The rise of ADHD on elite campuses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The HOOPS some of you are jumping through to try and justify diagnosing people who have been objectively successful, not just academically but socially as well, with ADHD is wild.

If you have made it to high school with good grades, participation in extra-curriculars, friends, and a reasonably happy home life, without an ADHD diagnosis, YOU DO NOT HAVE ADHD. The diagnosis requires significant impairment. The person I just described does not have significant impairment.

That doesn't mean this person has no problems. They might have all kinds of issues. In fact it would be common for someone like this to have issues related to anxiety, perfectionism, fear of failure, etc. Especially in 2025 where expectations are so sky high for kids, especially UMC and wealthy kids with high achieving parents. If the person I just described is struggling with their mental healthy, I strongly support giving them mental healthcare. I would also suggest that their family and their school consider if the expectations place on these kids are not reasonable and need to be adjusted, if we need to make more room for kids to fail safely in adolescence so that the fear of rUiNiNg tHeIr LiVes with a B+ or a less then stellar standardized test score doesn't loom over their heads like a guillotine. But that's not ADHD.

Instead, we're giving these kids ADHD diagnoses, medicating them, giving them special accommodations, and convincing them that they have special neurodivergence that explains their mental health issues (which are actually caused by a lifestyle that has been imposed on them by a hyper-competitive culture and their own parents). This is a recipe for disaster folks. It's not merely that it's unfair to other students or results in over diagnosis of a real neurological issue, it's that it's doubling down on the very thing that is causing these kids to struggle in the first place. The "noise" in these kids heads that the ADHD meds silence? It's stress, folks.

But of course, if you just get an ADHD diagnosis and some meds, your kid can push through and nab that Ivy acceptance, that med school acceptance, that super elite internship, that scholarship. I'm sure the next brass ring will solve everything right? Downshifting expectations and telling kids to simply DO LESS isn't an option. That would be admitting defeat, and everyone knows you've got to compete, compete, compete. So you've got ADHD, and you've got ADHD, and you've got ADHD!! Everyone's got ADHD!! No one ask any questions! It's FINE!!!!!!!

It’s WILD that almost HALF the students at a TOP COLLEGE have a neurological disorder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As the parent of a student with true and severe ADHD, diagnosed in first grade, this bothers me. People may question his legitimate needs because of so many people taking advantage.

Right there with you.

My kid looks normal and after years of struggles and medication is finally doing well. But according to some commenters I guess multiple expensive evaluations by licensed psychologists for the last 10 years were incorrect? He’s just a lazy drug abuser?

[Anonymous]

Extra time is not going to help people without adhd or other issues in may cases.

I have a teen with adhd-very clear that she has it-diagnosed with inattentive aged 6 and would forget her head if it wasn’t attached. Complete space cadet in class a lot of the time, needs scaffolding and reminders to complete a basic morning and evening routine, etc etc etc.

She’s very smart though and for the most part likes school and is a fast worker. not only have we never sought time and a half but she would hate it if she had it-she almost always finishes among the first on exams.

I am writing this to say that 1) adhd kids look all kinds of different ways 2) time and a half isn’t a boon for people who don’t need it. I think if kids are benefiting from extra time they probably need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The HOOPS some of you are jumping through to try and justify diagnosing people who have been objectively successful, not just academically but socially as well, with ADHD is wild.

If you have made it to high school with good grades, participation in extra-curriculars, friends, and a reasonably happy home life, without an ADHD diagnosis, YOU DO NOT HAVE ADHD. The diagnosis requires significant impairment. The person I just described does not have significant impairment.

That doesn't mean this person has no problems. They might have all kinds of issues. In fact it would be common for someone like this to have issues related to anxiety, perfectionism, fear of failure, etc. Especially in 2025 where expectations are so sky high for kids, especially UMC and wealthy kids with high achieving parents. If the person I just described is struggling with their mental healthy, I strongly support giving them mental healthcare. I would also suggest that their family and their school consider if the expectations place on these kids are not reasonable and need to be adjusted, if we need to make more room for kids to fail safely in adolescence so that the fear of rUiNiNg tHeIr LiVes with a B+ or a less then stellar standardized test score doesn't loom over their heads like a guillotine. But that's not ADHD.

