<p>My son is diagnosed with ADHD and SLD (dyslexia). He takes Concerta for his ADHD. This year he had to lower his dose due to some heart concerns and I believe it has impacted his grades/ability to focus. He went from a dosage of 72 down to 54 mg. His grades have been more of a struggle in his senior year. He did not get extra time in SAT but did in ACT. His composite ACT was 28, he scored a 31 in Science. His GPA when he applied to colleges was 3.9 unweighted on his HS transcript (not sure how the colleges calculated it) . He applied for 4 state schools, one is a reach, one he would be one of the strongest students there and 2 of them are pretty much on the mark. He was accepted at 3 of the 4 schools for Summer 2013. We won’t hear until February on the reach school. He is unsure of what he’d like to major in and does not advocate well for himself although we are constantly working on getting him to do that. He has an IEP. We are struggling with deciding if he gets in to the reach school should he go? If he could not take meds for some reason I think that could be disasterous. I’m even worried about the two schools that are a close match for him. He has a pretty heavy load this year. 1 AP class, 3rd year Spanish and 3 honors classes, and two ‘regular’ classes. Anyone else out there faced with these decisions how did things turn out? Thanks.</p>
<p>One daughter attended a private school that provided a coach, & support groups, as well as profs with flexible teaching styles.
She had an easier time in college than her sister who attended state school where the tutors and other learning supports were far less helpful and we have had to hire outside tutors- which can be difficult to find at a college level anywhere but a large city.</p>
<p>We initially thought that the supports would be enough at the state school, and we worried about costs for a private, but if I could have done it over, I would have made a greater effort to research the support and not rule out private schools. ( even though I thought I did enough at the time)</p>
<p>As far as the reach school goes- the private school my D attended was a big reach for her, but it happened to have supports as well.
If they admit your kid, they think they can succeed there. But it is up to you to judge the resources.</p>
<p>This is a bit off topic and I hope you don’t mind me asking but do your kids with ADHD use a coach to help them with executive function/organizational skills? The reason that I ask is that I have had the occasion to work with an individual with significant ADHD and she is very impacted by her organizational challenges and I wonder if anyone ever worked with her as far as coaching. I have helped her by suggesting/modeling list making etc and am surprised that these skills seem new to her.</p>
<p>S1 was dx with ADHD inattentive as a senior in college and a lot of personal trauma. If it were me, I would go with your instinct as your son’s best and most motivated advisor --and your instinct seems to be that the reach school is not in his best interest. I don’t think you’d question it if you were sure. So discard that one.</p>
<p>If I were to do it again (and with a dx in hand this time) I’d be looking for a school that could help him help himself on a <em>personal</em> level — i.e., an academic advisor or disability advisor who would actually get to know him, so you need a place small enough to do that. I’d be looking for a place that is not crazy-competitive, and a place that has a range of majors since he isn’t sure what he wants to do. But if he is handling all those classes as a senior in hs, he should be okay in the right college environment. Can you go visit the schools again? It is really different to visit when you know you could actually attend!</p>
<p>@EPTR – yes, S1 uses a coach — me. Seriously, that’s what I do. You can model organizational skills till the cows come home, but very few of them are adopted internally. It’s just not how he thinks. He has to have someone teach him how (to make a list, for example) and then do it with him for 2000% more repetitions than someone else to have it “stick”. For example, after a year of learning to use a very basic daily schedule, he does it 80% of the time on his own. But it took that long!</p>
<p>Daughter has ADD and also took Concerta. She/we knew that she needed a smaller college. She would not have success in a large freshman seminar class with 100’s of students.</p>
<p>“I have helped her by suggesting/modeling list making etc and am surprised that these skills seem new to her.” - Don’t be surprised if she doesn’t apply the skill. Kids that have had great memories and survived on “wing it” methods can be resistant to change.</p>
<p>I’m starting to understand that by observing. Unfortunately, winging it won’t work in my work setting and I feel badly watching her struggle so much. Thanks for the insight and my hopes for success for your children.</p>
<p>Thanks for your thoughts so far, keep them coming. AS to organization, he is pretty organized. He keeps a list by his desk with the tasks and little check boxes. His room is very neat. We did think somewhat of private schools but have dismissed them. Daughter1 is at the state (son’s reach school)-she applied and got in at a private excellent school out of state and the EFC (expected family contribution) was too big. Perhaps we should consider that again though for him. Another option is community college for a couple years and then go to a state school but I really feel we need a bit of space between us for him to develop more independence. The state school where he would be one of the top students does have significantly fewer students but still about 10,000. Son has not really had to use most of his accommodations throughout high school to achieve what he has, the medication definitely is important for his success though. I should mention that he spends very little time on homework. He either can’t focus by then or just chooses not to spend much time with it. I’d say 1.5 hours average per day for homework. Daughter who was top in her class spent about 4-5.</p>