I have inattentive ADHD, but I wasn’t diagnosed until late into high school. I have struggled a lot with everything because of it, and it made everything a lot harder. I thought maybe I could write my college essay about living with it without the proper treatment, and overcoming the challenges that it threw it me (like doing well on tests when I should have gotten extra time, or changing my mentality about thinking that I’m just stupid) I managed to bring up my grades a little as a sophomore, and it took a TON of work and difficulty on my part. I was thinking i could write about how I was just classified as “lazy” or “stupid” and even when I tried my best I felt like I wasn’t good enough, etc. is that a good idea?
Any other ideas? This topic is soooo over used and doesn’t paint a great story of how you would benefit a school. The point of this essay is to make yourself more appealing to colleges.
I think it could be really good if you focus on the challenges and how you work to overcome them. Also–if it made you more empathic to others who have challenges and what you’ve done specifically about that. Could be a winner, you know?
Agreed. This seems like something for a counselor to talk about and to mention briefly in the additional information section. Tell a story that will show the reader your strengths, not your previous struggles.
My GPA in high school was awful combined with my SAT scores which were also terrible so I didn’t get into any colleges I applied to except Palm Beach Atlantic University. Granted, I didn’t stay there, BUT, they accepted me based on my essay which was about having ADHD. You should check if the universities you are applying to have a program for helping struggling students because PBA had a program that accepted students with bad grades who had disabilities, but you had to take academic counseling which consisted of a meeting each week to discuss how you were doing, tutoring, etc. It was kind of like a contract. I had to attend these meetings to stay in the school, but because of that I was able to get into a school with that type of program. BUT, if the school doesn’t have that type of program, I would suggest writing out the essay, having someone else take a look at it, and then deciding whether to go forward with it. The essay will either sound inspirational or generic as you are not one of the first people to write one of these. Write the essay, have a couple of friends look over it and give their thoughts. It has to be unique and make sure it doesn’t sound like you’re complaining or bashing the education system.
I disagree with people saying you should focus on the future and ignore your past struggles because an essay is supposed to represent how you got to where you are and who you are, and for you, ADHD has been a big part of how your education experience has gone, so I don’t think you should ignore it. It is part of your life. You can’t just pretend it never happened or had no play in your grades. I would def talk about it if you can make it unique. Remember, colleges read thousands and thousands of these essays. They want to see something that will really make them feel something.
It’s the unique part that’s hard.I once had an adcoms person say that he had read genuinely dozens of essays in which the student had objectively, verifiably saved somebody else’s life in an emergency. He said that he completely understood why that would be transformative to the person involved, but that at this point he had read so many of those stories that it was hard for him to engage with it the way he felt he should. Same applied to family breakdown, various learning challenges, health issues, etc.
Remember that your GC can write about the fact of it (student diagnosed w/ LD in grade 10 and made the most of resulting supports resulting in strong improvements type thing). If you are going to write about the realization that you are not ‘lazy’ or ‘stupid’ but were swimming upstream with weights, think about the ‘then what’ : what did you do with that realization? beyond getting better marks, how has that realization changed who you are / where you are going / how you see the world (more than just being happy to know you aren’t stupid).