Instead, we're giving these kids ADHD diagnoses, medicating them, giving them special accommodations, and convincing them that they have special neurodivergence that explains their mental health issues (which are actually caused by a lifestyle that has been imposed on them by a hyper-competitive culture and their own parents). This is a recipe for disaster folks. It's not merely that it's unfair to other students or results in over diagnosis of a real neurological issue, it's that it's doubling down on the very thing that is causing these kids to struggle in the first place. The "noise" in these kids heads that the ADHD meds silence? It's stress, folks.

But of course, if you just get an ADHD diagnosis and some meds, your kid can push through and nab that Ivy acceptance, that med school acceptance, that super elite internship, that scholarship. I'm sure the next brass ring will solve everything right? Downshifting expectations and telling kids to simply DO LESS isn't an option. That would be admitting defeat, and everyone knows you've got to compete, compete, compete. So you've got ADHD, and you've got ADHD, and you've got ADHD!! Everyone's got ADHD!! No one ask any questions! It's FINE!!!!!!!

It’s WILD that almost HALF the students at a TOP COLLEGE have a neurological disorder.

They obviously don't. That's the whole point. It's a joke. People who actually have ADHD should be upset about this. It's absurd.

If all these kids have "ADHD" it's not a real diagnosis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the parent of a student with true and severe ADHD, diagnosed in first grade, this bothers me. People may question his legitimate needs because of so many people taking advantage.

Right there with you.

My kid looks normal and after years of struggles and medication is finally doing well. But according to some commenters I guess multiple expensive evaluations by licensed psychologists for the last 10 years were incorrect? He’s just a lazy drug abuser?

No one is talking about the kids diagnosed in early elementary. We're talking about the kids diagnosed at 15 after years of academic and social success, just in time to get extra time on the SAT and get a scrip for ADHD meds to help them get through an overloaded schedule junior and senior year so that they can get into a top college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was diagnosed with ADHD in second grade. By high school, he had mostly stopped medication because stimulants worsened his (severe) anxiety and difficulty eating and sleeping. He also worked to cancel the extra time accommodations for SAT and AP tests because sitting in a testing room without eating or moving around for 6 hours wasn’t practical for him. By college, he no longer had ADHD prescriptions, but still dealt with severe anxiety and difficulty sleeping (often went days without sleeping at all as a freshman, and when he’d come home for breaks, he looked awful).

I’m sure there are wealthy people who abuse diagnoses. There are also people who do have ADHD who make different choices (meds vs no meds, accommodations vs none). I tend to withhold judgement because I’m aware that sometimes people are choosing between multiple bad options.

FWIW, DC was a good student and a standout athlete in HS, attended an “elite” SLAC, graduated summa and with honors and is now applying to grad school. Being able to achieve stuff doesn’t mean kids aren’t dealing with real symptoms.

He sounds like he has severe anxiety, not ADHD ….

Like very, very, very many people with ADHD, he has both. Maybe learn the literal first thing about the subject before offering opinions?

PP perfectly illustrates the level of discourse on this topic. My kid was fortunate enough to be treated and evaluated annually by a team that included a psychiatrist, a neurology department head, an MD/PhD developmental psychologist, and a social worker. But PP, with none of these qualifications and obviously no knowledge, is eager to offer a contradictory diagnosis to an internet stranger without pausing for an instant to consider that — in addition to being utterly unqualified to hold any opinion whatsoever on this topic — they have almost no information. People like this are exhausting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was diagnosed with ADHD in second grade. By high school, he had mostly stopped medication because stimulants worsened his (severe) anxiety and difficulty eating and sleeping. He also worked to cancel the extra time accommodations for SAT and AP tests because sitting in a testing room without eating or moving around for 6 hours wasn’t practical for him. By college, he no longer had ADHD prescriptions, but still dealt with severe anxiety and difficulty sleeping (often went days without sleeping at all as a freshman, and when he’d come home for breaks, he looked awful).

I’m sure there are wealthy people who abuse diagnoses. There are also people who do have ADHD who make different choices (meds vs no meds, accommodations vs none). I tend to withhold judgement because I’m aware that sometimes people are choosing between multiple bad options.

FWIW, DC was a good student and a standout athlete in HS, attended an “elite” SLAC, graduated summa and with honors and is now applying to grad school. Being able to achieve stuff doesn’t mean kids aren’t dealing with real symptoms.

He sounds like he has severe anxiety, not ADHD ….

Like very, very, very many people with ADHD, he has both. Maybe learn the literal first thing about the subject before offering opinions?

