Landmark and Beacon College

Landmark has been around longer and has a well-established reputation, but I haven’t heard anything negative about Beacon. You might want to talk to some current & past students of each program.

I have visited Beacon College which is in Leesburg, Florida. It is a very small college in a very small town. My daughter considered it, but decided against it because it is in a small town. The faculty and staff appear comptetent and organized. I have a colleague whose daughter graduated from Beacon, but she still had difficulty finding a job after college. Of course, lots of college graduates these days have difficulty finding a job. Her mother didn’t think that the college was particularly challenging, but she also said that her daughter would have had significant difficulty at a community college. So I would say that you should consider Beacon.
My daughter had decided on the College Living Experience in Davie (Ft.Lauderdale) which is a program for LD students in conjunction with Broward Community College. Students attend the community college, but have the academic support of tutors through the College Living Experience program. The program also provides social and financial skills training.
If anyone reading this has actual experience with College Living Experience, please post your experiences. Good luck–this process of helping our LD kids with post secondary decisions is quite difficult.

It is in Milton MA, about 8 miles south of Boston. It has a great support system for LD. My daughter went there last year and was helped a lot/
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I am an educational consultant who does post secondary placements for students with learning disabilites. Many of my clients actually do better in a four year college because support services are not adequate at a commnuity college.Landmark lately has had a reputation of have a little more “street wise” kind of student but educationally both are solid. Beacon is newly accredited. There are many schools that might be assessible for you daughter depending on her skill levels and support needs.

JillB -

What kind of services to you provide? Thanks…

I laughed, in a friendly way, at the remark about the street wise students. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but I bet it would apply to my son. In my experience, the only LD/ADD school we found for our son without sending him away was filled with street wise students, and that did influence him negatively. But, then , maybe, Landmark would be a good match for him.

Beacon was highly recommended by an educational consultant for our son, but he would not even consider it because it was too small.

We are in the thick of this too. My son is a senior in high school. He may have an acceptance to a small liberal arts college near enough for both of us to feel independent, yet comfortable. Still, I worry about this world of college that seems even more rigid than high school.

Angela — there’s rigid and there’s rigid.

Colleges generally have a lot less of the leaning over shoulders and micromanaging than high schools, which is good. Students are generally expected to be able to do their own work, and if they don’t figure out how to manage at first, well they fail a class or two and have to do it again. That is part of the learning process.

On the other hand, a respectable college will expect the students to meet cetain academic standards and won’t fudge them for you. This can be upsetting to many students, often including the “all A” types, when they discover that the outside world doesn’t reshape itself for thm.

Be prepared for both.

Thanks, Victoria

We have done much to provide challenging curriculum and high expectations, yet he is in the very sheltered environment of an ld school. I have tried to teach him that he has to “get the job done” even if it means doing it in a different way. The college we are looking at is small, with a low teacher/student ratio. He is so good verbally. Still I know how long it takes him to read and write and wonder if college will work. We do have lots of options, it is just the uncertainty, I guess.

Angela, you might want to check Cuesta College near San Luis Obispo. For a community college, it seems to be paying a fair amount of attention to LDs and ADD. It even has a nearby private dorm, unusual for community colleges. It has drop-in services, though, and my son (ADD/CAPD) probably needs the in-your-face type of services and instructors not only sympathetic to, but trained in dealing with LD and ADD, like Landmark. He may be ready for a drop-in center (a la SALT in AZ) after Landmark, but he’s not there yet. He has so much trouble with organization and time management, andThe cost of Landmark is staggering, though…. We are visiting Landmark in a couple of weeks and I will post my impressions.

I am curious what LD school you found in Southern California. We searched and didn’t find any at the HS level except one in Del Mar— is that the one? You may email me directly if you’d like to talk off the board:
[email protected]

Lisa M

I was recently reminded by a member of this community that I had never followed up with my promised post. We visited Landmark in February and (hopefully) my son will attend in the Fall. Here is my response to her:

We were very, very impressed with Landmark. I felt I needed to “see” the real bricks-and-mortar building and meet people onsite before making a decision. We have colleges here in Southern California that are housed in industrial buildings, and while a college could be fine in that setting, you get a feeling about the transiency of the operation sometimes…. I think Landmark is here to stay; they are building more on-campus housing, and seeking grants and endowments. They are a 24/7 program, unlike a SALT center or other drop-in program.

We (my son and I) visited just prior to an open house in February. On Friday, we spent most of the day there. We had a personalized tour and met with a professor. My son had his interview and we had all our questions answered. The professor explained that in an entry-level English class (one that would normally meet 3 hours a week, for 3 units) his course would meet 6 hours (3x2 hours, I think) with one session per week learning their learning tools/systems/technology to use in completing the work covered in the other sessions. The classes only have 12-15 students and they sit in the round so no one can hide in the back or space out. They are mostly swivel chairs for kids who need to fidget! There is a separate writing lab and an academic support lab (that’s not the exact name…) and students meet with their advisors constantly— like once a week. We got to talk to several members of the staff— one professor came over and introduced herself and told us what she was involved in. (At my university, I doubt if 10 staff members knew my name after 4 years, so this was a big difference to me!) With every staff member I talked to, I heard they were there because they really wanted to be— the English professor had seen the results of Landmark in a former (failing) student of his at another college, and waited several years for an opening.

The open house was a more detailed version of the presentation we had seen when they came to L.A. One of the deans (I don’t recall his exact title; maybe Dean of Academic Affairs) was absolutely passionate about what they are doing there. He made a lot of points that rang true for me. One of the professors demonstrated how they use technology to organize information for a paper— combining several programs that allow you to “talk” your thoughts into a mind map or outline. This professor had dyslexia. I think a lot of the people who work there have some LD or another. The students who spoke were sincere and one older kid, who said Landmark was his “last chance,” had many of the moms wiping their eyes!

The school is a real “campus” with dorms, student union, offices, gym, athletic fields, etc. The dorms are pretty typical of what I’ve seen. They have a resident dean as well as student RA’s in each dorm. There is a quiet dorm and a substance-free dorm. The food was actually good and varied— we ate there twice, and once was NOT during the Open House! They try to match up roommates with similar study habits. Lots of activities clubs and field trips, including a shuttle to shopping and movies in Brattleboro. (The kids who wanted a “big city” experience for college did not seem impressed. My kid, who lives in an urban area, is thrilled with the woods surrounding the college, the snow, and the quiet.) The town of Putney is cute and kind of artsy, on a small scale.

Everyone was very friendly, and we were impressed with how the students seem so accepting of each other’s disabilities and help each other out. My son said one reason he liked it (and he LOVED it!) was that “everyone’s in the same situation I am.” (He goes to a big school, but to hear the school describe it, he is the ONLY kid with processing issues…..)

It is insanely expensive and we are still trying to cope with that part. We have come to the conclusion, though, that our son needs the two years here (and it seems it could be 2 1/2 years, depending on whether a student starts in credit or “pre-credit” classes) before he could be successful anywhere else. But their goal IS for kids to move on to 4-year schools, and researching and preparing for that transfer is part of the program.

I’ve rambled on— sorry. If I’ve left anything unanswered, let me know. If your son/daughter has any questions, I’m sure my son would be happy to answer them.

Lisa M

It’s very sad that the two leading institutions in the US who have the best educational setting for students with LD are out of reach financially for the majority of us. Thre are on the other hand some two and four year institutions (both public and private) that have a sturctured proactive programs for stundents with LD. They are listed in “The Peterson’s Guide for Students with Learning Disabilities”.