<p>Hey all, so I enrolled in a pretty tough private school for my freshman year and took 4 honors classes... (not the best idea).</p>
<p>I finished the year with a 3.16 gpa (uw). That summer I was prescribed medication to help with focus/attention issues caused by ADD. This year, along with the medicine, and a transfer back to a standard public school, I'm able to maintain a gpa of 3.8+, keeping the difficult course load (1 honors class, and an AP course). </p>
<p>I'm curious as what this means for my admissions chances, especially in top schools. While freshman year was not ideal, I have a great trend upwards, and am looking to finish Junior year with a 3.72 gpa, 7-8 AP courses, and have already tested a 34 ACT. </p>
<p>Should I mention the ADD diagnosis on my app, or will that be a turn-off for colleges?
How will colleges look at my transfer?
Should I mention family conflict in 9th grade? My dad traveled 5 days a week.</p>
<p>I'm looking at applying to top 20 engineering programs. Thanks for any help you guys can give!</p>
<p>My top school choices would probably be Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, Purdue, Harvey Mudd, and UIUC (in that order)</p>
<p>I’m really confused. How does “1 honors class, and an AP course” enable you to finish the eleventh grade with “7-8 AP courses”? Are you planning to take 6 or 7 APs as a junior? Or maybe, to have 5 extra sophomore years?</p>
<p>I meant by the time I graduate, sorry that was worded really poorly.
My gpa by the end of Junior year will be 3.72
I plan on graduating with 7-8 AP’s total.</p>
<p>Ah, I see. In that case, here’s what I think. But I should say up front, I don’t actually know anything much about top engineering programs.</p>
<p>For top colleges and universities in general, I’d say yes, you should talk about your ADD diagnosis. Perhaps not in an essay, but rather in that space where the Common App asks for additional information. I think I can say without being mean that your freshman year, while not terrible, is an area of relative weakness in your record. (I mean, you realize that, too, or you wouldn’t be asking, right?) By way of explaining that kind of thing the best you can do is: (1) account for how it happened, and (2) demonstrate that you’ve taken actions so that it’s unlikely to happen again. Happily for you, you can do both of these things. You had a kind of lackluster freshman year; you and your doctor(s) figured out why, and how to address the problem; by the time you apply to colleges, you will have had 2+ years of much higher academic achievement.</p>
<p>I think the new and improved you can get into some very good colleges or universities. Just how good? That’s kind of anybody’s guess. Probably not MIT; certainly places that other people have heard of.</p>
<p>Will the transfer of high schools be taken into account in any way? Or is that insignificant?</p>
<p>A lot of kids transfer between high schools. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. I’m having trouble trying to judge the intent of your question. Do you want it to be significant or not?</p>
<p>It would be good to briefly mention that your grades improved once you were diagnosed with/medicated for ADD. Don’t blame other failures on ADD though, post medication. If you’re medicated and still struggling, it doesn’t give colleges much hope for your performance at their school.</p>
<p>I’m not looking for a specific answer, merely searching for an answer.</p>
<p>If you were my kid, then, I’d advise you to tackle the ADD issue head-on. Say that since you got the diagnosis, and since you got proper medical management, you’ve been able to succeed consistently, even as your school work gets increasingly demanding. And, IMO, leave the transfer stuff out of it.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input guys</p>
<p>You’re welcome. Good luck.</p>
<p>If you keep your grades up and dominate your essays and sat, you shouldn’t have to explain away a poor freshman year.</p>
<p>Focus on building a full picture for the next few years. If you can’t make it work, then consider talking about your diagnosis.</p>
<p>Craig</p>
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<p>Considering the selectivity of some of the universities that the OP is targeting, I can’t agree.</p>