College for son with Aspergers

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My son is just graduating from High School. He's a very high functioning kid. Well, he applied to Landmark College, a 2 year college for kids with LDs. We were sure he would get in, but he didn't. I think it's because they didn't feel that he was mature enough to attend, but I have to call to find out (we just got the letter yesterday).

We now have to find an alternative. Does anyone know of a college that offers LOTS of support for Aspies? It would be great if it were on the east coast, close to Baltimore. Landmark is in Vermont, so any school that offers good support would be greatly appreciated.

He could go to a community college, but it would be better if he lived away so he can improve his social skills.

I'm hoping someone can help.

Thank you.

try: [email protected]
kaarme.com/Learning_Disability_College_Programs
Best wishes

There is a charity that has some Aspie targeted transitional housing programs connected to several colleges. I don't remember the name, just reading an article about a student going to Berkeley who was living in one of those homes, where he got support for his needs and a professional was available to help him interface with the college.

Try searching for programs and housing that is not run by the college, but near the college.

Sorry I can't be more specific.

I have looked at that program. That's CLE. They're supposed to help you (for $70K) with social skills, life skills, and help attending a community college. I looked at the Berkeley campus. The student tour guide told us that, basically, no one over saw what they did. Her apartment was beyond what a typical dorm room would look like. It was beyond filthy. And CLE is supposed to teach you how to maintain these sorts of things. I visited the campus in Florida, too. Stunned! I could go on, but you get the point.

Sorry if my post sounded mean. I'm thankful that you replied. My grrrrr.... was directed at CLE.

Many of us went to college without any assistance and did fine. all colleges have a disabled services office and if you have a formal dx then all you got to do is contact them... It sounds like you are focusing too much on your son's disability and not enough on your son and his abilities.

I know Wright State University in Ohio, where my husband went to school, is known for their support of people with disabilities - I believe a frequent poster here attends. Not sure about the housing/life skills part, but they do help manage stuff like sensory overload, etc. and they offer housing. Might be worth a call. http://www.wright.edu/students/dis_services/

One of the psychologists we worked with with DS mentioned that while she thought kids on the spectrum should live in the dorms, she'd had success with kids who lived in the dorms not far from their homes and families. I can see where this would be a good system for our son: we can visit periodically and see if he's on-track with life skills, he can visit periodically and get support as needed (and, by support, I'm assuming I mean laundry like any college student) We will have to set up limits on both sides, but even though my son is 11, we have already been discussing the dorms as a transition from leaving home to getting your own apartment, kind of like "training wheels."

Of course, every kid is different (not to mention we aren't there yet, so I don't even know if our idea will work for us) and this may or may not work for you.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Why not let your son take the courses that he wants at the college that he wants. I wish that my parents would have done that for me.

Thank you for your thoughtful advice. We don't want SM to get dumped in a school he's not happy with. He loved Landmark.

But he's not going to get on the Internet to find something. And now we're looking at a year from now. He may be more prepared for college life in a year anyway. But we need to check out the options.

I guess I'm really having a bad day because I was so sure he'd get in and now I don't know what to do.

Honestly in my experience I have to say I think starting out at a community college might actually be a good idea for someone right out of highschool. I mean I thought if I moved away I might improve my social skills and such to......it didn't quite work out. Truth was I still did have trouble interacting still do......and just sticking myself out there didn't really help just gave me more negative experiences with people and I couldn't go home to deal with it I was stuck in a dorm with people I couldn't seem to make friends with. If I had gone to community college i would have maybe had a better transition though I was not really enjoying my home life either so I wanted to leave. Then again if it's a college with more support for people like him maybe he would not suffer that.

Being away from the people who support him and he's close to might not actually help him.......but everyone is different so maybe for him it would be better to go off to further college. How does he feel about it? I mean this is the beginning to the rest of his life......so its important both of you talk about this and really figure out what would be the best route.

Also just something to keep in mind I have no idea of your financial situation, but if you don't have the means to help pay for the tuition and he will have to rely on loans...community colleges are not quite so expensive so he wont be under a mountain of debt by the age of 22, I wish I would have started at a community college then I might still not have made it in college but at least I wouldn't have so much loan debt. But yeah there are some factors in my situation that might not apply here so that might not be something to worry about.

yes i know of a few

there is NYIT VIP ( vocational independence program) in long island ny http://www.nyit.edu/vip/program/
i have some freinds who went there. i also went there for their summer program

also they recently got approved as an elgible school for financial aid

there is also http://www.collegeinternshipprogram.com/ which has a few locations all over the country (2 in california one in upstate ny, one in massachusettes, one in florida and one in indiana. also i spoke with a representative about them at a conference i went to and they said they are looking to make a new location in the ny metropolitan area.

there is also college living experience
http://www.cleinc.net/Home.aspx
which has 6 locations one in florida one in colorado 2 in california one in texas and one in washington dc

Last edited by Ravenclawgurl on 18 May 2012, 1:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I looked into the college living experiance one...and it looked pretty good, its very expensive though so I couldn't afford it, also I was not sure how motivated I was for college at the time this was after having already dropped out of college however. So yeah it looked great if you can afford it and if he's wanting to go to college.

If I had the opportunity when I was 18...I probably would have jumped on it, well other than the cost but maybe i could have gotten more grants or something. Anyways I'd say it's worth looking into.

Regarding College Living Experience, check out my posts above. We looked at 2 campuses and were really stunned. The brochure looks great and what they say they do sounds wonderful. But the reality was horrid. The one in Florida had 1 room you were required to spend all your off time sitting in. It had several round tables and some board games. They had 3 computers. And I'm paying $70,000 for that? Also, it was located behind a strip mall on a really busy highway.

The one in Berkeley had a better situation because it was in Berkeley - in a great location. But there was no supervision other than a hall monitor. We weren't allowed, in either place to check out a classroom. And again there were few computers. There was no wifi, the furniture in both places was broken.

It sounded great. But I left feeling like it was a scam.

Oh well that looks nothing like the one I checked out...I mean there was a study area in a building....but they weren't required to spend all their time sitting there. But yeah in that case maybe not.........so nevermind. The one I went to also was to help college students.......it wasn't were they attended class the students attended the various colleges around the area. But yeah that's in Denver Colorado so probably does not help any. Also constant supervision probably is not necessarily what a college student needs, but that's just my opinion as I really like to have lots of breathing room so to speak.

you don't say if your son has Aspergers or Autism. I agree with sweetleaf on starting out at community college. The first 2 years of college are mostly general education classes, AKA boring and thus difficult for AS to make it through. The upper division classes are the major and should be your son's Special Interest classses. It took me 3 yrs to get through community college and regular 2 years to finish my BA at university. I think I failed 1 class at CC I had to repeat. Plus CC is a good transition time, can live at home, relatively inexpensive for class and small class size. At a large university the undergrad GE classes are huge...