College Impressions for Unique situations

Parents Forum Learning Differences and Challenges - LD, ADHD
1

Many kids with ADHD/LD get to college applications and have a fantastic, stellar part of their application, and a part that we’d love colleges to just not look at.

Generally, we/they (College Confidential is mostly parents isn’t it?), fall into two groups:

  1. Late Diagnosis: Was diagnosed with something in 10th or 11th (maybe even 12th) grade, and has an upward leap. Usually, their pre-diagnosis grades puts them in a totally different pool than their post diagnosis grades would.

  2. Diagnoses don’t fix everything: Even if you’ve known that you had the disability/ADHD since 1st grade, it still effected your school performance. Your grades aren’t as high as they maybe should be. Sometimes your test scores are high, sometimes they aren’t.

Technically there’s also
3) both of them, lucky you!

When I started to apply to colleges, I couldn’t find any resources about which ones would maybe be willing to overlook my 9th/10th grade grades (I’m a late dxer), and ended up applying to well above ten schools.

I think we could create a useful resource by posting which schools we/our kids did get into, and any details you’re comfortable with posting about the situation. One person’s experience is not going to represent a school’s general approach, but enough responses may help to create a clearer picture.

I haven’t heard back from many schools, but I will comment on this post once I’ve heard from at least 3.

2

Actually, just apply to school in Canada. They’ve got ‘request for modified admissions’ forms that are dealt with by people who are well versed in disability.

Save yourself the stress and apply to at least one.

The super intense ‘that sounds like an excuse/ well you DID get those grades/ stop blaming your insert disability you’re the one who got bad grades.’ Environment that exists on here, and to some extent in college admissions, isn’t really a thing there. They will wave requirements, and consider lower grades in certain courses (like, a B- in English would be pretty great for some dysgraphic people), in addition to considering a late diagnosis.

Do yourself/ your kid a favor, and apply to at least one Canadian school. I would recommend York U or UBC.
If your accommodations aren’t just extended time, you may have to foot the bill/apply for scholarships or loans to cover them (I only have extended time, so I haven’t looked much into it)

Keep in mind that Canadian schools are less expensive to begin with, so even if you will have to make up the cost of accommodations, it may still be cheaper.
In many cases, you may also find the environment to be more accepting than an American school as well.

Be smart with your applications. Consider Canada. I wish someone had pointed me in this direction.

If anyone wants to know what I found about American schools, or more about Canadian ones, you can message me.

Some schools here are great, but it’s really a toss in the dark.

Foot note: if you are an adult parent PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not feel compelled to give teenage applicants on this site a reality check. I had far too many adults tell me I just wasn’t qualified, and it wouldn’t be fair if schools overlook Cs I earned before my diagnosis. One even told me, in all caps ‘YOU GOT A C. STOP BLAMING YOUR ADHD YOU WOULD HAVE GOTTEN A C ANYWAYS.’ These things are unnecessary. If you don’t have the advice being requested: don’t respond. The admissions process can be really stressful and difficult for kids with disabilities. Think of your kid, then multiply that my 10. None of us need you an adult, saying we aren’t good enough. I don’t understand why the need is felt, but it is. It is a different ballgame. It’s not ‘I’m upset I didn’t get into Stanford. No fair!’ It’s “that state school wouldn’t consider that I had a 4.0 after frshman year, and thus considered me unqualified because I got 4 Cs, so now I’m afraid that all schools will do the same.”
If you must say anything, offer bland reassurance.

For those kids: you’ll be fine. I got into a bunch of selective US schools.

3

Hey guys!! I’m a current high school senior who also got a late diagnosis (after end of junior year) but for visual disabilities. In general I think it is very good to explicitly say somewhere in the essays/ application when you were diagnosed and explain why somethings were harder for you. Also if you get a chance for an interview or to talk to someone within the department you are applying too, I would strongly recommend explaining the situation in person as well. I had many cs the first two years of high school as well as an average for my high school ACT score and got into all I applied so far : university of Iowa and Indiana (with scholarship) and university of Illinois. I also applied to Oberlin, Carleton and wash u because some of my teachers/ concelors told me they look at the full picture and wanted to see if I could get into such selective school despite low grades in the beginning of high school and not amazing act scores. I’m assuming not but will keep anyone who wants to know updated as those schools will release results in march/ April.

One school that I am happy I applied event thought probably won’t go there is university Iowa. They have a formula online and will tell you within a day after applying based on if you meet or don’t meet the formula. However, the office of disabilities services even told us they are allowed to admit a few people who don’t meet the formula if they have disabilities so that Is a potential good place to apply for everyone that is nervous.

Yes it is a very difficult (and sometimes frustrating ) process. Especially for us. If anyone at all parent / teen wants to send me a message than I would happily go into more detail or try to answer questions!!!

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The question the schools are always trying to answer is “can you do the work when you get here?” It isn’t the C itself that matters so much. Certainly apply to likely and safety schools, and Canadian schools could be a good choice in some cases.

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@intparent The struggle when you got a diagnosis mid-way through, is whether the school will take the C to mean you can’t do the work, even if you were a straight A student beyond that point. I certainly don’t ever assume this of schools, but one school told me that the C I got in one class before my dx was the reason I didn’t get into engineering.

It can be stressful to not know which schools will disqualify you based on that one grade before a diagnosis, which is why communication between students is so important.