I’m not sure anyone here has experience with this but here goes. If you can give advice on any aspect of this I’d appreciate it. We have no experience with recruiting and are are new to ADHD with our sophomore who will likely be invited to play a team sport at the D1 level and can definitely play at D3. It’s reasonable to expect several offers at this point although that can always change. May choose D3 depending on goals and because was told to consider smaller schools by dr but our teen is strong willed so maybe not. Teen also has a chronic health issue that is currently under control and there’s no way to tell when/if it would come out of remission. Sports participation would likely be impacted if it reappears.
Teen is fairly organized, is now on ADHD meds when at school for focus and retention and is much more intelligent than grades/test scores will probably show thus absolutely wants/needs a stimulating academic environment. Grades/test scores may change now that child’s on meds but we can’t tell yet. GPA took a hit with the illness the past year so about a 3.3 unweighted at moment. Teen makes a very strong and positive impression when met in person so coaches may be surprised by lower GPA when given no explanation.
FWIW we expect that the sport will not offer much of a scholarship, really just entry to perhaps a more competitive school and perhaps merit money if eligible. Our teen loves the sport which keeps DK on a schedule and very active, 2 bonuses for the new ADHD combo diagnosis. This is all made trickier by the possible recurrence of a very debilitating but invisible illness.
What advice do you have on how much info, if any, to disclose re: ADHD and illness - which are 2 separate things - to schools and coaches? I doubt teen would say anything about either issue and we are pretty hands off so far. If teen may or will use resources for SN do it need to be disclosed up front in the application?
The sport combined with an illness that may or may not impact playing ability throws a whole other element to the mix so if anyone has BTDT, I’d appreciate your thoughts/knowledge on how to approach. My thinking is that if illness is in remission then better not to bring it up as it is not impacting anything other than medications being taken periodically. Not so sure about the ADHD though.
I can help address some of this topic as our D17 has fairly significant ADHD and has been on medication for it since childhood. Her test scores and grades, even while medicated, do not reflect her abilities. We knew that finding a good fit for her was crucial. We did not initially disclose the ADHD, although once she was on her official visits, we did bring it up. Initially we asked questions regarding access to team physicians and getting prescriptions written for her med (which is considered a controlled substance and heavily regulated).
It was easy to tell which coaches were experienced with ADHD kids and which may have considered it to be a detriment. The school she ended up at makes it easier for her to succeed with access to individual tutors and mandatory study tables (most freshman are required to attend these anyway).
We did not hesitate to disclose the ADHD because we wanted the coaches to know up front, but we also wanted to gauge which coaches did not see the kid behind the diagnosis.
I would tend to agree that maybe it isn’t necessary to bring up the illness, considering there is no way of knowing that it would even recur during college. Of course, all medicines will have to be disclosed in compliance with NCAA requirements.
Good luck!
Thanks - this is very helpful. Do you mind saying what size school your daughter is at and what level (D1, 2 or 3) she is playing?
I’ve been reading this forum since I posted and it appears that the highly competitive schools require in the 50% range for test scores and GPA. Our teen knows academic matches are more important since sports could always fall by the wayside especially if illness returned.
@NancyNC She is at a mid-major D1 (approx. 10,000 enrollment)
@NancyNC From my experience as a former Division I athlete, every student-athlete will take a physical at the beginning of the year before they can enter your sport. You will be expected to disclose any pre-existing illness as well as current ones.
In terms of ADHD, I had a teammate that had bipolar disorder. Our coach was very willing to work with her. I think it just depends on the coach and situation. My attention span isn’t the greatest and feel I would have done better with smaller class sizes (I went to Wisconsin), where I had direct access to my professors. I did not perform well in undergrad because of this but in grad school at Northwestern I pulled a 3.6 gpa :). Our class sizes were about 10 to 15 people. Also, have you thought about online courses? I liked those better for my attention span because they can be taken at your own pace and lectures can be rewound if you don’t understand parts of the lectures.
You also mention Academic fit. What criteria are you looking at to make sure the school is a good academic fit?
There are schools of all sizes at all division levels, so just because you want a smaller school doesn’t rule out D1. Presbyterian has 1200 students and has D1 sports, including a football team. Furman has 2800. Even Notre Dame only has 8500 undergrads. UCSC is a D3 school with 16,000 students. There are D2 schools with under 1000 students and some with almost 10,000. Lots of choices.
Consider other things like the amount of travel, which can throw a student on medication off schedule, whether the team all lives together and has meals together and socializes together (too much together!), if the team has early lifting and late practices which again can throw of medication and sleep schedules.
My daughter’s freshman schedule was very organized and that was good for her. She had early (5:30 am) lifting, classes, usually a nap, afternoon practice, dinner, then study tables. She was usually in bed at 9:30. I was a happy parent!
Thanks for the insight and things to consider, even down to medicine schedules.
Now I’m rethinking the whole “don’t mention the illness” which seemed like a good thing to do when I first posted. It is very challenging all around especially because he’s starting rather late with all this. Now that DS has been on a stimulant med for a month or so and his grades are now mostly solid As. More importantly he is loving learning again. However, he missed a tremendous amount of school the past 3 years and it’s a miracle he even passed grades much less is playing at D1 level as a sophomore. He missed high level play/tournaments/making teams where he would have been seen too. He will not be able to juggle a lot of AP classes (needs more sleep than others) next year.
Also, finding the right academic environment will be interesting because he is very charismatic, a leader, determined, and comes off as extremely smart in person but doesn’t have the high GPA/test scores yet which limit the schools he approaches this spring if he doesn’t explain the illness in the intro email. He has to submit grades/test scores this spring and they don’t reflect his intellect at all yet. So for the schools that would be a good match academically for him, there would need to be explanation, otherwise they will definitely overlook him. So, I’ve encouraged him to pick a few prospect days to attend this summer since he can’t make any more this winter and we’ll try and do a few school tours. He did attend one recruiting day for multiple colleges recently which was a great learning experience. He is definitely getting a tape made this spring and sending links out but that will be April/May.
On the other hand, the illness may count against him depending on how much coaches know about it. He would obviously say he is recovered which should help, if that’s advisable. DS naturally prefers to put it all in the past. He is so busy right now he isn’t that focused on finding an academic match but that is more important than the sport at this point (for us anyway). We hate to just let him ride it out this summer and see what happens but that may be what goes down and we’ll just hope for good enough at this point.
Every “well” day for him is a blessing - our parental outlook is so different after dealing with chronic illness - all the while he just wants to push ahead and excel in his life which is an awesome outlook.