs to reach out to the school’s disability office and make appt to get questions answered, or ask all the questions by email. Everything will vary from school to school.
At one of her school choices, for example, documentation can be a medical letter instead of a psychological or psychoeducational assessment because the accommodations she’s requesting don’t need the curriculum to be modified (per the office). Priority registration is automatic but only after first semester. Housing is a bigger issue just because of how limited they are and she wouldn’t know if she gets an single until late in summer when it’s too late to pivot to another school.
So my best advice is to make a list of questions and accommodations; have her make appt with each school; ask all the questions - I had her go through each accommodation she would request and ask likelihood of getting it.
The biggest question I think each school needs to answer is what documentation is required - is a doctors letter sufficient or is a psychoeducational assessment required. Because that impacts the prep work. But then their answers to all the other questions and likelihood of accommodations will factor into her final decision. I did tell her she needs to lead the discussion (emails, meetings etc); however I was present at her last meeting with one of the college’s disability office and although she took the lead, they didn’t have any issue with me sitting there or chiming in if she needed help sharing anything. But that too may vary from school to school, but once she’s there, there’s not much I can do so self advocacy is essential.
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