As a high achiever, a good approach to revealing my ADHD?

Applying to College
1

I have seen a lot of posts on here about the issue of revealing learning difficulties, especially when applying to more selective schools. Not only am I revealing that I have ADHD, but I’ve written my common app essay on it. I’m wondering if my specific circumstances, my arguments, and the rest of my application could make this approach worthwhile. This could be a bit of a longer post, but I would appreciate any feedback very much! I know it would be helpful for me personally, and possibly for other high-achieving LD applicants.

Background info:
I am middle class, white, and female. I have a 94.54 unweighted average at my school, which is one of the most competitive/high achieving in this half of NY state. My ACT is 34 (I’ve chosen to submit this over the SAT), I am a NMS Semifinalist. Mostly APs and honors courses. I hold leadership positions in Science Olympiad and Mock Trial, and I am the president of my church youth group. I play varsity soccer, am a fencer, and have held two jobs. (There’s more activities but those are the big ones).

My ADHD situation:
I was diagnosed very recently, even though I started investigating ADHD in 10th grade, and have never received accommodations. I still don’t have them, as my school is extremely reluctant to grant 504 plans, even after getting a diagnosis from 2 doctors.

Essay:
In my essay, I emphasized the low diagnosis rate for ADHD girls (50-75 percent are undiagnosed, a statistic I cited), and briefly outlined the difficult-to-identify nature of inattentive type ADHD. A bit of a “beat-the-odds” approach. I discussed how I have always been bothered by a feeling that despite my academic success (humbly stated, obviously), I haven’t been living up to my full potential. I make the argument that by achieving what I have, despite this invisible difficulty, I have learned determination. I finish by expressing hope for what I can accomplish now that I’ve identified what’s been holding me back. This is a very honest essay, and it’s such an important topic for me that I really struggled to write about anything else. It made my English teacher cry, so that’s something I guess.

My top college choice is University of Rochester. Northwestern and Princeton are on my list as reaches. I’ve applied to one school so far: University of Buffalo, and got into the Honors College.

2

i think that the choice to discuss something so personal and meaningful with a group of, for all intents and purposes, /strangers/ will speak highly of your character. just be careful of sounding like it’ll present issues during your life at college.

3

I think you’re fine, especially as you’ve achieved that success largely without accommodations. My oldest was in a similar situation and wrote a similar essay, focusing on how rather than feeling upset/cheated about her late diagnosis, she now feels a tremendous sense of relief at knowing her struggles were real and not just some sort of inherent failing on her part. She also reiterated how she now knows she can meet challenges completely on her own BUT asking for help is a strength rather than a weakness. (She was accepted everywhere she applied, and is now finishing up her first semester at college.) Good luck!!

4

I’m not sure. In my DS’s highschool so many people try to take advantage of “recently diagnosed” learning disabilities and concussions requiring special treatment and longer test time that school administration has lost sympathy for even genuine cases.

I’m guessing colleges see a lot of essays along these lines and may not be very receptive to these topics. On other hand if it’s your story and you want to get it out then it’s your call to make.

5

I think they have heard this story before from many other students. It comes up all of the time here on CC. But, if that is your story go ahead - it won’t hurt you for sure.

6

Schools appreciate kids who know themselves and relate a candid version of themselves that is consistent with what others relay.

As long as you are presenting this as part of your story, rather than as an excuse for it, it should strengthen your application. Remember that whether you have a diagnosis or not, and whether you have accommodations or not, this is who you are. And clearly, you want to be - and present - your best self.

I suspect everyone feels -and has a reason for -the sense that they could have done “better” at something that matters to them; it’s what we do with that desire for self improvement that’s the interesting part of the story.

7

Thank you for all the responses! I did try to make it sound like my ADHD definitely wouldn’t be a problem in college, emphasizing that I have worked hard and done perfectly well in high school. My main focus was on how my diagnosis answered so many questions I’ve had about myself over the years, and how I am excited to use this new information about myself to do even better than I’ve done before. I used the “describe a problem you’d like to solve” prompt, but ended by saying that my ADHD is not something that will have a true final solution, but it is something I will be continuously working on in my life.

8

Fwiw, incoming students at Oxbridge are told that as many as 1/3 of them will be diagnosed with some kind of LD diagnosis (most commonly ADD/ADHD, dyslexia and dysgraphia) while in university. The realization that there are specific things that they can do to (as one of them put it) get out of their own way was a huge relief for some of them. One ADHD student moved up a full level in exam results by the simple ‘accommodation’ of extra time. She used that time to take short breaks during the (2 & 3 hour) exams- she worked out how long she could work effectively before needing to move, and structured her breaks accordingly (that matters a lot in a university where your entire mark is based on the exam!). In real life there are vanishingly few jobs that require you to work in the way that final exams require- almost any field you choose will have more potential for using your kinetic energy!

Good luck

9

The LD specialist who ran psycho-educational test for my son’s 504 plan 3 years ago was a Stanford admission dean. She actually suggested my son to write about how he overcame ADHD in his essay when he applied to college.