Colleges With The BEST Learning Disability Programs (PHOTOS)

Just because you have a learning disability doesn't mean you can't compete in college. Respected institutions across the country offer all kinds of excellent programs aimed at supporting the learning disabled. Check out which colleges offer the best programs, and add your own in the comments section.

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• Landmark College

  Landmark College, in Putney, Vermont, calls itself the "premier college for students with learning disabilities." The school has dedicated itself to empowering learning-disabled students, committing to turn "disabilities into assets" and develop students' abilities in all areas of life. Despite being a small and specialized college, Landmark still has an international scope, including access to <a href="http://www.landmark.edu/programs/study_abroad/index.html" target="_hplink">study abroad programs</a> in Greece, Ireland and Costa Rica.

• University of Arizona

  Considered one of the top learning disability programs in the country, University of Arizona's Strategic Alternative Learning Techniques (SALT) program is rife with resources. Along with access to stellar tutoring services, access to top-of-the-line technology and workshops for time-management and health, the program has each student work with a learning specialist to create a learning plan tailored to their needs.

• Beacon College

  Fifty miles from Orlando, Beacon College is specifically geared toward students with learning disabilities and aims provide a dynamic living environment for those who struggle with the same challenges. Classes are kept small to maximize individual attention.

• Curry College

  One of the first LD college programs in the United States, <a href="http://www.curry.edu/Academics/LD+Program+%28PAL%29/All+About+PAL/" target="_hplink">the Program for Advanced Learning (PAL) at Curry College in Milton, MA</a> is highly developed and regarded. PAL students make up a significant percentage of Curry College's student body, and many its students overlap with the school's honors program. PAL stresses individualized learning for its students and encourages them to be proactive in their education. The program also includes support for <a href="http://www.curry.edu/Academics/LD+Program+%28PAL%29/PAL+for+Multilingual+Students.htm" target="_hplink">multilingual students.</a>

• Northeastern University

  Northeastern University's learning disability program ensures a regimented schedule of <a href="http://www.northeastern.edu/uhcs/ldp/index.html" target="_hplink">dynamic and intensive tutorials on top of courses</a>. The school also emphasizes individual student attention.

• University of Colorado-Colorado Springs

  Aside from having an array of supportive technologies for learning-disabled students, the <a href="http://www.uccs.edu/~dservice/index.htm" target="_hplink">University of Colorado-Colorado Springs</a> offers flexible hours for different forms of therapy and counseling.

• Augsburg College

  The Minneapolis school maintains an intimate and personal program called <a href="http://www.augsburg.edu/classprogram/index.html" target="_hplink"> the Center for Learning and Adaptive Student Services, or CLASS.</a>It offers standard accommodations, like note-taking and testing help, as well as workshops designed for time management and organization skills. The best perk? The CLASS program <a href="http://augnet.augsburg.edu/news-archives/2007/10_22_07/class.html" target="_hplink">comes at no additional cost.</a>

• University of Connecticut

  University of Connecticut is one of many northeastern colleges with strong programs for students with learning disabilities. They boast a competitive program called <a href="http://www.csd.uconn.edu/bold_program.html" target="_hplink">Building Opportunities for students with Learning Disabilities</a>, or B.O.L.D., which features weekly sessions with a trained strategy instructor, peer tutoring and a range of academic assistance options for students. Aside from B.O.L.D., UConn offers all kinds of accommodations for students, including reduced courseloads, testing accommodations, educational assistants and more.

• University of Iowa

  The University of Iowa has its own specialized program called <a href="http://www.education.uiowa.edu/reach/" target="_hplink">Realizing Educational and Career Hopes</a>, or REACH, which focuses heavily on career development for students with cognitive disabilities.

• American University

  American University in Washington, D.C. offers <a href="http://www.american.edu/ocl/dss/Assistive-Technology-Homepage.cfm" target="_hplink">educational software</a> to support all students who need extra help. The school also has alternative formats for classes and homework, including scribe services and oral interpreters.

Comments

[Threedoxiemom]

07:56 PM on 07/09/2010

CAVEAT EMPTOR here: Make certain your child has LD exclusively, and not co-mingled with any ED (e.g., anxiety disorder). My daughter was just tossed out of Landmark's summer program for behavior that I agree is totally outrageous. However, they accepted her with full documentation of her disabilities, indicating that they were prepared to deal with her transitional issues. Despite telling me otherwise, they had no professional counseling services whatsoever. I overnighted some additional meds that she specifically asked for to the precise address Landmark gave me, but it took 5 days for them to administer them. They told me they were "closed" for July 4th. What kind of college for kids with special needs (or any college for that matter) is ever "closed"? They also did not provide me with an emergency contact number for any sort of after-hours communication. Beware what these colleges say they offer: talk to parents and educational professionals before you leap in. My experiment set us back $5,000; as my husband noted, it's better than the near $50,000 they charge for an academic year. (Yes, it's the most expensive college in the country. If they're #1, I'm now really worried.)

[Annie Pyper]

06:55 PM on 06/15/2010

I think the services at James Madison University should have made this list. JMU is a smaller college in Virginia with excellent disability resources, from personnel to groups to advocacy to books; and JMU does research in special education. Everyone there is pleasant and knowledgeable and dedicated to helping students self-advocate and get the most out of their college experiences.

