State Universities (Champaign, Urbana, Girard: environment, lawyer, agriculture)

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by jenrik2714

All her HS career at Waubonsie Valley, she was constantly told that she couldn't take this class or this class because of her LD. THeir excuse was it was too hard for her. Her sophomore year, she participated in a pilot program where she took her 2nd half of algebra with another class of Geometry. She placed in 2 year algebra 1 course and she did great,she ended up assisting other students in her class! SHe has a GPA close to a 3.0 she was always so close but not quite there. Now she is Alg. 2 with Trig
She does struggle with reading and writing but that doesn't stop her from trying.
She is tired of people telling her that she can't do it, and if she gets into U of I, I told her it wouldn't be no cake walk, that she would have to work her butt off. She wants to prove to herself she can do it

My suggestion would be to start off with the minimum course load of 12 credits for her first semester....which should help her be able to focus more time on classes. Increase the load if things are going well....you can easily make this up by taking a summer class or two depending on what load you carry each year. (Or just go 4.5 years)

One thing I would HIGHLY caution about is that U of IL is a HUGE school and frankly are not going to hold your hand and look out for you like at a private school. That place is self-service so make sure you get some sort of support network in place ahead of time with basics like which classes to take, where to get tutoring\help etc etc etc. I learned this by my Junior year there....would have been nice to know going in.

Why does she fixate on U of IL? Seriously, another school might indeed be the better fit. In any event, it sounds like her acceptance is not a sure thing so best to apply to 2-3 schools and then make a decision afterwards. You can always go somewhere else for a year and then transfer in if your grades were good.

Best of luck

[jenrik2714]

I told her to look at other colleges just in case you don't get into U of I

[Mathguy]

Cool.

FYI- My sister also went there and hated it...tranfered to NIU after her Freshmen year.

[jenrik2714]

I am a graduate of UIC myself

[ogre]

Originally Posted by jenrik2714

All her HS career at Waubonsie Valley, she was constantly told that she couldn't take this class or this class because of her LD. THeir excuse was it was too hard for her. Her sophomore year, she participated in a pilot program where she took her 2nd half of algebra with another class of Geometry. She placed in 2 year algebra 1 course and she did great,she ended up assisting other students in her class! SHe has a GPA close to a 3.0 she was always so close but not quite there. Now she is Alg. 2 with Trig
She does struggle with reading and writing but that doesn't stop her from trying.
She is tired of people telling her that she can't do it, and if she gets into U of I, I told her it wouldn't be no cake walk, that she would have to work her butt off. She wants to prove to herself she can do it

This is another example of why it would be good to look closely at what kind of support each school offers for students with disabilities. No college is going to walk a student with learning disabilities around by the hand, but a school that makes a sincere effort to provide advice and support, rather than just going through the motions, can really help a student with a learning disability fully realize the kind of potential your daughter obviously has.

I won't mention any post in particular, but I think it's worth pointing out that a learning disability has nothing to do with intelligence, or lack of intelligence. Some people with learning disabilities are way up there when it comes to brain power. In fact, many people can find this very frustrating, because they have to make that extra effort just to work out the mechanics of reading and writing so that they can use all the smarts they have. Sort of like the frustration of having a high-powered computer that's hooked up to second-rate input and output devices. From the information here, it's obvious that this is a highly intelligent young lady we're talking about.

Still, it works best for each student to find the school that provides the right fit. That's even more the case if a student has learning issues. You don't want to add the challenge of a learning disability to the frustration of being at a school that isn't the best fit all around. I really admire your daughter's desire to prove herself at a school with a high-powered reputation, and for all we know U of IL might be the right college for her, but I would encourage her to consider other possibilites as well, and go with whatever school offers the most suitable overall college experience for her needs, personality, and interests. U of IL might be great for her, and some large universities do better than others at treating their students as individuals, not as numbers. It's still worth considering the possibility that a school the size of U of IL can be overwhelming for a lot of young people away from home for the first time, and this could be the case even moreso for someone who is starting out already dealing with the challenge of a learning disability.

Many schools with elite reputations, like U of IL, have those reputations becuase some of their professors have won Nobel prizes, and they have many professors who have made major contributions to their fields of research. This really has nothing to do with the quality of teaching the students receive. Some of the best teachers are found at smaller colleges where the faculty emphasizes reasearch less and teaching more. A lot depends on the individual student. Everyone has different preferences. Some students really like the excitement of a large university--big football weekends, an almost infinite variety of activities available on campus, that sort of thing. Others find this setting overwhelming, and do much better at smaller schools where they find more of a family atmosphere, with close support from faculty, staff, and administrators.

Your daughter is fortunate to be in a state known for the high quality of its state colleges. The chance to take on an academic challenge and test oneself is not limited to the elite universities. Any well run college will challenge its students. As one example, even being from out of state i know I've heard good things about the academic quality of SIU, which several people have mentioned here. I'm sure your daughter can find the right college from among the many high-quality schools in the Illinois system. Maybe U of IL is the one. But one of the smaller universities might also turn out to be the right fit. It's really best not to look at a school's elite reputation, but to find a college that provides solid support for students with learning disabilities, and which best fits your daughter's personality and academic interests.

