Finding the right match: College choices for learning disabled

By Karen Nugent
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
via Telegram.com

Carolina Alvarado has what she calls "clown music" playing in her head - all the time.

Going through life with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, she said, makes her a professional procrastinator. She sets a timer at 10-minute intervals each morning to keep track of herself. But her disorder, she said, also gives her the ability to stay up all night to get things done.

"But you will crash, and your performance will go down," she told a group of parents and high school students at a recent college fair for students with learning disabilities at Nashoba Regional High School in Bolton.

Ms. Alvarado, registration director at Landmark College in Vermont, a two-year college for students with ADHD and other learning disabilities, said the transition from high school to college is especially trying for such students, and often leads to academic probation or dismissal. Success, she said, is likely if the right match is made.

That means even more research than usual for high school students - and parents - before applying to college. It also means knowing what a student's diagnoses are (there is often more than one) and providing documentation of learning disabilities. 

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