PP perfectly illustrates the level of discourse on this topic. My kid was fortunate enough to be treated and evaluated annually by a team that included a psychiatrist, a neurology department head, an MD/PhD developmental psychologist, and a social worker. But PP, with none of these qualifications and obviously no knowledge, is eager to offer a contradictory diagnosis to an internet stranger without pausing for an instant to consider that — in addition to being utterly unqualified to hold any opinion whatsoever on this topic — they have almost no information. People like this are exhausting.

DP. Look, your kid might have ADHD. I don't know you and don't know your kid. No judgment.

But there is simply no way that 40% of students at a top college legitimately have ADHD. The most obvious explanation for this is that many kids who do not have impairment are getting diagnosed. That indicates a serious problem with how we are diagnosing ADHD and how kids qualify for accomodations, as well as whether that many kids should have access to ADHD medication.

Unfortunately, that problem is going to cause skepticism of ADHD diagnosis. Which, yes, will have negative impacts on kids who actually have impairing ADHD.

The solution is not to defend all ADHD diagnoses. It's to admit some of them are clearly BS and institute safeguards to prevent over diagnosis. Because this is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

The kids getting diagnosed at 15 or later are kids that tried it through friends and like the feeling of meth. They are meth heads without meth head behavior (like stealing to buy meth) because the meth is paid for by health insurance.

It has nothing to do with competing for grades or performance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The kids getting diagnosed at 15 or later are kids that tried it through friends and like the feeling of meth. They are meth heads without meth head behavior (like stealing to buy meth) because the meth is paid for by health insurance.

It has nothing to do with competing for grades or performance.

Why not both?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The kids getting diagnosed at 15 or later are kids that tried it through friends and like the feeling of meth. They are meth heads without meth head behavior (like stealing to buy meth) because the meth is paid for by health insurance.

It has nothing to do with competing for grades or performance.

For kids who wind up at Stanford and other elite schools, it's at least a little about grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids getting diagnosed at 15 or later are kids that tried it through friends and like the feeling of meth. They are meth heads without meth head behavior (like stealing to buy meth) because the meth is paid for by health insurance.

It has nothing to do with competing for grades or performance.

For kids who wind up at Stanford and other elite schools, it's at least a little about grades.

Kids at elite schools like alcohol and drugs too. Maybe it is easier for them to justify it if they say it helps their grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was diagnosed with ADHD in second grade. By high school, he had mostly stopped medication because stimulants worsened his (severe) anxiety and difficulty eating and sleeping. He also worked to cancel the extra time accommodations for SAT and AP tests because sitting in a testing room without eating or moving around for 6 hours wasn’t practical for him. By college, he no longer had ADHD prescriptions, but still dealt with severe anxiety and difficulty sleeping (often went days without sleeping at all as a freshman, and when he’d come home for breaks, he looked awful).

I’m sure there are wealthy people who abuse diagnoses. There are also people who do have ADHD who make different choices (meds vs no meds, accommodations vs none). I tend to withhold judgement because I’m aware that sometimes people are choosing between multiple bad options.

FWIW, DC was a good student and a standout athlete in HS, attended an “elite” SLAC, graduated summa and with honors and is now applying to grad school. Being able to achieve stuff doesn’t mean kids aren’t dealing with real symptoms.

He sounds like he has severe anxiety, not ADHD ….

Like very, very, very many people with ADHD, he has both. Maybe learn the literal first thing about the subject before offering opinions?

PP perfectly illustrates the level of discourse on this topic. My kid was fortunate enough to be treated and evaluated annually by a team that included a psychiatrist, a neurology department head, an MD/PhD developmental psychologist, and a social worker. But PP, with none of these qualifications and obviously no knowledge, is eager to offer a contradictory diagnosis to an internet stranger without pausing for an instant to consider that — in addition to being utterly unqualified to hold any opinion whatsoever on this topic — they have almost no information. People like this are exhausting.

DP. Look, your kid might have ADHD. I don't know you and don't know your kid. No judgment.

But there is simply no way that 40% of students at a top college legitimately have ADHD. The most obvious explanation for this is that many kids who do not have impairment are getting diagnosed. That indicates a serious problem with how we are diagnosing ADHD and how kids qualify for accomodations, as well as whether that many kids should have access to ADHD medication.

