I was diagnosed with ADHD back in high school because of my underachievement grade-wise and general flakiness (walking into rooms and forgetting what I was there for, losing everything not tied down, etc). I took Concerta for a while and quit because of side effects. I managed to pull off admittance to Dartmouth College because of a 2380 SAT, some solid extracurriculars, and a good interview. I graduated with a 3.25 GPA in Economics with a physics minor and a smattering of engineering/comp sci/math courses, some of which I performed quite poorly in (I think I got 3 Cs).
I was sort of disappointed with this performance and my adjustment to the working world (underemployed at a part-time tutoring gig for seven months now), and I resumed treatment with a new medication. The effect on my productivity thus far has been phenomenal, and I’m convinced that if I had gotten treatment earlier my GPA would have been at least a 3.5. I’m looking to apply to some highly competitive grad schools (e.g Stanford) for a masters in comp sci, then either work for a tech company or start my own.
My GRE is nigh perfect (V169/Q170) but 3.25 is pretty low for the schools I want, and I feel like if they don’t understand the ADHD situation they’ll think I’m just a slacker who can’t hack it. How should I go about discussing it on my app? (without it sounding like “I underachieved but now I’m taking magic pills so it’s all good.”)
That is what you are trying to say… so not sure how to spin or change that. I am not sure the explanation will help you regardless of how you phrase it. I don’t see Stanford in your future.
While many graduate schools are willing to discount your undergraduate grades if your subsequent employment performance has demonstrated your talents in a particular field, it sounds like that hasn’t happened for you. Have you considered trying to get into a tech company, taking night classes in your area of interest and working your way into a job that is closer to where you want to get? Or taking some tech classes in a community college to get basic skills, then working for a few years in the tech industry? Even if this means taking a step backwards, salary-wise, it would let you demonstrate your ability to achieve in the field where you hope to end up. Once you have a few years of employment in the industry under your belt, it makes sense to apply for grad school at that point (preferably with your employer helping to pay for it.)
I too have a hard time thinking through how you can spin okay grades and underemployment in an unrelated field into a competitive application for a selective school like Stanford. Even with stellar test scores and a medical history that could account for the under-achievement. There’s just too much competition from people with top grades, stellar test scores and a solid employment history in the industry.
If you are serious about your professional goals, look for other ways to skin this cat.
The 3.25 by itself isn’t the main problem - the issue is that you are trying to get into a top masters program in a field unrelated to your undergrad major. The fact that your Cs might have been As or Bs if you had been on the right meds isn’t that interesting to admissions committees – they want to see evidence of real competence in the new field. They want to see positive evidence rather than explanations for negative performance.
Thanks for the honest tips. Stanford is definitely the highest reach I’m looking at (Carnegie Mellon is my other dream school) and I have no illusions that an acceptance is likely, I’m just looking to improve my chances. I’m also preparing apps to Georgia Tech, a few state schools with strong programs in the field (Illinois-Urbana, Washington, UC San Diego), and University College of London. Do you think these are also reaches or reasonable target schools? Safety-wise I’m applying to KU and KSU, but I’m worried that’s such a sizable prestige drop from an Ivy that it would hurt instead of help my career, and if that’s my only option I should follow your advice and get what I can from the workforce. Is that unfounded?
So it sounds like your undergrad major was in economics with a physics minor but you want a CS master’s.
I agree that your primary problem isn’t your grades, but the fact that your background doesn’t really match the master’s degree. A 3.25 GPA actually isn’t all that low for a master’s program in general (may be too low for Stanford - I don’t know). But you won’t gain admission to a competitive CS program without a background in CS. Programs like Stanford, CMU, UIUC, UW, Georgia Tech, and UCSD - all excellent CS schools regardless of whether their funding comes from the state or not - are going to be inundated with applications from outstanding applicants who have CS backgrounds.
So, the best things you can do are:
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Find full-time employment in a tech or tech-related career field. I know, easier said than done, right? But you’re going to have to demonstrate to programs that you didn’t just wake up one day and decide that you want to do CS; rather, your interest is a sustained one developed through direct experience. Your limited coursework in that field helps, but some work experience will not only help demonstrate that but will put a little distance between you and the 3.25 (again, pretty good in general, but a little low for the most competitive programs).
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Take classes as a non-degree student in CS. You’ll at the very least need to take whatever prerequisite courses MS programs in CS require or strongly recommend for students to have. The ideal situation would be to take some on the graduate level and show that you can perform well in them. You can do this at a local university as a non-degree student (make it a four-year college or university, though). This is especially important since you performed poorly in the few CS/engineering classes you did take.
You can explain the ADHD in a personal statement, but if you do the two above things I don’t think you’ll have to. A 3.25 isn’t that low, and combined with excellent performance in tech-related work and some coursework to prepare you, it’ll fade in the rearview mirror.
Thanks Juillet for the optimism 
I’ve actually spent the last couple days looking into app development in order to pursue a project I’ve been cooking up, and was thinking instead of breaking the bank on college courses I’ll find what I can for cheap online and try to test into an Android Application Development Certification. It fits my strong test taking aptitude and with my newfound energy I think I can handle self-teaching. Should sub in for #2 well and make #1 easier. Plus if I develop the right project, I might not even go back to school.
A degree in CS is not just about programming. You need to look for a program that will take students who don’t have a CS degree. There are such programs at quite reputable universities and they will ask you to take remedial CS courses to get up to speed. Don’t think that you need to be at CMU or Stanford to have a chance at a job after graduation. Employers know that there are a lot of good programs and after your first job, where you got your degree won’t matter too much.
However, I agree that getting some coding experience with an employer, can give you better access to a Masters program.