I got a ton of very useful info here. We didn’t use a paid counselor at all, and kid got into a tippy-top.
Is there any way that your son could be a recruited athlete for soccer for a good small liberal arts college? That would give him smaller classes, individual attention. His academics are probably good enough to pass a pre-read anywhere that might want him for soccer. You might be surprised to find that places like Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Colgate, Lehigh, Lafayette, Vassar, Haverford, Washington and Lee, Davidson, Wesleyan, Hamilton, U of Richmond, Bucknell, etc. would want him as a soccer recruited athlete. Some of them might very well want him without soccer, too.
A lot is going to depend for him on how he finishes up this semester. That very strong upward trend with a credible background story is compelling, especially if he gets straight A’s in the fall for RD apps.
He can go anywhere for premed and a math or science major. He can major in anything and be prehealth. Most schools would have a major that he would like, and most schools have perfectly acceptable premed/predental pre-req science classes.
Have him meet a few times with the guidance counselor, and let her tell the story of the struggle early on, and the extraordinary improvement to stellar academic performance once ADD was diagnosed and treated. His own essays should not be making excuses, but if he mentions it by working it into his essay that shows who he is, what his hopes and dreams are, why they should want him, so be it.
If the supreme court doesn’t rule in time to affect this upcoming cycle of admissions, he would get a strong boost in his application. But even if they do rule, and the colleges scramble to change their criteria in time for this admissions cycle, he still is a strong enough candidate, especially if you can go the soccer recruit path, that he should be able to get into a good liberal arts college.