Unfortunately, that problem is going to cause skepticism of ADHD diagnosis. Which, yes, will have negative impacts on kids who actually have impairing ADHD.

The solution is not to defend all ADHD diagnoses. It's to admit some of them are clearly BS and institute safeguards to prevent over diagnosis. Because this is ridiculous.

You forgot “and I obviously don’t know the first thing about ADHD, but I’m confidently offering diagnoses to strangers because my ignorance is exceeded only by my arrogance.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No offense intended, but I’m having a hard time picturing what classrooms are like if more than 40% of students are diagnosed with ADHD. How does that work in practice? Like in the middle of lab just suddenly walk away from it?

In reality almost none of these kids have ADHD. They have anxiety and fear of failure. So the classrooms are just full of intense, high achieving kids who blame any setback or weakness on ADHD. It's like a mass delusion. The professors and instructors know it's all BS, but they can't say anything because these kids have purchased the label of "disabled" and anyone who suggests otherwise will be attacked as ablist. It's a neat trick, yes?

I agree. It’s unfortunate. I consider myself successful, but not by dcum terms. I did well at a very challenging boarding school, went to a top college and grad school and entered a challenging, if low paid career. I’m a mom of two kids. I’ve never been particularly organized, always have a wandering mind, and now low attention due to phones. I’m 49. I don’t see the point in seeking a diagnosis when I’ve lived a solidly B+ life. I have my copes and work around, but that’s just what it takes to thrive. My kids are average to smart teens. I’ve never sought extra time or diagnoses for them, though it seems all their classmates have accomodations. It’s really getting to be more of a marvel if you declare yourself not to have adhd and anxiety.

[Anonymous]

I don’t remember anyone at my affluent private school getting accommodations back in the 90’s. I’m not saying there weren’t kids who needed them or that the lack of diagnoses back then was a good thing…Back then it was understood that having B’s and C’s didn’t mean a lifetime of poverty and working at minimum wage jobs. Kids were recognized for a wide variety of personal/social qualities outside of academics and extracurriculars, not matter what their grades or scores were. The general understanding seemed to be that they will be fine in college and go on to become fulfilled, productive adults (and they did!). It’s a shame that the goalposts have moved to the point where parents are purchasing late-adolescent ADHD diagnoses for their perfectly normal kids. Because normal isn’t good enough anymore…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I seem to recall some months ago a poster linked an Atlantic Monthly article about the gaming of ADHD diagnoses in wealthy school districts and elite colleges. Apparently, 20% of kids at Harvard and Brown, 30+% at Amherst, and nearly 40% at Stanford have such diagnoses and accommodations. These diagnoses have become particularly popular at the end of high school when students confront high-stakes ACT, SAT and AP testing. A typical ADHD accommodation for the SAT yields 50% more test-taking time and a score boost of potentially 200 points. The rise of such diagnoses and requests for accommodation has risen much faster in wealthy districts compared to poor ones.

Fast forward to this year’s holiday break and my student, who attends an elite college, tells me that they might have ADHD. They are preparing for a major research project and are nervous. Two close college friends “have ADHD” and scored a 35 and 36 on their ACT. My kid scored a 1560 on their SAT without a diagnoses or accommodation. The friends say my kid should get a ADHD diagnosis and meds.

My kid does not have ADHD. What they have is anxiety that needs to be addressed by learning new skills to do new things. I’m highly disappointed that the peer group’s solution is to reach for a drug and an accommodation, a cope they learned from their parents.

Yes, I know I’m going to get blasted for this because for some kids ADHD is a real thing, but the trends, the timing, the socioeconomics, and the goals of many seeking ADHD diagnoses is nothing but a performance enhancer and a life crutch.

I can’t believe what achievement and performance has come to and it’s increasingly difficult to understand the value of prestige labels without a lot of caveats. Cheat ADHD diagnoses fundamentally change the college evaluation environment and devalue the ethics and integrity of genuine achievement.

It is one thing to take a drug to return to baseline health and another to avoid real life challenges and artificially enhance performance. We all rightfully decry performance enhancing drugs in sports and we should do the same in academics.

So what. My kid also did it all w/out extra time and a diagnosis. He got into one of Harvard and Brown, WL at the other. Regular decision, unhooked, no legacy or sport.

That doesn't make me want to cr*p on anyone else who might legitimately have those challenges---nor would we ever resort to playing games or making stuff up.