[Victoria'smom]

So as many of you know I’m helping my nephew with college stuff, applying for school, aid, college tours and stuff like that. My son has been tagging along. He’s entering 11th grade so he’s starting to look. He has a year to find schools he is interested in.

He’s been homeschooled his whole life so there has been no need for accommodations. Now he’s looking at accommodations. He said himself he will only take 12 credits a semester to reduce stress. That would add a year which is fine but it will add another $10k to his loans at the end. He’s looking at both small public schools (2k students) and large public schools (56k students). I think he’ll need more accommodations in the larger schools. We are also looking at getting accommodations for standardized testing. Now here’s the catch he needs to have psychological testing within the last three years. Now we’ve lived here for the last 4-years and he’s only had the 4 hour testing 1x in his life. He was 8. Luckily his new pnurse ordered testing for us because we asked. For the last 4 years they’ve been throwing medication without a clear Dx. His psych records say impulse control issues, history of depression, and anxiety. He’s no longer willing to take medication without having a diagnosis. Will he need testing every three years until he’s graduated? He’s trying to get a masters by the end of it. So in his plan it would take about 8 years (5 years bs, 3 years MS). We’re fine with that. Currently we’re looking for scholarship to help him financially. We’re thinking about requesting extra time on tests so he’s not as stressed when testing. What other accommodation can you think of that can help?

If he goes to the larger school he’ll be able to get therapy and med management (if he chooses them) on campus. The smaller campus has a crisis counselor and that’s it. He’ll be out in the middle of nowhere. I’m having him look at the 12 universities in our state and picking 4 to apply for. The larger college has an ASD program. Can you think of anything we need to be asking/ think about am I forgetting anything?

[Deejay14]

Will he psychiatry visits while in college? Depending on where he goes that could change? Would that be covered under his school health insurance or by your insurance? There are usually more student services at bigger schools. Just thinking aloud.

[Victoria'smom]

We receive medicaid. I think as long as he's under 21 and in school he'll still be eligible for medicaid. I have to check.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I went to a small private school for undergrad. I had an awesome therapist there but there wasn't a pdoc. I also had to deal with a HUGE amount of stigma (it was a Christian college with very conservative Christians. I'm a Christian but this was beyond reason).

I went to a huge state school for grad school. There I had a decent pdoc and crappy therapists.

At my undergrad accomodations were hard to come by. Even rescheduling a test was really hard once. In grad school it was a bit easier but required a neuropsych eval (I didn't need accomodations at that point).

My mom was a professor at a small college and there was not nearly enough support for students with mental illness at her college. She wound up in some difficult positions.

So it's hard to tell what you'll get.

[~Christina]

The college in your town is great. My daughter is taking classes there. She has BP I it’s a great school.

She doesn’t need accommodations but said they are available if someone needs them, longer time for testing and daily work etc

Why have him start out with 12 hours? Maybe first semester take less and get into the flow of college ? Since your not sure how he will adjust.

[Victoria'smom]

He's currently doing Dual enrollment without accommodations and rocking at it. However it's a small school CC at 14:1. He talks to his teachers as he needs to. All his teachers have been really good about it. However it's different going to a university. I want something set up in case.

He wants to "go away" to college for game design and computer programming. The two schools he is currently looking at are about an hour and a half a way. He has to take at least 12 credits for his aid and scholarship and to live on campus.

[~Christina]

USF? Good college too

[Victoria'smom]

We can't find his major at USF If I had my way he'd stay where he's at for his BS or go to USF but he wants game deign and not Information Architecture or Software development.

[~Christina]

Hope he can find a good fit.

College classes are typical very very large, hope he can keep up and not get lost in the shuffle.

[MistressStayc]

I teach in an ASD unit and these are some common accommodations my student have through high school. I don't know what is allowable/customary in college or what might benefit your son. I'll just list them and you can decide what might help him
- 1 additional day for classwork/homework for every day alloted
- as much time as is needed to finish any started portion of a test in a given school day
- preferential seating
- small group for testing and reduced stimuli in testing area
- increased opportunity for movement
- frequent breaks
- reduced amount of classwork/homework required for student to show mastery of skills
- directions repeated, clarified, in writing (as needed by student)

[Victoria'smom]

So it's hard to tell what you'll get.

I'm worried they'll promise more than they can give. Now the smaller school talked about how they could do live streaming or recording their lectures if the student is in the hospital or dealing with an emergency. That all they would have to do is inform the teacher ahead of time by email.

College classes are typical very very large, hope he can keep up and not get lost in the shuffle.

That's what I'm worried about.

I teach in an ASD unit and these are some common accommodations my student have through high school.

Thank-you I'll go over the list with him to see what he thinks will help.

The good news I found a college that has a BAS in Digital media with dorms. So if he doesn't get into a university he still has an option. (College's here have open enrollment. Universities have entrance requirements.) It still doesn't solve the accommodations issue but it's an option if he doesn't get in to one of the other two schools.

[Unrigged64072835]

I don't know if you found the site for the SAT's accommodations, but here it is: https://www.collegeboard.org/students-with-disabilities

My daughter has nonverbal learning disorder so she was able to get extra time and a quiet room to work. She didn't get that for the ACT, and you can tell by her scores which test was better for her.

[Victoria'smom]

We're in the process of getting SAT and ACT accommodations. It's harder to get being home schooled. Plus he's taking the SAT twice without accommodations. He did okay on the parts that he finishes. So I don't know if that will count against him.

[Victoria'smom]

We have a parent meeting December 3rd for an autism evaluation. So we need his current team to do his paperwork for the SAT/ACT I don't think it'll be approved though. We'll see.

He has decided his #1 choice is the very small school, #2 Big school 1.5 hours away, school, #3 selective school 2.5 hr's away. Back up school 3 hrs away. These all can change of course. He has a year to decide what 4 Universities to apply to. This gives us a study plan, gpa goal and SAT/ACT goal.

[MistressStayc]

great job being so proactive about the planning!