colleges for the learning disabled -- Virtually Advising Q+A

The Q: I am looking for a school to teach a student with attention and concentration problems. He is 19 years old and looking for a college or university.

The A: I'm not terribly well-versed on this subject, but an increasing number of U.S. colleges do have special services (counseling, work and support groups, tutoring, etc.) for students who have trouble staying focused on their academic work or who have diagnosable learning disabilities.

In fact, so many colleges provide services for students with such difficulties that, if your young man's problems aren't too severe, I'd suggest he pick a list of schools he's most interested in -first-, and -then- find out what kinds of accomodations those schools make for students with attention/concentration problems by contacting their admissions offices or disabled-student services office, if they have one.

You can get a lot of information on these accomodations online: U.S. News, for instance, has an online directory of U.S. colleges containing a huge range of information on each school, including a page with information on programs offered by that college to students with learning disabilities. (It costs 10 bucks to access the info, but it saves you some of the time you'd otherwise need to call up the schools yourself.)

There are also a good number of books and college guides out there that provide advice and information specifically for students with learning problems who are in, or looking to go to, college; I expect a high-school guidance counselor might be able to lend a hand finding such guides. Matter of fact, if the young man you speak of is currently in high school, a guidance counselor might be the best person at this stage in the game for you both to talk with for more information.

One other site I strongly suggest you (and the young man you wrote us about) visit is the HEATH Resource Center, a large government-approved source of information for college students (or college hopefuls) with disabilities. There's a lot of info on this site, but I think you'll find a fair bit of the information you're looking for within it.

Keep in mind, though, that the extent of the services offered varies very widely by college, so check with each individual school to get the lowdown on what special accomodations it provides. If the young man's learning disability is documentable -- can be diagnosed by a psychologist, for instance -- it may be a good idea to receive that documentation before he enters college. Schools are required by law to make reasonable accommodations for students with documented learning disabilities, though they vary in how well they do so.

Best,

—Myles Helfand, General Advisor, and Anahid Kassabian, Chief Advisor