Next choice: Big fish in a small pond or just average?

[Tiramisu]

I recently posted about the warm and fuzzy factor in college choice. Yesterday, we visited the college that didn't seem as warm and fuzzy in previous visits. This time dd met lots of students, another professor, and liked what she saw, perhaps making the decision harder.

 

As nice as our visit was, one thing struck me compared with our visit to the other school. The students were very nice but....well.... they didn't seem as bright, or as bright as dd. I checked out the average SAT scores and the warm and fuzzy school's scores were about one hundred points higher in both math and reading than the school we visited yesterday. At the warm and fuzzy school, dd would be in the top quarter of students but entrance to her program was very competitive so she'd probably be closer to average in that group. At the school we visited yesterday, her scores would probably put her in the top ten percent, at least.

 

To make this complicated, dd has processing weaknesses in addition to being dx'd with CAPD, so even if she tests well, the everyday work of school is going to take longer and perhaps take more out of her than the average kid. Yesterday, she was wondering if she'd be better off in the school where the students weren't as bright, thinking she might be able to manage the workload better there.

 

I keep thinking that your peer group in college is very formative, so I'd like her to be in a group that challenges her to be her best. At the same time, I made a choice of graduate school, choosing the place where the students seemed more hard-core academic instead of more laid back, and I later questioned whether I had made the right decision.

 

Tell me if I'm completely off-track in worrying about these things.

 

Any thoughts are welcome. And feel free to call me a snob.

[JFSinIL]

I'd have her talk - with medical documentation - to folks at both colleges about possible accommodations. Which school is most likely to work with her, if she needs more time on tests or tutoring? Is aid at either school tied to maintaining a certain GPA? Do both school offer summer classes (so she could do a reduced load year-round and still get out in four years? My son's LAC does NOT have summer classes, save for expensive travel courses for in-coming freshmen!)

[Tiramisu]

Thank you, JFSinIL.

 

I just got off the phone with the disability office at the warm and fuzzy school. The director of the office was amazing. She absolutely understands dd's disability and all its implications, which is really so very rare. Right off the bat, she suggested what accommodations might be right for her but said, most of all, they want dd's input of what thinks she'll need. And it wasn't just about accommodating weaknesses but being proactive in finding out the ways she learns best and making working those areas. She also reassured me that the people in dd's program have shown themselves to care about and provide support to students with LD's.

 

The really cool thing is that we've been putting off buying a piece of equipment because of the expense and not knowing if it will really be helpful, and it turns out that the school will provide it to dd free of cost, even letting her take it home over the summer so she can try it out and make any necessary adjustments.

 

I'm really feel great knowing that there are people at her first choice school who truly understand dd's situation and are so willing to provide the support she needs. I think this makes everything clear.

 

Thanks, again!

[rockala]

That is excellent news, good for you for calling and working it out!

[JennW in SoCal]

That is wonderful news, indeed! Congratulations are in order, I'd think!!

[TranquilMind]

I recently posted about the warm and fuzzy factor in college choice. Yesterday, we visited the college that didn't seem as warm and fuzzy in previous visits. This time dd met lots of students, another professor, and liked what she saw, perhaps making the decision harder.

 

As nice as our visit was, one thing struck me compared with our visit to the other school. The students were very nice but....well.... they didn't seem as bright, or as bright as dd. I checked out the average SAT scores and the warm and fuzzy school's scores were about one hundred points higher in both math and reading than the school we visited yesterday. At the warm and fuzzy school, dd would be in the top quarter of students but entrance to her program was very competitive so she'd probably be closer to average in that group. At the school we visited yesterday, her scores would probably put her in the top ten percent, at least.

 

To make this complicated, dd has processing weaknesses in addition to being dx'd with CAPD, so even if she tests well, the everyday work of school is going to take longer and perhaps take more out of her than the average kid. Yesterday, she was wondering if she'd be better off in the school where the students weren't as bright, thinking she might be able to manage the workload better there.

 

I keep thinking that your peer group in college is very formative, so I'd like her to be in a group that challenges her to be her best. At the same time, I made a choice of graduate school, choosing the place where the students seemed more hard-core academic instead of more laid back, and I later questioned whether I had made the right decision.

 

Tell me if I'm completely off-track in worrying about these things.

 

Any thoughts are welcome. And feel free to call me a snob.

 

 

I'm with you that the peer group challenge is critical. The one in our family who went to a high school for a specific purpose was the best student in classes of seniors by sophomore year, so we moved her. Sure, she could have had straight A's all four yearsat the previous school, and has just experienced her first B at a very difficult school, but she is now with mostly motivated, gifted students and it has helped a lot, I think.

 

She was telling me a couple of weeks ago that in her Lit class, a student got up and diagrammed how this literature could actually be put into an algebraic equation. She was fascinated. Stuff like that didn't happen at her old school, where half the time, the kids didn't even do the homework. She recently went back to the old school to take a national test, not offered (she thought -we later found out it was!) at her new school. She was so annoyed when the instructors spent half an hour giving directions for how to take a test. This just doesn't happen where she is now, on a college campus.

 

So yeah...challenging is better, I think, unless the challenge is too great for the kid's abilities, in which case it would be demoralizing.