college

You would really have to visit the schools and see things in action, talk to some students and people that work with the students. One thing I’d look for is having more than “peer tutoring,” which has its place but often isn’t enough for a kid with LDs.
Finding a school that will accommodate — say, allowing a 9-credit load to count as “full-time” — is also a real sign that they really do know waht they’re doing and have worked wtih LD kids.
Often you can tell just talking to them whether or not they’re sort of giving a kid with LD a chance to compete (but everything’s pretty much up to him), or whether they really are concerned with retention and success.
If he’s dead-set on BEING NORMAL he greatly lowers his chances of success because for some bizarre reason he probably also associates “Normal” with never needing any help and certainly not asking for it until you are already in over your head. The most successful students are the ones who are so determined to succeed taht they do things like set up tutoring *in case* they need it, and gosh, when things are under way, they call and cancel because they are caught up.
Community colleges are often a good place to start, and often have programs for helping students learn about the available services. It also helps to realize that there are going to be people that you don’t “click” with everywhere… and the trick is not to decide “well, there’s no help here!” — but to go talk to somebody else.

Lori,

I suggest you look at the University of North Carolina — Chapel Hill, my alma mater. I don’t know much about the computer science department (I think it’s supposed to be fairly good), but I can attest personally that their LD Services are REAL, not just on paper. They have highly qualified staff who are there because they love the work they do, and it shows. They really know the field, and are strongly committed to what they’re doing. They also care about each individual student, and approach their role as supporting the student to succeed (not just providing services, or fulfilling ADA requirements). The university administration seems to be supportive of LDS as well, giving them resources to grow and expand — a good sign. I’ve written more detailed comments about LDS at UNC previously. (See “Four year comprehensive college in the Southeast.”) I can’t say enough about how good the staff is. Seven years after graduating, I popped into LDS and received a warm welcome back from the staff and director. They didn’t miss a beat in remembering me, my interests, and what I was doing after I graduated. They also took the time to talk with me about some new LD issues I had questions about. In terms of real, supportive LD services, I doubt you could do much better at a college/university not specifically for LD students. Hope this helps.

Dule

My son is at Rensselaer in New York - a very math, science oriented college. He needs extended time on tests and gets it there. No trouble, no hassle.

If that’s what you mean by supports, I’d recommend Rensselaer to you.

But I’d also caution you. Other than the LD only colleges, no college is interested in having ALL its students be successful. When ALL the students of any school, college or not, are successful, people no longer ‘believe’ in the college. When ALL of the students at a college are successful, the success is no longer credible and the college is no longer seen as a credible institution.

So what you’re asking for - a college which will ‘see its students through’ - what does that mean? If it means they will help all students to success, such a college simply does not exist other than the LD colleges perhaps.

In our society, sadly, we need failure or we don’t believe the success is real. The best example of this is Harvard. Our country’s most competitive college in terms of getting into it. It has our country’s most successful high school students and an extraordinary faculty yet… Harvard recently decided that too many of its students were successful! So they decided to lower their grades.

If the students admitted to Harvard aren’t thought worthy of widespread success, who is?

My advice to you would be this. Don’t aim to place him in the most competitive school to which he can gain entrance. That might leave him struggling. Give him room to breathe at a middle of the road college. My own son chose Renssealaer instead of MIT as he thought he would likely be more successful - i.e. get higher grades - at Rensselaer.

Good luck.