College Living Experience
Monday, August 14th, 2006
College Living Experience is a post-secondary program that provides intensive assistance with academic, independent living and social skills to college students with special needs as they transition to become independent adults. CLE assists students throughout the college process, from registration to orientation to study to life-skills development. With centers in Austin, Denver and Ft. Lauderdale, CLE offers access to nearly 20 community colleges, universities and technical institutes that offer a wide variety of certificate and degree programs. For more information, visit www.cleinc.net.
National Admissions Office
800-486-5058
Contact: Jill Rickel: jrickel@cleinc.net
We’ve had several questions from those interested in our program about the populations we work with. Here is a sample: Autism/Aspergers, ADD/ADHD, Psychosocial-Maturational issues, nonverbal learning disorders. I hope that helps.
Is there any information as to how successful/unsuccessful this program has been for students who have participated in the program? Any complaints vs. praise?
I use to be a student and employee at CLE. If you have any questions for me feel free to ask them here.
Anonymous,
What is your honest assessment of the program? It is expensive and will financially wipe us out, but worth it to me if it is all it is said to be. Your thoughts please????
Dee
To anyone considering the CLE program,
Do not waste your money. They do not provide the services you pay for and simply cannot after laying off 20+ employees this year. They will promise you anything under the sun to get you in. Once in, your son or daughter is just another number. There only concern is what they refer to as “butts in seats”, not providing you with services. The company is in serious financial difficulties due to the mismanagement on ESA’s behalf since taking over the program in 2005. This once great program is now the laughing stock in the field. You cannot trust anyone from ESA to give you the truth since they lie to everyone including their employees. Do your research asking professionals who work in the field who are not affiliated with ESA.
Dee,
Despite CLE having problems it is still one of the better programs out there. There are not many programs similar to it. My recommendation would be to visit the program and meet with the staff. The staff at CLE are caring and compassionate.
Foremer Employee
Which CLE program were you an employee with and what professionals would you suggest a person contact about CLE
Meg
Meg,
I was an employee at the original location which was purchased by ESA in June 2005, The Davie, Florida location. You can ask any professional person who has dealt with CLE or recommends students for the program such as an Educational Consultant who has dealt with them before and after ESA took over.
Former Employee and Anonymous,
We are thinking about enrolling our son in Davie this August. We have visited the facility, spoke with students and staff and came away very favorably impressed. We are very concerned about the comments posted by former employee. Could we have more specific information on the negatives and positives.
Has anyone found good sources of funding to help offset the cost?
Lois, have you been able to speak with the parents of students there now and those who’ve recently completed the program?
The person who identifies him/herself as “former employee” brings up a good suggestion. There are many educational/placement consultants from your area or in Florida who can give you their perspective.
Good luck.
My daughter presently attends the Austin CLE program. She has gone further in college with the help of CLE than she would have without it. I have not had any problems with the staff at the Austin CLE office. If I have concerns or questions, I simply call or email the person I want to talk with. Yes, it is expensive, but when you consider the alternative, it is well worth it. Our daughter is maturing, learning and growing into an independent young adult with their help. This would not have occurred without CLE’s help. I have found DARS to be of help with college tuition, and books and supplies, and other things. Some disabilities are listed under Social Security, and you can also seek financial help there. Our daughter has gone to Austin CLE for 2 years, and we are very pleased with the results.
Dolly G.
I am the parent of a CLE Monterey student, who started in October 2008. We have been very impressed by the program as it is very well rounded. The people are kind and compassionate and my son is very happy there even though he is on the other side of the U.S. from us.
Our daughter (Aspie/NLD) enrolled at CLE Monterey in August and we are thrilled with her very rapid development in the program. She’s gotten good support from staff, including tutoring, independent living skills coaching, and social support with some sticky peer conflicts. She has a social life for the first time in her 22 years. She loves it there! As a psychologist and also someone with many years of administrative experience, I have a lot of respect for what these people are doing, and have been impressed by the staff they attract. It’s an extraordinarily complex challenge, and they are juggling a lot of very complicated personalities, and miraculously it usually seems to work pretty well.
We are from NY and our son is in his second year at CLE Denver. The program has given him the opportunity to develop independent living skills as well as attend college. He has matured significantly and now has a part time job along with going to school part time. He struggles socially and the staff have always been there to get him back on track when things get rough. Yes, it is expensive but we take each year one at a time and look at it as an investment in our son. The other programs we looked into were also expensive but they were primarily academic based with support and little in the way of independent living skills. This program works to develop both so the kids can use thier strengths and acomplishments to overcome the other difficulties they may have. The core staff at Denver has stayed consistant during our sons time there and they are great. We always feel they truely care for our son and want him to succeed.
