College Readiness Checklist

I seem to be coming across lots of checklists lately.

This one is from Landmark college (thanks, Nancy), and is intended for parents to use to decide whether their learning disabled child is ready for college. Since the skills are a good list for any student who may need special services, I’m including the list here. The original has a scoring system and ways Landmark College can help the student, but the basic list is useful for any prospective college student.

Original: http://www.landmark.edu/radio/documents/College-Readiness-Guide.pdf

Academic Skills

1. Can you read up to 200 pages in a week?

2. Do you have a system for taking notes?

3. Can you write a paper of 10 or more organized pages that refers to two or more sources?

4. Do you have a system for preparing for tests and exams?

5. Can you clearly summarize a college-level reading assignment?

Self-Understanding (Metacognition)

1. Can you define and describe your diagnosis of a learning disability?

2. Have you read your psychoeducational testing?

3. Do you know your academic strengths?

4. Do you know which academic tasks give you the most difficulty?

5. Can you identify the academic supports you need to be successful?

Self-Advocacy

1. Do you know your legal rights as a student with a learning disability or AD/HD?

2. When you run into difficulty, do you ask for help?

3. Do you schedule your own appointments with doctors, advisors and counselors?

4. Do you have access to your psychoeducational testing?

5. If a school or college refused to provide you with an appropriate accommodation, would you contest the decision?

Executive Function

1. Do you have a system for keeping track of your projects, books and papers?

2. Do you have a system for scheduling and managing your time?

3. Are you able to ignore difficulties and focus on the task at hand?

4. Are you able to complete all the steps of a project in a timely manner?

5. Do you have a strategy for completing tasks that you find boring?

Motivation and Confidence

1. Do you have an academic subject that you find interesting?

2. Do you know what you want to get out of your first year of college?

3. Do you know that you can succeed?

4. When you think about what you have to do in college are you excited?

5. Can you imagine your life in 10 years?