[paniangelica]

09:09 AM on 06/13/2010

I believe that Landmark College is beyond excellent; their focus is giving the student a strong foundation to build on. However, the author neglected to mention that it holds the dubious honor of being THE most expensive college in the U.S.

My adult son has a learning disability and considered Landmark, but decided to stick with a local community college part-time (he hopes to be able to handle full-time eventually, but can't yet) with little help for his disability. He's tremendously focused and determined - in fact, he even taught himself how to read at the age of fifteen (high school was useless). So far he's a straight A student, but it hasn't been easy (he's come across an occasional instructor who was ignorant of the law, even hostile towards only allowing simple extended test time).

This list is valuable; I only wish this was a real article that delved into the subject rather than one of HP's photo stories.

[TRUTHDOG]

07:04 AM on 06/08/2010

I wish this would have existed 30-35 years ago. I dropped out of university after 1 semester due to an inability to keep up. I graduated tech school and did allright for awhile but those jobs are dead or dying. Good luck to all.

[joefoss]

09:19 PM on 06/07/2010

Good List!
=But, a word of caution. For many students with ADD/ADHD, it can be difficult, especially at the beginning, to make it in a large university setting (e.g., Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa), even if they have excellent support services/programs.
=Curry College is appealing to many young people with learning disabilities because of its well-known PAL program. But, it also can be a good match because it's total student population is less than 2,000--you won't get lost there!

[Annie Pyper]

06:52 PM on 06/15/2010

I can second that. I was in the CeDRR program (which works with the SALT program) at Arizona w/ a math disability. The folks there were very helpful and I & many other students had access to a lot of resources. But the large university setting was *very* daunting. Even if you get individualized aid at SALT or CeDRR, it doesn't mean you're going to succeed. I dropped out after 3 years and finished college later on across the country.

[Ben Cohn]

09:07 PM on 06/07/2010

CU-Colorado Springs was on here, but CU-Boulder really should be...

Let me lay out a few programs they have.

1. COURSE FORGIVENESS...yes if you get a D+ or lower you can retake the class and although it will show up on your transcript (which no one will ever actually look at), the grade you get in the second class will COMPLETELY REPLACE your first.

2. NOTE TAKERS...yes if you have "disability" you can get the school to assign a note taker. Basically the school hires someone in your class (usually a straight A student) to take notes on carbon paper and all you have to do is SHOW UP to get their notes.

3. EXTRA TIME...no explanation needed.

Further, outside of the buisness or engineering schools, it became clear that the job of the "counselors" was not to help out kids that did well, but rather to keep kids doing poor (right on the edge of failing out) in school and paying.

That is the part of this that no one wants to talk about...many of these programs are placed under the guise of helping students, when in reality they are nothing more then schemes to keep kids that 20 years ago would have failed out because they couldn't cut it...keep them in school and paying tuition. And at a school like CU-Boulder where almost half the kids are out of state, that's alot of tuition.

[babybuda]

08:57 PM on 06/07/2010

Landmark Great school great folks beautiful town I know! attended when I was younger.

[doitright]

05:38 PM on 06/07/2010

Many students with learning disabilities are very intelligent, creative and capable. We don't all learn in the same way. The first poster seems to feel that if I don't learn the way most people do, then I don't have a right to learn at all. What a very narrow view.

[venusvictrix]

11:27 PM on 06/07/2010

You're so correct. In fact, many students with learning disabilities are actually SMARTER than the average student. As you say, a learning disability merely implies that they "learn" "differently".

Thomas Edison's teachers thought he was daft. Good thing his mother didn’t believe them.

[Dbos]

12:07 AM on 06/13/2010

Narrow indeed hence the term idiot sevant, should be sevant

[mcarlsonus]

04:27 PM on 06/07/2010

WHEN is it going to dawn on the citizenry that college is simply NOT the best choice for everyone, nor is the, "guarantee of success" it used to be? Equally: why does my local community college offers actual coursework for those considerably BELOW college age (including child development coursework for...ACTUAL CHILDREN!) - in ADDITION to programs for promising high school juniors and seniors - and then complains continually about lack of funding?

[northshoregrandma]

05:25 PM on 06/07/2010

If I understand you correctly, you are not in favor of students with learning disabilities attending college. You feel like they should pursue other types of jobs? My daughter attended Augsburg College and was in the CLASS program that it offers. It was a wonderful program and the skills she learned were very important. She graduated from Augsburg and continued her education and now has her doctorate. Please don't make judgements about certain groups of students. Education is for everyone and adaptations permit students to attend college if they want to do so.

[LaurieAnn]

05:31 PM on 06/07/2010

I am so happy to hear that your daughter did well in the Augsburg program. My son has high functioning autism and though he's only in junior high, he's determined to work to college entrance. Why would I encourage him to do anything else but be the best that he wants to be.

[suso903]

11:53 PM on 06/07/2010

I second what you wrote, Laurie Ann. Our autistic kids, if motivated, have no reason not to achieve their goals and take charge of their own futures. It's good to learn about colleges that do a great job of teaching people who learn differently.

I'd love it if my son, also in middle school, goes to college. If my son decides to pursue a trade, rather than to do to college, we will be supportive of his decision. I am a big believer in having options for our kids.

[hypnotoad72]

05:37 PM on 06/07/2010

Nothing is really ever guaranteed in life (despite the other saying*), therefore nothing can be the 'best choice'.

* The other saying: "Life is what we make of it"