Thank you Sanford, Dolly,Martha,Dan and Tim, for taking the time to respond. Your feedback reinforces our positive perception of the program after our visit to the Davie facility.
It would be wonderful if we can hear from a Davie parent.
My daughter suffered a TBI in 2006, just one month before high school graduation. She’s beautiful (inside & out) but moves slowly, as she has balance, speech, and vision issues. Her injury hasn’t affected her ability to learn but she needs a note taker and extra test time. She played 3 sports in high school, lettering as a freshman in softball. She wants to go to college. Her twin is in college, her brother is a senior at USD. It’s her turn. How do I send her anywhere? I can’t. Not unless there’s a program like CLE. All my kids planned to go to college. We are very interested in Monterey, as it is fairly close to us. Any info that would be helpful?
I was a student there for a couple of years and yeah I found the tutoring was extremely helpful but CLE caused harm with the students who feed off drama and the staff who baby certain students because they’re not mentally sound. Most of the staff had no clue what they were doing. It’s an expensive babysitter/ tutor some parents used to get rid of their kids. The staff were also a bunch of a drama queens.
All I have left to say is when it comes to helping kids better their futures, they should be more reliable. Especially since it’s so expensive not including living expenses and college.
My son will be attending Monterey in Jan. Any suggestions or advice?
Thank you
I used to go to the one there. If he doesn’t drive then he’ll need to pick up a bus pass for each month but usually there is a staff member there to help with that.
What I would recommend he does is go to as many social activities in the program as he can during the first couple of weeks. It’s usually a great way for new students to meet others and get to know them and when I was there I found going to Dine Around consistently made me a few friends here and there!
Ex CLE student,
So at which CLE location were you? Thanks for your tips.
I used to attend the Monterey branch.
Dear Ex CLE,
So, in what ways did the program assist you and in what ways do you think it could improve? It would be great to hear from you.
I think it assisted in me in having better social skills and making it easier to meet new people and make new friends that shared my problems . I still keep in touch with the current students there too. Like I said in my post above I found the Tutoring was pretty helpful and you definitely got plenty of academic support if you had any problems in your class.
Unfortunately I found that the negatives outweigh the postives. Again like I said in my previous post the Staff tend to make a big deal out of what is a relatively minor issue and it can be a recurring annoyance. The staff love to feed off drama especially with students who aren’t mentally there or have a roommate disagreement. There are a few staff members who know what they are doing so it should be noted that not all of them are like this.
I also dislike the fact that when I attended there that no one has the choice to make something such as shopping group optional especially if they have been proven to have stuck with the weekly Food budget and make healthy choices.
There should also be a more flexible schedule to students who really need support in areas such as Career guidance etc while the likes of ILS or Cooking are given less regard?. After all this is just as important in college as those two.
Anyway I don’t want to ramble on so I’ll just leave it there.
Thanks. How long did you stay, ex CLE?
Can you use what you learned at CLE in your present?
I stayed for a year
I think regarding some of the things such as Cooking and Cleaning these are skills that I can easily use in the future. However there really isn’t much else out out of what I’ve learned really.
Ugh I meant I stayed there for two years!
Ex CLE:
No worries on the one/two years. Time flew when you were having so much fun.
Would you say that getting more fluid with social reasoning/skills has been just as important as say, being organized?
Best to you for 2011.
Has anyone had any experience with the summer program? We are considering sending our daughter to the one in Denver. It is very expensve but it sounds like a good program.
Vance,
It’s good that you’re asking around.
What else are you planning to do to see if the CLE Summer program is a good fit for your daughter? Can you get over to the site in Denver and see close up?
Would love to hear about experience with the summer program in Denver. Didn’t see a response to the posting earlier. It is expensive, but would be worth it if successful.
Hi Donna. I’m guessing you mean that you haven’t seen any response to the comment which asked about the summer program in Denver.
Anyone have any first or second hand experience?
Hi,
My Daughter just got rejected from CLE Monterey. The whole process was a time consuming waste. After describing my daughters issues, we were encouraged to apply. We visited, had panel interview, more interviews etc. Were supposed to hear in a week, it took two. After much, BS, we were told that our daughter might “destabilize” if she attended. My daughter has social and maturation issues, as marketed on the website. Apparently, she is too immature??? for the program. Never actually being a student, I would have to consider the above posts, lots of lip service for a whole lot of money.
