Admission Process

This interview will cover the following background about your student:

• Relevant family history
• Developmental history
• Medical history
• Relevant psychosocial history
• Primary language in the home and current fluency in English
• Any history of substance abuse
• Any history of psychological disorders
• A thorough description of your student’s current problem or problems

We require a complete IQ battery, including all subtests and standard scores. This testing will give us an assessment of your student’s aptitude and academic achievement.

The test we accept is the Wechsler Intelligence Scale (the most current, age-appropriate version).

We do not accept the Slosson Intelligence Test–Revised nor Kaufman Intelligence Test. We feel that these tests are inappropriate for your student because they do not adequately measure aptitude and are not generally accepted by college boards.

We also require a complete achievement test battery, including all subtests and standard scores. This test will give us a history of your student’s accomplishments, including academic achievements and areas that need attention. We accept the following:

• Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-educational Battery–Revised
• Tests of Achievement
• Wechsler Individual Achievement Test
• Stanford Test of Academic Skills
• Scholastic Abilities Test

We do not accept the Wide Range Achievement Test–Revised nor the Nelson-Deny because we believe they do not comprehensively measure achievement and are not generally accepted by college boards.

This test will give us insight into how your student processes information, such as his or her short- and long-term memory, sequential memory, auditory and visual perception and processing, processing speed, executive functioning and motor ability. We accept the following information processing assessments:

• Detroit Test of Learning Aptitude
• Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability
• WAIS-III subtest information

Diagnosis should be documented as clearly and specifically as possible. Individual learning styles, learning differences, academic problems and so forth do not constitute a learning disability. While we may, under special circumstances, provide accommodations on our campus for students based on their learning differences, these accommodations will not be allowed for standardized testing and will not be allowed on the college level.

We want your student to succeed in our program and are willing to help. Based on your student’s diagnosis, the professional conducting the evaluation may recommend specific accommodations. If you have any requests, this section of the report needs to include the following:

• Any limitations to learning that your student has based on his or her diagnosis
• The degree to which these limitations impact your student
• A specific description of the accommodations that would help your student and why they are needed
• A description of how these specific accommodations would impact your student’s diagnosed learning difference

Your student’s formal psychoeducational evaluation must include the following:

• Typed on professional letterhead
• Dated and signed by the professional who conducted the testing and assessment
• The professional’s credentials, including license/certification and jurisdictional information

Qualified examiners include the following:

• Clinical and counseling psychologists
• Educational and school psychologists
• Neuropsychologists
• Learning disabilities specialists

You may also use professionals who are not on this list but qualified to assess learning differences. If you do, they must include the training and experience that qualifies them to conduct these assessments on their report.