Looking to Transfer Post-ADHD Diagnosis

Parents Forum
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<p>Hey everyone!
I'm looking for some advice regarding transferring, here's some background info on my situation:
I did very well in high school without putting much effort in to my schoolwork. I graduated with a 3.7 GPA, took 9 AP classes and got 4's or 5's on all of them, 2210 on the SAT's, etc. I always had an extremely difficult time focusing, but I got by doing about 5 minutes of work at a time and staying up late until my work was mostly done. A few people had suggested that I get checked for ADHD because I always struggled with things like organization, paying attention to details, and just generally staying focused, but since I was doing well in school and playing a varsity sports, I never even considered the possibility of actually having a learning disability.
I started my freshman year of college at a very prestigious school, and it was a complete disaster. The loose deadlines and lack of structure in my classes made the issues i had with studying surface. I would often find myself sitting in the library with nothing but a book in front of me, reading a few words then thinking about something else, spending a few hours on what should have been ten minutes of reading. The most difficult part was that I was actually trying, harder than I ever had, to do well in my classes, and I just couldn't get any work done. I ended up doing very, very poorly, getting a 1.4 GPA for the semester. I decided to take a leave of absence for the next semesters, because I couldn't deal with the frustration of failure.
To make a looong story short(er), I ended by being diagnosed with ADHD, and through medication and cognitive therapy, I've been able to completely turn my life around. I did a semester at community college then a semester at my original college, and received over a 3.8 GPA. My organizational skills are better, and my friends all say that I'm much better at staying on track in conversations- basically everything's better. I worked a 30 hour/week job for the past year, and am spending the summer interning.
So... here's the issue- I really don't like my current college. It's extremely rural and small, and I want to go to school in a city. I was able to do well there academically for one semester, but at this point, I want to be able to intern all year, and that is truly impossible at my current school due to its location. Ideally, I'd love to transfer to a school like USC or NYU, but I know it's important to be practical, and my one disastrous semester would be an issue for most top schools.
Here are two questions I have and would LOVE to get some advice on from some of the knowledgeable people in this forum:</p>

<p>Do I explain to the schools I'm trying trying to transfer to that I have been diagnosed with and treated for ADHD, or is it viewed as a handicap? If so, how do I explain?</p>

<p>What schools would be targets for me as a transfer despite my terrible, horrible semester?</p>

<p>thanks thanks thanks!</p>

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<p>I think you will need to explain having those grades somehow. I have ADHD and dyscalculia myself, and when I transferred I needed to explain a failed math class and really bad high school grades.</p>

<p>It’s a difficult essay to write because the focus can’t be on making an excuse. The focus is to explain, persuasively, why you had problems your first year, what you’ve done to address those problems, and how the university can know your ADHD will not cause you to crash and burn at their school, too. I think you have the material for a convincing argument-- you had a medical condition and didnt know until you got to college and could no longer compensate all on your own, you were diagnosed and treated, you have learned new college appropriate coping skills, and you have the track record post-diagnosis to prove it. The fact that you took a step back and regrouped after that one bad term shows you knew your performance was unacceptable and you were dedicated to finding a solution, and you did. You should be proud of yourself.</p>

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<p>I don’t know if schools of the caliber you are considering will be willing to take a chance on you based on a single semester of good grades, regardless of your diagnosis. I think you will be able to make a far more compelling case if you stick out another year at your current school and can show three semesters of strong grades, so that it’s clear the first semester was the outlier. Transferring as a junior is not unusual, and you will still have two years of internship opportunities.</p>