<p>My son, who is applying to colleges, has been told that, while theoretically he has the choice "to declare or not to declare" on his college applications, since he attends a high school for students with learning and emotional disabilities he'd be better off writing in the "anything else you want us to know about you?" section a paragraph or two about the strategies he's learned for dealing with his ADHD (distractible type). </p>
<p>Has anyone else written such a statement, and do you have any ideas about how to make this an interesting part of his application? That is, to make the fact that he has learned how he learns and what he needs to do well and that this is a <em>plus</em> for someone about to approach college work? (in other words, we'd like to turn it into a positive narrative "hook")</p>
<p>I haven't seen anyone on CC before talk about their child attending a special ed. <em>school</em> and wonder what colleges will think of this. We don't have the choice, really, not to declare, since the school profile will be "different" and there is a school website which makes clear the purpose of the school. We'd rather have colleges understand that he has ADHD rather than wonder if he's there because of e.g. a serious psychiatric disorder or behavior disorder (none of which he has).</p>
<p>By the way, he has a 3.7 GPA, 1 A.P. course (the only one the school gives), (he also takes a college course on Saturdays), and his SATs are 690CR, 720M, and 750W (with extra time). So he is a "contender" except for the lack of that long list of AP courses most people on this website seem to have, lack of academic honors (his school does not work in that competitive way), and rather limited ECs (but a long list of school-based internships that are rather interesting).</p>
<p>My question is, really: has anyone out there dealt with this (a special ed <em>school</em>) on college apps?</p>