You have been accepted to college. You need support for your learning disability, AD/HD, emotional issues, or even all three! How do you decide where to send your deposit and enroll in September?

It is a good idea to revisit the colleges you liked when you saw them the first time. Many colleges have visitation days when accepted students are invited. If your first choice college does not have a visitation day, arrange your own with the admissions office. This often helps you make the decision; you will meet students who might be in your classes, become acquainted with activities and programs going on at the college, see the dorms, have a meal at the cafeteria or food court, read the bulletin boards and student newspaper, and talk with current students. You can also learn more about the college setting and community resources. If you can sit in during a class, especially one in a possible major, that will help you learn about the academic environment.

The visitation day provides an excellent opportunity to speak with staff at disability services, too. However, if there is a crowd of students that day, you might not have private time to speak with the coordinator, so some phone conversations or emails before or after the visitation day are a very good idea.

Your parents will want to be very involved in the decision about where you enroll. While it is important they have adequate information for this big decision, it is better to do as much of the leg work, phone calls, and arrangements yourself. If you are too stuck, Mom or Dad can step in. But hearing the goods from the people at the colleges yourself makes a greater impact than hearing it from Mom or Dad.

Renee LeWinter Goldberg, Ed.D., CEP and Marvin Goldberg, MSW, are Directors of Educational Options, LLC, an educational consulting practice in Boston, Massachusetts.

For more information go to A Guide to the College Process: Getting In and Staying In