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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC was diagnosed with ADHD in college and received accommodation. Not surprising, since it runs in the family. Prior to diagnosis, National Merit Finalist and 1,580 SAT, obviously without accommodation. Full merit tuition ride at a T-20. All A in HS and still all A in college. I understand OP's skepticism, but perhaps should keep an open mind since every kid is different.

Sorry, but this isn’t ADHD. You didn’t provide any behavior or outcome basis to suggest a problem, so maybe it’s anxiety. A kid who feels he must be perfect and fears that the slightest imperfection might wreck the whole card deck is going to be anxious.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC was diagnosed with ADHD in college and received accommodation. Not surprising, since it runs in the family. Prior to diagnosis, National Merit Finalist and 1,580 SAT, obviously without accommodation. Full merit tuition ride at a T-20. All A in HS and still all A in college. I understand OP's skepticism, but perhaps should keep an open mind since every kid is different.

DC got that far without it: why is the accommodation necessary now?

Some of my favorite alternate version of this include:
Your child had cancer but hadn’t died before the cancer was diagnosed, why treat it now?

Or

Your kid failed the driving vision test? They’ve never needed glasses before, why get them now? They could just ride the bus everywhere instead.

These are flawed analogies. True ADHD is always there; it doesn’t suddenly pop up at 18. Yes, ADHD can go undiagnosed, but real, untreated ADHD leaves a trail of sorrow in its wake.

The idea that a kid comes from an ADHD family, yet their ADHD went unnoticed is highly improbable because both parents and doctors would be alert to it.

Are you suggesting a kid couldn’t make it through academically if they needed glasses? I think the thing you missing is that sometimes kids compensate in different ways, like in the glasses analogy might squint, or happen to sit in the front of the class. Having blurry vision is all they know.

Then something happens at some age where suddenly they discover in fact there is a better way to approach the world. Glasses take away their headaches. And now they can sit anywhere in the room and thrive. And they can start to drive more safely.

Just because it was diagnosed late doesn’t mean the condition didn’t always exist. Should we not give glasses to people who survived well enough without them, even if their life can be significantly improved with glasses?

Anonymous wrote:DC was diagnosed with ADHD in college and received accommodation. Not surprising, since it runs in the family. Prior to diagnosis, National Merit Finalist and 1,580 SAT, obviously without accommodation. Full merit tuition ride at a T-20. All A in HS and still all A in college. I understand OP's skepticism, but perhaps should keep an open mind since every kid is different.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC was diagnosed with ADHD in college and received accommodation. Not surprising, since it runs in the family. Prior to diagnosis, National Merit Finalist and 1,580 SAT, obviously without accommodation. Full merit tuition ride at a T-20. All A in HS and still all A in college. I understand OP's skepticism, but perhaps should keep an open mind since every kid is different.

DC got that far without it: why is the accommodation necessary now?

Some of my favorite alternate version of this include:
Your child had cancer but hadn’t died before the cancer was diagnosed, why treat it now?

Or

Your kid failed the driving vision test? They’ve never needed glasses before, why get them now? They could just ride the bus everywhere instead.

These are flawed analogies. True ADHD is always there; it doesn’t suddenly pop up at 18. Yes, ADHD can go undiagnosed, but real, untreated ADHD leaves a trail of sorrow in its wake.

The idea that a kid comes from an ADHD family, yet their ADHD went unnoticed is highly improbable because both parents and doctors would be alert to it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC was diagnosed with ADHD in college and received accommodation. Not surprising, since it runs in the family. Prior to diagnosis, National Merit Finalist and 1,580 SAT, obviously without accommodation. Full merit tuition ride at a T-20. All A in HS and still all A in college. I understand OP's skepticism, but perhaps should keep an open mind since every kid is different.

DC got that far without it: why is the accommodation necessary now?

Some of my favorite alternate version of this include:
Your child had cancer but hadn’t died before the cancer was diagnosed, why treat it now?

Or

Your kid failed the driving vision test? They’ve never needed glasses before, why get them now? They could just ride the bus everywhere instead.

These are flawed analogies. True ADHD is always there; it doesn’t suddenly pop up at 18. Yes, ADHD can go undiagnosed, but real, untreated ADHD leaves a trail of sorrow in its wake.

The idea that a kid comes from an ADHD family, yet their ADHD went unnoticed is highly improbable because both parents and doctors would be alert to it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC was diagnosed with ADHD in college and received accommodation. Not surprising, since it runs in the family. Prior to diagnosis, National Merit Finalist and 1,580 SAT, obviously without accommodation. Full merit tuition ride at a T-20. All A in HS and still all A in college. I understand OP's skepticism, but perhaps should keep an open mind since every kid is different.

DC got that far without it: why is the accommodation necessary now?

Some of my favorite alternate version of this include:
Your child had cancer but hadn’t died before the cancer was diagnosed, why treat it now?

Or

Your kid failed the driving vision test? They’ve never needed glasses before, why get them now? They could just ride the bus everywhere instead.

Anonymous wrote:DC was diagnosed with ADHD in college and received accommodation. Not surprising, since it runs in the family. Prior to diagnosis, National Merit Finalist and 1,580 SAT, obviously without accommodation. Full merit tuition ride at a T-20. All A in HS and still all A in college. I understand OP's skepticism, but perhaps should keep an open mind since every kid is different.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC was diagnosed with ADHD in college and received accommodation. Not surprising, since it runs in the family. Prior to diagnosis, National Merit Finalist and 1,580 SAT, obviously without accommodation. Full merit tuition ride at a T-20. All A in HS and still all A in college. I understand OP's skepticism, but perhaps should keep an open mind since every kid is different.

DC got that far without it: why is the accommodation necessary now?

PP. Because he was diagnosed with ADHD. That was the point made: diagnosis of a mental health condition followed with a proper course of treatment. The need for diagnosis was based on symptoms unrelated with academic / EC performances.

In other words, academic accommodations were unnecessary — but enjoy the extra time

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a ton of overlap among ADHD, high functioning autism, giftedness, anxiety and OCD. Kids who are brilliant often have brains that are wired a bit differently.

All that is great as far as it goes, but the evidence clearly points to manipulation/gaming among the wealthy, prestige-seeking, and those wanting admittance to elite colleges.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC was diagnosed with ADHD in college and received accommodation. Not surprising, since it runs in the family. Prior to diagnosis, National Merit Finalist and 1,580 SAT, obviously without accommodation. Full merit tuition ride at a T-20. All A in HS and still all A in college. I understand OP's skepticism, but perhaps should keep an open mind since every kid is different.

DC got that far without it: why is the accommodation necessary now?

Some of my favorite alternate version of this include:
Your child had cancer but hadn’t died before the cancer was diagnosed, why treat it now?

Or

Your kid failed the driving vision test? They’ve never needed glasses before, why get them now? They could just ride the bus everywhere instead.