The title has an obvious answer, however, I have created a hypothetical scenario and am curious what you think about their outcomes.
Let’s say a student is diagnosed with ADHD at age 5 (has documentation w/out prescribed medication) and typically scores very low throughout his entire grade school career, yet on his last year of high school he goes from a ‘75’ (3 year GPA) to an ‘89’ (only year GPA) and it averages in to about 79-ish or so. He then decides to study intensively for the SAT to ‘make up’ and scores a perfect 2400, he feels confident and attempts for SAT 2 Subject tests and scores four 800’s on those. The student then starts to look at selective universities like ‘ithaca college’ yet feels demotivated and wants to do the ACT as well to prove his ‘capacity’. He scores a 36 on that too and applies to universities such as NYU as a reach and other SUNY’s such as Stony Brook and Buffalo which are his wanted institutions. So the student then overall has a 2.5 gpa with a large proliferation in the last year for 14-15 points or so, 2400 on the SAT, 800 on Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics 2 and a 36 on the ACT.
Would he have a shot at a selective institution such as New York University or would applying be naive?
(We are assuming that his essay and recommendations are extremely well, his EC’s and service are abundant and the application was in on time)