AboutBruce Expertise Choosing a college, college admission processes, admission for homeschoolers, preparing for the college interview, searching for scholarships, Christian colleges & universities, colleges in general.
Experience 22 years in higher education, including eight in admission and financial aid, 15 years interviewing students for admission and places in honors programs, academic advising, transfer counseling.
Education/Credentials BA psychology. MA Behavioral Science
My son has Tourettes Syndrome and a writing disability. He had been "misplaced" in a "special" school for his 7-10th grades. Once I caught on (I guess I'm slow), I had him put back into the mainstream this year where he repeated 10th grade because of the lack of curriculum he had at the special school. Spanish is a subject he lacks. He is the number 1 student in his math and science classes and wants to pursue this in college. We need to decide if he should take Spanish, Spanish for "under achievers" or just forget about it. Do you think not having Spanish will hurt him from getting into math and science schools that draw the top students in those subjects?
Answer Jeff's Mom,
Interesting question - you have a couple of issues here. If the disability Jeff deals with has a direct impact on foreign language acquisition, and this can be documented by a professional educational psychologist that probably is worth pursuing. Is the high school willing to allow him to bypass Spanish because of his disability?
If he does by pass Spanish, it would be good if he did something with that class time - perhaps another math course, or another science or something else academic.
As far as college admission goes, I'd say to keep in mind a couple of things -
Be sure to find out if the colleges Jeff is looking at require a language and, if so, on what basis they would waive that. It might also be possible for him to take it pass/fail if he has a confirmed disability.
Also, if he is really good in math and science, he will find a program that will be glad to have him. The major question in any admission committee will be - can he succeed in the curriculum. It sounds like the answer will be yes.
Has he done an SAT or ACT yet?
If you have some colleges in mind for your son, it would be advisable to get in touch with them now and explain the situation, to start working on any changes or documentation they will require.
You also will need to explain the repeating of 10grade to colleges. I recommend that you do college interviews once the pool of colleges is narrowed down some.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have more questions.
