Advice for Disclosing ADHD on Med school Apps

[Purple squid]

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I’ve been reading clonflicting advice for wether or not to mention ADHD in my PS and my greatest challenge essays.

I talk about it in the following way:
- from frequent visits to doctors offices early on it spawned my interest in neuroscience

- from the stigma of the disorder I thought I was never meant to achieve acedmically and just thought that kind of success was just not available to me. Also coupled to this is I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life( tried to emphasize that I believe this was the biggest contributing factor to my previous failures)

- almost failed high school + worked a lot in high school and college

- finally found I had a passion for research and dropped everything to pursue it by moving away

- got my act together( had a 4.0 for then until I graduated 3 years later, 516+ on MCAT , pubs, multiple posters , scholarships, leadership positions)

-helped friend with seek treatment for ADHD by telling her my story and educating her about it. This led me to pursue medicine too bc I enjoyed it so much

In summary, ADHD has began my interest in science and research , built my character through overcoming it and achieving success , and was critical in making me realize medicine was right for me. Because of this, if I left it out for fear that some adcom would judge me and think I was making excuses/ think I couldn’t handle Med school, I feel like I would be leaving for a huge part of my life and who I am as a person .

I would love to hear your thoughts on this as I feel my situation is a little unique.

Thank you!

 

[Future MD/PhD]

Thanks for sharing your story with us. I think the bottom line is that if it's a big and relevant part of your essays and it adds to your story (without making it seem like you're making excuses), then you should include it. Someone somewhere will probably judge you, but you wouldn't want to go to an institution like that anyway. I think that ADHD is less of a stigmatized illness, although I can see how a school may think that you might not be fit for the rigors of medical school. Nonetheless, your scores will (almost) always have the final say. Depending on where you want to go, a 516 or above on the MCAT tells schools that you can handle standardized testing. I don't know what your graduating GPA was/will be, but if it's above 3.7, you should be fine. How you will be received (stats and otherwise) depends a lot on where you want to go. I personally think that higher ranking schools are more open-minded, but they require aggressively high scores. I also think that anything you did or didn't do in high school no longer matters, so I wouldn't dwell on it, but the fact that you worked in college is worth mentioning. It's all about distance traveled, and it sounds like you've traveled quite a bit. I would also mention how you plan to handle your ADHD in medical school so that it doesn't interfere with you academic success, and perhaps mentions strategies that have worked for you in the past. All in all, though, you're absolutely fine. Tell your story. All they care about are your stats at the end of the day 😉

 

[HamiltonPineapples]

If you are able to craft a story about how this was a challenge you faced initially, but ultimately overcame, then yes I think its worth including. Transformative experience/challenge vs an excuse is really how you should look at it in my opinion. If you're just writing excuses for lack of motivation, then no don't include it. If it works into an overall story of overcoming a challenge and helping you find a passion of academic medicine, absolutely include it. Seems like you consider it transformative based on what you wrote

 

[Purple squid]

If you are able to craft a story about how this was a challenge you faced initially, but ultimately overcame, then yes I think its worth including. Transformative experience/challenge vs an excuse is really how you should look at it in my opinion. If you're just writing excuses for lack of motivation, then no don't include it. If it works into an overall story of overcoming a challenge and helping you find a passion of academic medicine, absolutely include it. Seems like you consider it transformative based on what you wrote

Thank you for your input. That’s basically what I was going for. I think that in overcoming it and learning how to succeed has greatly developed my character(disipline, perseverance, etc.) . More so, I bring it up to show why I come from such humble beginnings(and as a contributing factor to my GPA early in college—but I attributed it more to not knowing what I wanted to do with my life) . I don’t seek accommodations nor have I ever received them. I believe with meds I can compete with any other Med student out there.

 

[Purple squid]

Thanks for sharing your story with us. I think the bottom line is that if it's a big and relevant part of your essays and it adds to your story (without making it seem like you're making excuses), then you should include it. Someone somewhere will probably judge you, but you wouldn't want to go to an institution like that anyway. I think that ADHD is less of a stigmatized illness, although I can see how a school may think that you might not be fit for the rigors of medical school. Nonetheless, your scores will (almost) always have the final say. Depending on where you want to go, a 516 or above on the MCAT tells schools that you can handle standardized testing. I don't know what your graduating GPA was/will be, but if it's above 3.7, you should be fine. How you will be received (stats and otherwise) depends a lot on where you want to go. I personally think that higher ranking schools are more open-minded, but they require aggressively high scores. I also think that anything you did or didn't do in high school no longer matters, so I wouldn't dwell on it, but the fact that you worked in college is worth mentioning. It's all about distance traveled, and it sounds like you've traveled quite a bit. I would also mention how you plan to handle your ADHD in medical school so that it doesn't interfere with you academic success, and perhaps mentions strategies that have worked for you in the past. All in all, though, you're absolutely fine. Tell your story. All they care about are your stats at the end of the day 😉

Thank you for your reply. As for what I will do to handle Med school—do you think I can use my last few years of success as evidence of that? Or should I explicitly state it? The reason I ask is because if I do mention what strategies or study habits I have I feel like I will run out of space on my secondaries.( something that has been happening quite a bit on the 15 or so I’ve written so far)

 

[Future MD/PhD]

I think that upward trends of success speak for themselves. Referring to it in the way that HamiltonPineapples described should be enough. It probably doesn't hurt to briefly mention your upward trend as proof that you got your act together, but no need to detail your study habits and whatnot. Kudos, btw, for starting to think about and work on your application so early. I'm sure all things will work out for the best for you.

 

[feather125]

I've had the same dilemma. I'm dyslexic and absolutely terrified to disclose it. I work really hard in school and my grades don't look like i'm dyslexic, I have a 3.9ish. Often when I tell people i get really weird responses (are you illiterate? so you have a low IQ? stuff like that) or people think I get special treatment and that's why I have good grades. Thats not true at all; I didn't even ask for accommodations at my university because I'm so self conscious about it. What made you decide to disclose your ADHD? And are you concerned medical schools won't admit you because of it? IDK I thought I was the only one who felt this way. These comments are helpful but I wanna know if you have the same concerns or if i'm just being silly.

 

[Purple squid]

I think that upward trends of success speak for themselves. Referring to it in the way that HamiltonPineapples described should be enough. It probably doesn't hurt to briefly mention your upward trend as proof that you got your act together, but no need to detail your study habits and whatnot. Kudos, btw, for starting to think about and work on your application so early. I'm sure all things will work out for the best for you.

Okay I’ll keep that in mind. And I actually started working on it in January (almost finished with secondaries now which is where I elaborate on it ) Thank you for the compliment though!

 

[Purple squid]

I've had the same dilemma. I'm dyslexic and absolutely terrified to disclose it. I work really hard in school and my grades don't look like i'm dyslexic, I have a 3.9ish. Often when I tell people i get really weird responses (are you illiterate? so you have a low IQ? stuff like that) or people think I get special treatment and that's why I have good grades. Thats not true at all; I didn't even ask for accommodations at my university because I'm so self conscious about it. What made you decide to disclose your ADHD? And are you concerned medical schools won't admit you because of it? IDK I thought I was the only one who felt this way. These comments are helpful but I wanna know if you have the same concerns or if i'm just being silly.

No I completely understand where you are coming from. Like you I’m not looking for any accommodations or sympathy. I just want to be able to tell my story and not be judged. And I’ve heard that some schools might be hesitant to accept you because of it.

I’m thinking about disclosing it because of how much of a impact it had on my life. Constant doctor appointments spawned my intrest in science early in my life, overcoming the problems from it developed my character, and helping one of my friends with it began my interest in medicine.