Ryan Manley was diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder in seventh grade, but when he enrolled at Texas Tech University as a freshman in 2014, he was tired of using medication and accommodations to treat it. He decided to try to make it on his own.
It didn’t go well. He fell behind on his assignments and eventually became so discouraged that he stayed in his dorm room most of the day. Midway through his second year, the university declared him academically ineligible, he says.
“I took a lot of classes,” Mr. Manley says, “but I didn’t pass a lot of classes.”
His family had an idea to help him get back on track. His grandfather had served on the Board of Trustees at Landmark College, a private institution in Vermont for students with learning disabilities. The college offers a summer program for visiting college students, to help them learn more about their conditions, identify ways to become more successful, and better advocate for themselves on their home campus.
When Mr. Manley applied for the 2016 summer program, his weak academic record was no cause for concern. In fact, he is exactly the kind of student Landmark hopes to attract.
This special report examines the challenges that students, academics, and colleges face in dealing with physical disabilities as well as conditions that are less visible.
“We always joke that Landmark students have failed out of some of the best colleges in the country,” says Mac Gander, an English and journalism professor who teaches a writing course in the summer program.
Like Mr. Manley, many students with learning disabilities try to get by without help when they arrive at college. Some 94 percent of learning-disabled students receive accommodations in high school, compared with 17 percent in college, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities. For many, that “go it alone” strategy hurts their odds of graduating: Only 41 percent of students with learning disabilities earn any type of college degree, compared with 52 percent of all students.
“It’s amazing how much we expect students to change during the transition from high school to college,” says Susan Grabowski, who oversees Landmark’s program for visiting college students and other short-term programs. “There’s no parent to make sure they’re doing their homework, taking their medication, getting to sleep on time, and getting up for class. Some of these students are not prepared for that.”
Landmark, with 475 students, was founded in 1985 as a two-year college, but it has recently added bachelor’s-degree programs in computer science, liberal studies, and studio art. Last spring, Landmark graduated its first class of bachelor’s degree students, who numbered 12.
The summer program for visiting college students, which attracted 40 students this year, was added in 2007. Landmark also offers summer programs for high-school students and for new collegebound high-school graduates.
The visiting college students aren’t required to have a formal medical diagnosis, but, like regular students at Landmark, they typically have a learning disability, ADHD, or are on the autism spectrum.
The five-week program runs from early July to mid-August, and the days are full. Students are required to take a class called “Narrowing the Gap — Becoming a Strategic College Student,” which provides tips such as learning to manage time better and following through on commitments. The course covers the various learning disabilities and conditions that brought the students to Landmark in the first place. It then highlights reading and note-taking techniques that can help all students, but especially those who are easily distracted. It promotes “active reading,” which involves breaking a long piece of writing into shorter pieces, highlighting the main idea, and writing your own comments and questions in the margins. The course also recommends “Cornell style” note taking, which uses two columns on each page — one for recording the lecture as fully as possible, and a second for summarizing main ideas afterward. The course also demonstrates technology that can serve as a virtual three-ring binder, such as Microsoft OneNote.
“We introduce a lot of different tools, so that students can decide: What works best for me? What fits me and my learning style?” Ms. Grabowski says.
Students can choose one of two writing classes developed specifically for the college-level program, or take up to two courses that are offered to all summer students, including classes in biology, journalism, acting, and statistics. Physical-education offerings are optional, and lean toward the mind-clearing variety: yoga, hiking, and Japanese long sword (which couples meditation with sword skills).
We introduce a lot of different tools, so that students can decide, What works best for me?
The program costs $7,500, and financial aid is available. It attracts students from all over the United States — and occasionally from other countries. Fredrik Holmberg, a native of Sweden who spent three years at a Swedish university, was diagnosed with dyslexia at age 8. His learning disability and penchant for perfectionism led to overwhelming stress last spring while he was managing a group project that also served as his bachelor’s thesis, he says.
He ultimately abandoned the project and dropped out of his university. “It was mostly in my own head,” he says now. “There were a lot of goals that I wanted to reach, and I would beat myself up about it when I couldn’t get those goals done.”
At Landmark, Mr. Holmberg says, he learned the most from Mr. Gander’s writing course. The professor urged him to break large writing projects into smaller chunks to get a greater sense of achievement. “If I’m 60 percent done, that counts for something,” Mr. Holmberg says. “I should get some matter of satisfaction out of that.”
Mr. Gander says his summer students, including those with ADHD or Asperger’s syndrome, are smart and are capable writers, but often procrastinate.
“When they do write, it’s often extraordinarily strong,” he says. “Getting them to sit down and do it is the goal of the course.”
In a typical year, about a quarter of those in the summer program for visiting college students decide to enroll full time for at least a semester. “One of the things we’ve always done is created an option for students to try us out and see if we’re right for them,” Mr. Gander says.
Mr. Manley, the Texas Tech student, is among those who decided to stick around. He expects to remain at Landmark for the next academic year, and perhaps for two years to earn an associate degree.
Mr. Manley took acting and yoga classes during the summer program, in addition to the required course on study skills. The packed schedule — one academic course in the morning, another in the afternoon, yoga before dinner, and strict hours for eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner — kept him active and got him out of his dorm room. “Never before have I been in such a groove,” he says.
“I’ve learned so much about myself and what is going on with me,” Mr. Manley adds. “Landmark has put a mirror in front of my face.”
