<p>@HistoryGeek40, your middle school grades are not going to hinder you. Your story is not unique and you are not alone. The boarding schools have seen all this before, don’t worry. ADHD/ADD is an inherited condition, you don’t contract it like the flu. You have had it all your life but in all likelihood you are particularly intelligent/gifted and managed to ace elementary school on intellectual firepower despite your condition. Often though, ADHDers begin to sputter in middle school because the work gets more difficult and time management skills come to the fore. Never mind, you are on an upward path and admissions officers are more interested in where you are now and how you are trending (upwards or downwards) rather than where you have been.</p>
<p>As you already have a diagnosis, I hope you and your family have taken the steps to get you official protections under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). Such protections (under Federal law) require your school to give you more time for tests, possibly a quiet environment to take them and other allowances. Check with your parents and your school councilors regarding this. You should also discuss medications. I know several students like you who stayed away from medications for years, preferring to use more natural methods to control ADHD. In each case these various students markedly improved once they began medication. But each case is different and each one needs a lot of thought about whether to medicate or not.</p>
<p>As I understand that you are applying to boarding schools (you don’t say so explicitly but as you post in the Prep School Admissions, one can assume), you will have to register for the SSAT. On ssat.org there is a button “Test”. Under this is a sub button “Special Accomodations”. Fill out this section. There will be a page for you to input the name and contact information of an official from your current school who can verify your condition. This is for those students who already have been officially certified as having ADHD or ADD. Please note: you can still get SSAT accomodations even if you have not gone through the school certification process. If this is your case, enter your doctor’s name and contact info so that SSAT will contact your doctor directly As long as you are under a doctor’s care and have been formally diagnosed with ADHD or ADD, SSAT will accept this and give you more time for SSAT tests and also provide other accomodations as necessary (such as a quiet room apart from the large test rooms).</p>
<p>Another suggestion I have, as has been brought up in many other threads, is that as you are already in 10th grade, consider applying to boarding schools as a repeat 10th grader. Non ADHD students often do this for a variety of good reasons (enter “repeat year” in the search engine for these discussions). You may have an added reason to do this: your previous academics were likely spotty, as you have dealt with attention issues for years.</p>
<p>Some schools have specific programs to help students with learning issues; Choate is mentioned here often and there are several others (check <a href=“http://www.boardingschoolreview.com”>www.boardingschoolreview.com</a> for lists of these). Most schools do not state specific accomodations but all must give ADHD students such accomodations according to the ADA. Are schools prejudiced against a student with attention issues? Some might say so but I don’t; as long as you can clearly demonstrate that your academic, athletic and EC performance is not hindered, I doubt the schools are going to care. There are several threads about that subject as well…</p>
<p>Try not to worry. You are on an upward path, doing well despite your condition (as it’s genetic, if you have siblings, tell them to get diagnosed). Many preppies with ADHD are admitted every year, succeed at school and go on to great college careers and beyond. The list is very very long. One guy with ADHD from Choate did pretty well: John F Kennedy. English prep school kids with ADHD include Stephen Hawking and Emma Watson. Some non preppies with ADHD include Walt Disney, Henry Ford and most likely Beethoven, Einstein and Galileo. ADHD did not stop them and it won’t stop you!</p>