Your daughter sounds like one really special kid. And you seem to be a wonderfully supportive parent. Best of luck with finding that college which best suits all of her needs.

[M TYPE X]

I'm a TA at UI. The quality of undergrad teaching is minimal, unless you get into a small seminar with a big name professor. Of course, most of the ratings available online for real profs usually label them as "arrogant" or "dismissive." It's no different at Michigan (where I did undergrad), or other Big Ten universities such as Penn State or Wisconsin.

[Drover]

And therein lies the benefit of going to one of the smaller state schools (though not many of them offer an ag program). I went to EIU and almost every single class I took was taught by a professor. I also had exactly one "lecture-hall" type class. Every other class I took was 25 students or less -- some as few as 15 students.

[sonicreducer]

Here are the direct links to the Agriculture programs in Illinois schools:
Western Illinois University (Macomb)
Illinois State University (Bloomington-Normal)
Southern Illinois University (Carbondale)
Univ. of Illinois (Urbana)

Eastern Illinois Univ. does not have an agriculture program, surprisingly, but they do have a Pre-Veterinary medicine program.

Northern Illinois Univ. also lacks an ag program, but has Pre-vet med.

All of these schools also have programs in Biological Sciences, which would be a good path to pursue if she wants to do a grad degree in Veterinary Medicine. Most community colleges offer a good assortment of ag classes too. I know many 4 year private colleges also offer pre-veterinary medicine programs as well (Blackburn College is one).

I have to echo what X Type X had to say above about TAs and class size at U of Illinois. Most undergrads are very shocked when they start classes to learn that the majority of their instructors will be primarily teaching assistants rather than professors--especially in lower level lecture/general education classes. This is not always really a drawback though, as some TAs are actually BETTER teachers than the faculty. They may not have the same depth of knowledge, but they are generally pretty well versed in their particular subject area. I had awesome TAs and awful TAs. It's just part of going to a large university.

My husband was a TA for a couple years, and did have a couple students with learning disorders. He only knew this because the University contacted him directly. He was given a contact in the learning disability resources office, and was to keep that person updated on the student's progress regularly. So the university was looking out for the students in some regular manner, and made sure they had extra time for exams/papers, etc. My husband said the students he had with LDs were great, and worked very hard, and who earned their good grades honestly. I imagine that most any school would have a similar office that would play liaison between the student and the faculty/department.

As a final point, I hope no one thinks I was implying that having a learning disability does not mean you aren't smart or capable. I definitely do not believe that, and have had brilliant friends who have struggled to succeed by artificial "standards"--like grades and test scores, etc. We all learn differently, and this can have a huge impact on how one performs in school. Some people are "visual learners", some are better writers than speakers, some are bad at math and awesome at reading (or the reverse), some are bad at spelling and good at interpretation, some cannot take tests well or at all....the list goes on and on. There are some colleges out there that take more of a holistic approach to education--looking at a student's abilities outside of their ability to "cram" for tests and what have you. The 2 that spring to mind are Evergreen College (Washington), and Antioch (Ohio), but these are firmly "liberal arts" colleges.

Finally, I found a few pages with tips for parents (as far as looking for colleges). I'm not sure if you've stumbled across these yet in your searches, but they seem like they could be helpful as you get started on the search.
LD OnLine :: College & College Prep
Infosheet About College Opportunities-The Council for Learning Disabilities
http://www.heath.gwu.edu/PDFs/GR.pdf (broken link)

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by M TYPE X

I'm a TA at UI. The quality of undergrad teaching is minimal, unless you get into a small seminar with a big name professor. Of course, most of the ratings available online for real profs usually label them as "arrogant" or "dismissive." It's no different at Michigan (where I did undergrad), or other Big Ten universities such as Penn State or Wisconsin.

I can definitely agree that a lot of the "teaching" at U of IL was done by grad students and much of it boiled down to "there's the book, I'm going to read out of it now".

Did run across some good professors etc. but definitely the school was more of a cafeteria (self service) than a restaurant for lack of a better analogy.

[M TYPE X]

Everything at the large research university is dumbed down. I don't understand how American universities are at the top of the scale of world academia, other than the obvious (popularity polls and hyping oneself up). I'm here for the degree. If I was serious about teaching or research, there are small (especially private) colleges, and there are private research institutes. You can find these all across the country.

The TAs are arrogant and dismissive because they want to be tenured professors too, or at least bitter assistant professors.

Learning disability liasons are part of the university's CYA policy, and also the 'develop new departments with their own budgets' policy.

Big universities: you're paying for the name and alumni base, not the edjumacation.
I don't pay to be here ... they pay me. It's great.