Sam,
What are her other options? Are you considering some other places?
My son is at the summer program in Denver. As of today, I would say that the program is a good fit for us. He is socializing more than he has or would if he were at home. He is in the program for careers and he wants to go to school there this fall. He is going to art classes as part of the summer program and his interest is in art (he is very good at drawing) and hopefully this will give him some idea on how to navigate a college campus. I have received two weekly reports and he has gained skills he will need when he is on his own. I know that not everyone can be happy about the program but so far we are very pleased. My son comes home on Saturday and we are very excited to have him home.
I also attended the program for a while and didn’t find it to my taste whatsoever. Whilst there were a few positives that I took out of it and will use for future benefit most of it was just overshadowed by the negatives. It’s quite unfortunate since this is a program that could definitely succeed with the right guidance and rules but it doesn’t seem likely to push in that direction. FWIW some of the students in the program were also disillusioned by it from the staff attitudes towards them to what was being taught to us.
Liz, glad your son’s off to a good start. We’d love to hear any updates from you that you’d be willing to share.
Dear Professional cynic,
Well, being a professional cynic I’d be surprised if you’d be writing something sentimental and positive.
Kidding aside, I wonder what was the process that you used to enroll in this program. How much involvement did you have in the selection process?
Plenty of involvement actually. I wanted to be a part of the program considering it looked like something that would be beneficial in a lot of ways but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way,
Professional cynic,
Thanks. So what were the “few positives” and what were the parts that were not for you?
Hi Sam,
I am afraid that we may experience similar that you have. Our son has been home-schooled since 5th grade. Can you please elaborate a bit more on your experiences?
Sanford, what are our other options (in case of people of Sam and I)?
Any insight would be helpful.
John,
Thanks for writing in. Are you saying that CLE told you your son is not a good fit for their program? If so, why do you think they feel that way? How did they make that assessment of your son?
My daughter attended the CLE summer program in Denver this summer (2012). I was very impressed with the program and my daughter loved it. It was more a social thing for her but it is something that she has never had for most of her life. She enjoyed having friends for the first time. I liked the educational, fitness, health and activities that they had. They do keep the kids active the whole 3 weeks with lots of activities and do keep the parents updated through the internet on their progress. I highly recommend it. She is now (just moved in this weekend) in the CLE Denver full time program. It is too soon to comment on it but I have high hopes. The staff is wonderful and so far I am very impressed. I will comment later after she is with the program for a while. I have heard that Denver is way above the rest of the CLE center programs.
Frances,
Can you tell us any examples of the educational and health pieces this program had that were impressive?
Thanks for writing in.
Sanford
My questions are about the programs in Southern CA. I’ve heard there’s a Cypress campus and one coming in Costa Mesa do I’m looking for feedback on anyplace in So Cal. Plus I’d like to know exactly what the costs are?
Kim,
You should contact the program directly to get cost information.
I have Asperger’s and I am a student who will be leaving CLE. I am leaving because when it comes to academics, I did not find this program to be successful. What also saddens me is that almost 50% of the students extremely dislike me because I am a Christian. But what I find the most troublesome is that CLE says that they have a tolerance policy. The policy tells us to respect people of different race, sexual orientation, and religion. The students are able to do that with people who are of a different race (for example: African Americans), and people with different sexual orientation (primarily those of the LGBT community). But they do not seem to do that with people with different religious views (including Christians). To top it off, rather than teach about true tolerance, the staff uses curriculum that promotes certain topics that Christians do not agree with, and that is hypocritical.
Parents (especially Christian parents), If you and/or your child are strongly involved in the Christian Faith or of another religion and are looking for a program that can help your child succeed in college, but want to keep them involved in your faith, I would not choose CLE.
I would like to make several amendments on my earlier post.
First off, the day I wrote this was a time where I was going through a rough time in my life. I exasperated my emotions on the world wide web and didn’t think before I even posted. I do apologize for that.
Secondly, The percentage of students who dislike me actually was not “almost 50%” in fact the calculation that I made was totally inaccurate.
There are actually a lot of students who like having me around.
Now in regards to the tolerance policy, The truth of the matter is that CLE does in fact support a lot of people of different backgrounds. They actually have been very supportive of me especially with a transition that I am currently making.
