You asked how to frame this. My advice, fwiw, is for him to talk about what excites him when his work is done – not how he flies through the work. If you are worried that his recs might allude to his work style, he can too. “I hurried through my physics assignment so I could enjoy the last of the daylight on my surfboard…” or “I looked at the extra credit assignment in English and decided to invest my time in programming my drone.” That one is more direct.
For kids who have EF issues that get in the way of doing decent work (not your kid!), one of the more compelling arguments for developing a strategy for working smarter is to give them time for what excites them. Even for kids who throw themselves into their work, it’s unlikely that they want to obsess equally over a Spanish paper and arobotics project and a creative writing assignment. (I’m not talking about kids who are “pleasers” or care about their grades, but real enthusiasm for the subject. )
Your son is fortunate for his aptitude. He needs to keep the focus on what he’ll do with it, not his good luck in having it.
So sounds like you have a normal kid. They are totally smarter then us parents and don’t seem to ever study but good good grades… Lol but… In college doing homework the day of won’t fly so get…
It has less to do with being a straight A student and more with learning strategies for studying in college. Great time managmemt strategies and these are great for ADHD kids or actually anyone… It’s also a fast kinda fun read… Many kids slide through high school but college can be a struggle. Using all his resources like professor hours, peer study groups, math /science labs… Etc. College goes much faster and this can be an issue for your or anyone’s kid.
Don’t use an essay on overcoming ADHD. The AO will read 1,000 of the same ones before getting to your son’s. Have his high school counselor add something into his profile. There is something personal, interesting and unique that he is doing write on that.
Lastly, both my kids told me they had to work in college. Otherwise they had too much extra time and would procrastinate (great section on this in the book)… So 8-15 hours /week depending on their studies and tests they had. This made them really stick to a schedule since there was only so much time. My daughter also had a knack of finding jobs she could study and get paid… Like package room in small Lac that was slow…
As advised don’t read the profile on here. He’s doing great
The fact is that he hasn’t had to put his back into working hard to get good-enough grades, which imo is a failure on the part of the school. I am a believer that being able to work hard (when there is a reason to) is an important muscle to develop- but also not am not a fan of busy work or make work.
That’s why I suggested the UK, if he has a genuine academic interest. Being interested in what you do, and being pushed to stretch yourself (esp at a place that uses tutorials), but with the emphasis on learning not small-gauge continuing assessment.
It sounds your kid will be more likely to succeed in college, regardless of which one he ends up attending. Few US colleges, however, can figure out his potential by spending 10 minutes on his applications. Saying that he has plenty in reserve isn’t going to convince any AO, unless he can demonstrate it by the ease with which he was able to accomplish many his objectives. That’s hard to do for most kids in that category, and even then, the signal is likely to be missed by most AOs.
For someone like him, I’d look for colleges that are more challenging. But the reality of US college admissions is that he’s less likely to be admitted to such colleges. That’s why I agree with @collegemom3717’s suggestion of UK schools.
@lindagaf I must not have conveyed the situation clearly. Yes this is a serious post. From what I have read on CC, a weighted 4.83 on a 5 point scale is not generally considered “high.” I would be very glad if that turns out to be inaccurate.
This is not about needing to “learn that coasting isn’t sustainable.” Not everyone is able to have sustained focus. He certainly has suffered many negative and consistent consequences for that challenge. He has learned many hard lessons along the way. Including that adhd can look like a willful lack of effort or laziness to some. He is not planning on addressing adhd in an essay. But, if his teachers are going to note that he could put in more effort (don’t know if they will), we did want to think through whether it makes sense to discuss the upside of some of the coping mechanisms you learn when you have a focus shortcoming. Such as being very efficient in what you can get done in short bursts of focus.
@gardenstategal thank you. Agree with much of what you said. He is definitely targeting places where he can pursue his current EC as a major. Also, we have made sure to get certain schools on the list - the ones that have significant choice in terms of which classes you can take. The idea being that his focus is improved when he is naturally interested, as opposed to just like fulfilling a requirement (just like everyone else I am sure).
He could be a fit for schools that offer block scheduling, a one course at a time approach. Colorado College and Cornell College both offer this plan. It can be intense, they move through material very quickly, but they don’t have to juggle other classes since they focus on the one class they are in at the time.
Colorado was recommended for the ADHD collegekid for that very reason. She was only officially diagnosed in college, but we knew it from a young age. Like the OP’s son, many HS teachers thought it was a willful thing. Once she was in an environment that 1) involved studying only the subject that she was really interested in and 2) had fewer, larger, assessments she flew. She was well able to work hard- just in bursts, not a steady drip.drip.drip.
@lr4550 and @collegemom3717 thank you for the suggestion on Colorado College. We had not considered it (just wasn’t familiar).
I am hesitant during covid to consider school oversees. We had been considering a program in London, but after we had family separated for many months due to covid travel restrictions, we have decided not to go that route.
No one here knows your S’s HS grading practices, so you do need to calculate an unweighted GPA. Many colleges will also recalculate GPAs.
Take core courses only (Eng, Math, Sci, SS, FL) and calculate cumulative GPA on a 4 point scale where any A = 4, any B = 3 and so on (total points/total number of grades). That will help you better categorize schools. Does he have 4 years in each core area? Is he nearer the 25%ile in his HS, or the top decile?
Some colleges ask for an essay on a challenge you’ve had to overcome. Is ADHD a bad topic? My son was up for Regent’s at UC Berkeley and in the interview was asked what challenges he has had to overcome. He answered honestly that he’s lucky that life has been pretty easy for him. He did not get Regents. His life is pretty uninteresting in the scheme of things. I’ve always wondered how one was supposed to answer those kinds of questions if you really never had to overcome anything. You can avoid the topic sometimes, but not always. I have to say I was pretty impressed that this kid gets such good grades even though he has ADHD.
If the only (or primary) hesitation is covid, consider applying to a couple of UK schools. It’s an easy application (one application for up to 5 programs, so one essay / one fee). Admissions (except for a couple of places is very straightforward). IF in spring/summer of 2022 you are still uncertain you can always say no, but in the meantime it leaves options open. Ofc, if covid is just one of several reasons that you don’t think it’s a good plan for your son, nevermind!
I have been visiting a relative out of state for several days, and it has been good to get out of our own bubble. My relative (who has a son applying this year) helped correct me on a few things. I misunderstood D’s school’s grading system entirely. What the parents see on report cards is an unweighted gpa. Not concerned about the applications and gpa any longer in light of the news (other than his desired major is very competitive, but we knew that already.) Also, I guess studying in short bursts is relatively normal of this generation, particularly boys. Refocusing back to finding the right fit. Thank you for the input.
When my son got his SAT scores, my husband said “Not bad for a slacker.”
My son has always been efficient and likes to put in enough work to do well but not grind it out to get top scores. This did allow him more time for sports and he did a architecture/construction/engineering mentorship.
For his primary essay he talked about working on a different interest on his own somewhat tied into an extracurricular. His essay showed that he took the time and initiative to follow up on an interest and take a technology informed approach. For some of the short essays, he noted that in group projects he often took on the scheduling role because he was good at estimating the time it actually took to complete work and was good at enforcing deadlines on decisions. This came from working smart rather than hard.