Planning for College Success for Students with Learning Disabilities - Página 2

Choosing the Right College

Once you are equipped with knowledge of the level of competition you can handle, facts about your learning disability and how it will affect you in college work, and the kind of support you are going to need, you can then begin to think about selecting the right college for you. There are many sources available in your guidance offices and in bookstores like Border's and Barnes and Noble which list colleges that have support programs.

But do not start there. Start by first answering the kinds of questions that all students should consider when looking for a college. After all, you are a student who happens to have a learning disability, but that is not all that there is about you. You have interests, you may be into sports, you may have a desire to commute or live away from home, you may be interested in an unusual major available at a limited number of colleges.

All of these things should go into your search as they would for any student. Once you go through all of this with your counselor and parents, your counselor can start to recommend schools for you to consider based on these criteria and your academic standing.
As that list is developed you can then look up those schools in books like the "K&W Guide" or the Peterson's "Guide to Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorders." These books will have lists of colleges with programs from every state in the country. They will also have brief descriptions of those programs and what kind of support you can expect to receive there. Contact information for each program and school will be available, and now it is time for you to start calling and visiting those programs to see and hear first hand what they can and will do for you.

Remember Section 504 is very different from IDEA, the Special Education legislation. Part of knowing that difference is to know that colleges can determine the level of support they will put into their programs. Section 504 will enable you to receive the accommodations to which your testing and documentation entitle you, but that is not the same thing as an organized support program.

Ask, Ask, Ask

Ask the director of the support program:

• How he or she selects students;
• If SATs or ACTs are required;
• How you apply to the program;
• What kind of support you can expect to get, (ask them to be specific);
• If their tutors are students or professional staff;
• What accommodations are typically available to eligible students (not you!-They cannot tell you what you would get until you are a student and they have your material to review);
• If there is an additional charge for the program;
• If there is a required summer component;
• If there is an optional summer component to help you get started.

Remember, you are the client. You have a right to ask these questions and it would be foolish not to ask them.

Summing Up

1. Take a challenging high school program, one that's challenging but one in which you can succeed.
2. Become familiar with all of your evaluations, IEPs, 504 Plans. Know who you are, what works for you, and what you'll need.
3. Make sure your documentation is current. When requesting accommodations at college, you must have documentation (testing) that is recent, within the last few years. Different colleges can require different timelines. Find out yours.
4. Research colleges not just by whether they have a "program" or not but also by whether or not you would be going there if you didn't need a program. If it is not a place you would ever consider if you didn't need a support program, why would you want to go there?
5. Be ready to work! College is going to be a challenge. It gets harder, faster. Semesters are just barely longer than a marking period in high school. No third marking period to make up work. No fourth marking period to ask for extra credit. Take control of your time so it doesn't take control of you.
6. Relax. Thousands have gone before you and succeeded. You can too if you follow the steps outlined here.

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Vincent J. Varrassi MA, LDT-C was the Campus Director of The Regional Center for College Students with Learning Disabilities at Fairleigh Dickinson University.