K & W Guide to Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities or AttentionDeficit Disorder, 7th Edition (K&W Guide to Colleges for Students With Learning Disabilities Or Attention Deficit Disorder)

Imy F. Wax | Marybeth Kravets

1 Big but less than useful
There is a lot of info in this book, but I live in Washington and it only had info on 2 schools. A much better book is Peterson's Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities or ADD. It separates into 2 & 4 year schools and also direct or self-directed programs. The purpose of these books should be to give you some direction as to which schools have something, and ways to contact them for more info. Tons of data about fewer schools is not that helpful, which is how I see this book. All of these books would be even more useful if they included a CD or online search capability so you didn't have to try to scour thru a large written book.

2 Very basic information re: only a relatively few colleges
I had hoped that _The K&W Guide to Colleges: For Students with Learning Disabilities or ADD_ would be useful in selecting an appropriate college for an LD kid. Unfortunately, it was not.

On the plus side, it contains basic information in an easy-to-use format. However, that positive is outweighed by the negative: it seems to only sample a few of the many colleges and universities in the US. E.g., UC-Berkeley is included but UC-Davis is not. (Most UC campuses, like most colleges and universities, are not.) However, the services provided at UCD are similar to those at UCB. Similarly, USF and USC are included but Mills College and Stanford are not, although the schools that are excluded seem to have the same kinds of services as those that are included. The same pattern occurs among two-year colleges.

I could find no explanation of why any given college was included or excluded. Without such understanding, the book seems like a random collection of colleges with very basic information about what types of services each provides. I don't see how it is helpful in selecting a college for someone with an LD or ADD unless you've already determined which colleges you'd like to attend and are fortunate enough to have all those colleges included in this book. Even then, most the information in this book would be readily available on most colleges' web sites, along with a wealth of useful information about accommodation that's not included. Therefore, I think that for most LD or ADD students, this book is not very helpful.

3 Excellent Guide for Parents of LD kids
I found this guide to be just what I was looking for. By reviewing the admissions procedures for LD kids, and seeing the number of staff a university devotes to assisting students with disabilities I am able to direct my son to schools that can best help him. I was very encouraged to find the University of Arizona and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill among major colleges with strong programs. I bought a second copy to give to our high school.