I am transitioning to a vocational school, neither related nor near CLE. Although I was unsuccessful in the college, that wasn’t CLE’s fault. The CLE has been able to support me through this transition. I am very grateful for that as well.
I actually am very grateful for them because they really have seen a lot of growth in me. I got to host events for the CLE, such as breakfasts and wouldn’t you know it, a game show!
So there really is nothing wrong with CLE. If you really want your child to succeed in college but want them to stay involved in the Faith, call them up and schedule an appointment! Best of all, if your child wants to go to church on Sunday, they will let you do that!
Dear Student leaving the program,
Well, that’s quite the turn-around. I have to say I really appreciate your willingness to expose your current thoughts and feelings and your honesty. I thought your original comments were a bit rough, though I can understand when you feel unsupported because of your faith. What I really appreciate is your openness to confront your own misstatements or exaggerations. It’s really a sign of maturity to admit our mistakes, especially in such a public forum.
Keep up your studies and growth and we’d love to hear how you’re doing.
Sanford
Is anyone familiar with the CLE in the DC area ? My daughter may benefit from this type of program (Aspie/ADHD, anxiety,etc.). I would like to be with driving distance and Denver is too far. I would live to hear anyone’s experiences with the DC program. Thanks.
Level one
I sought out this site specifically hoping for more details on the program in Rockville. It is the type of program my son could benefit a lot from, but it is so pricey and the reviews for the other locations are so all over the place that I just don’t know what to do…
Personally my experiences of it were also extremely negative
. I entered this program not feeling fully prepared for college. They pretty much had my back at the beginning and made me feel better about myself going through college and living independently. And, well, that was pretty much it. My experience with them went pretty much downhill from there. CLE really doesn’t have many strong points other than allowing their students to make friends easily (I made a lot of friends though this program, so that is one of the few things I can praise them on).
I should go on and mention that for some people, this peace of mind is all they really need to go through college. For those people, this is enough to keep them in the program, granted the program doesn’t provide any grief for them. I am one of those people that gains peace of mind knowing that I have access to such services if I need them. However, I did not stay because CLE indeed did give me grief.
This program is also very “one size fits all.” And since CLE is very “one size fits all,” it is really only helpful for a select few people. The rest of the vast majority of their students, including me, become increasingly frustrated with them and eventually leave on their own terms. They create new sessions and services that may help for a few people and implement them into ALL their students’ schedules, sometimes with little to no notice, and make the students that don’t feel like they need them “test out” of them (instead of, well, trusting us).
Having to deal with these people is awful. I never felt like I could advocate for my self with them because every time I tried to, I would get an excuse. Now, once in a while, excuses are acceptable. We are human after all! But almost every time I came to them with a problem, I got an excuse of some sort and nothing ever got solved. When you’re getting excuses every time, it gets very annoying. Excuses don’t solve the problem!
One of the biggest problems I had with CLE was how they objectified me and the other students. Let me give you a few examples:
-For one of their “J term” sessions, they made us do an embarrassing scavenger hunt where we went around downtown Monterey (within walking distance) with a staff member and did tasks that nobody does in the real world, like offering to pumping someone’s gas and carry their groceries. When many of us expressed our dislike for it, they just laughed it off
-Recently, they hired several “mentors” who were a year or two older than us. However, they acted more as camp counselors and less like friends, the tiny age difference made me feel very uncomfortable.
-Several staff members were very patronizing to me and automatically assumed I didn’t understand basic concepts.The student advisor that I had right before I left did just this. It made me feel very inadequate.
-They pretty much assume we don’t know any independent living skills and make us prove that we don’t to get out of certain programs we don’t need instead of taking our word for it.
CLE also does a lot of stuff, like signing you up for supportive services and registering for classes, for you. This is nice if you don’t want to have to do this yourself, but I wanted to do these things by myself so I could get the experience. They will help you determine classes and pick out some great professors, though. That is another rare praise for CLE.
In conclusion, it might be worth it to try out CLE. If the social part of college is what you’re worried about and/or you really need the independent living services or tutoring, I say definitely try it out. It might be worth it, but be warned that you may be treated like a child. If you don’t really need the services, I would avoid this place and do some more research. There are more programs similar to CLE out there.
Personally I can’t understand all the negative feedback about CLE on here and elsewhere. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience in the three years I was in the program and found the staff most helpful. Special shoutout to Rick Picar who really was the most helpful staff member out of them all!