Is my late diagnosis detrimental to my future college application process?

Parents Forum Learning Differences and Challenges - LD, ADHD
1

I don’t exactly know what I have yet, my full 3 hr diagnosis is next month. It’s somewhere in the range of a learning disability, psychiatric disorder, or ADHD.

I’m a junior in high school in an overqualified college preparatory (public) high school. I know there are a lot of well qualified people on these posts so please don’t refer to my accomplishments, or lack of for the matter, as me being sloth, lazy, or not motivated. Those kind of people actually have it kind of better than I do.

School:
I have a 3.1 GPA, but a 2.9 UW (I’ll explain later), By the time I graduate I would have taken 7 AP courses AP Euro, AP Spanish, AP Psychology, AP Statistics, AP English Lang, AP Lit, AP Studio Art
I have not taken the SAT yet because my psychologist told me to wait until after I was properly diagnosed

School Extracurriculars:
Varsity Speech and Debate, Vice President of a Mexican charity club, VP Fashion Club, Gender Equality Club, and possibly more depending if the club I’m trying to start gets approved
Varsity Swim and Dive, Water Polo

Extracurriculars:
Teacher for Bible classes and Vietnamese classes at my church - 2 years
Youth group leader for two different youth groups, in one yg for 10 years, one for a year
Church choir and pianist 5 years
Piano 13 years, guitar 4 years
alterserved
President of the Kids Club at my church
Manager of Feeding the Homeless

Passions:
I have always loved school. I took AP classes not because it’s impressive but because the information is so compelling. And a lot of the times I didn’t do well. There was something offputting since freshman year, when my grades ranged from A-C range when I was putting in A+ effort. It wasn’t even the effort. It was the fact that I was confident in the content I was learning and everything seemed to be good, my essays, participation, presentations, except for my tests. I blamed it on the lack of self discipline, so I overworked myself, eventually exhausting myself. So I resorted to the arts and my love for languages. I completed the entire Spanish curriculum my school offered my sophomore year, and by the time I graduate I would have finished the French curriculum as well. (4 languages total including my home lang. Vietnamese)

I’m also fascinated by people, especially young people. By the time I “graduated” from my Sunday class, the administration always takes graduated students and assigns them as T.A.'s My teacher I was TAing for was gone one day, so I filled in for him. I loved it, the admin was impressed, and now I teach two classes kindergarten and 9th grade.

I have close relationships with my school teachers, because they notice the disparity in my tests and me as their students. I talk to them about it on a constant basis. but I’m nervous now that because I’m getting diagnosed halfway through my junior year, colleges are only going to see that 2.9, 3.1, 3.4 whatever GPA. I’m afraid that’s going to be a big dent for me if I want to go to universities with strong programs in fields that I’m interested in. And fields that I’m not interested in, because I’m pretty sure I’m going to be that person that sits in classes I’m not registered in, and listens to lectures simply because I can.

I want to teach. Internationally, locally whichever it may be. But I also want to go to Law School for graduate school. I’m interested in the FBI agency and that would be a good asset for me, but I’m afraid that disclosing that information is going to lessen my chances for some reason, oops.

I don’t know what would be an appropriate major, maybe Interdisciplinary Studies in Social Science Education (It’s a thing) I don’t want to major in education but I know I want to minor in Arabic, and go to Law school (maybe a little far fetched)

My family is low income and I live in CA so I qualify for a lot of grants for schools here. But I’m really interested in schools in Michigan (MSU and some others) and NY (Manhattan College, Fordham.) and they’re so expensive! I need scholarships and grants

So my conclusion, my GPA is not an accurate representation of my intelligence, but it’s definitely a representation of my chances of getting in anywhere, which sucks. Uhh, I’m sort of always stressed and confused and scared about the future. When I am properly diagnosed, will that help my chances, or be taken into heavy consideration? I’m not looking at anywhere prestigious, but I just want to be successful academically for once in my life. Is it always going to be like this? Me trying the best of my abilities only to produce mediocre results? Or worse, is it going to worsen in college?

I know you all aren’t Oracles or magicians and my post was annoying to read but feedback would be appreciated

2

I think you are asking two different questions.

Whether your diagnosis will be taken into consideration depends on whether you disclose and discuss it in your application. (There are threads discussing pros vs. cons of that strategy.)

You seem to have a lot going for you and despite what you read on college confidential, a B grade average does not mean you cannot go to college. Far from it! Your teacher recommendations sound like they will be good. Study for the SATs - get a good prep book and study. Take the SAT in May so that you have time to retake in the fall if you want to improve your scores.

Speaking as a parent of student with a diagnosis, if you have a learning disability or a spectrum disorder, for example, yes: it is always going to be like this. That does not mean you cannot be successful academically or in life - you can! But you want to select colleges where you are in the top half, stats-wise, so that you will be comfortable. Going to the most competitive (highest ranked) college you can get into, and then struggling not to be in the bottom half of the class, is a recipe for stress.

3

You are lucky you live in a state with a strong public education system. Plus, law school is very expensive (and doesn’t always pay off as much as you would hope in employment), and teacher salaries aren’t great so it would be tough to pay back a lot of loans. I would suggest that you need to look very hard at your options within the state system in California to keep your costs down and reach your long term goals. Regardless of your diagnosis, I think you need to seriously look at this path. You should also check out the disability services at the colleges you apply to.

You also might want to see if you can be granted some accommodations for the remainder of your time in high school due to your disability if they would help you. It is easier to request and get accommodations in college if you have already been getting them in high school. You may want to research the California state university system and see if there is info on what they need to allow accommodations at the college level (might need an IEP, for example). And it is possible that UC and CSUs have different requirements, too.

4

If you get diagnosed, you’ll be eligible for services in high school. I was diagnosed late with an autism spectrum disorder and as a result was not able to improve my GPA much. I am also receiving services in college – I go to UC Berkeley. I don’t know how the other UCs or CSUs differ, but you should look into disabilities services offices at schools you are interested in. You can PM me if you have questions…