Making the Grade: Advice on Succeeding with ADHD from Veterans of the Transition from High School to College

By Judy Brenis

Transitioning from high school to college is never easy, but for people with ADHD it can be a nightmare. The good news, however, is that it doesn’t have to be that way. For Anthony Robertson, 26, who now works as the lead Systems Engineer for the F-16 program at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, getting as much help as possible was crucial. “Sure, I wanted to do it on my own, but I soon realized it’s okay to ask for help,” Robertson said. “Why not ask for accommodations if it will make your life easier?”

 

Diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia early on, Robertson said he encountered his most difficult struggles in middle school, but once he got the help he needed, he went from failing most of his classes in seventh grade to getting all A’s and B’s in eighth grade and beyond. Robertson said reading always took him a lot longer than most of his peers, and therefore, being given more time to take tests or turn in assignments made a big difference. He noted that his transition from high school to college was made easier because his counselors in high school connected him with people who could help him in college. While it did take Robertson five years to graduate from the University of Kentucky with a degree in mechanical engineering and a minor in mathematics, he went on to Purdue University, where he earned a master’s degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering, and once again relied on accommodations to help him compensate for the challenges of his ADHD.

 

According to Robertson, his first two years in college were the most difficult because he needed to take general courses to meet the basic requirements, but once he could concentrate on his core engineering classes, where his true passions lie, he was able to earn mostly A’s. As is typical with people with ADHD, being interested in a subject makes it much easier to focus and do the work. “It was the goal that motivated me to get through no matter what,” said Robertson, whose grandfather was a WWII pilot and most likely the reason he fell in love with airplanes. “I just always thought they were awesome.”

 

Robertson also credits his success in college to his involvement with the University of Kentucky’s solar-powered car team as project manager. “Get involved in extracurricular activities,” he advised emphatically. “In school, my priorities were number one, solar-powered car team; two, school; and three, a social life,” admitting that he didn’t often have time for number three, but the girl he was dating at the time, now his fiancé, would come to the garage to study just so she could see him.

 

Neel Kanth Sawhney, 23, is also a firm believer in asking for help. Sawhney, also diagnosed with ADHD while in middle school, said his job in his college’s disability office really helped him view his ADHD differently. “It was very educational for me,” Sawhney said. “That’s when I started to think of ADD differently. Rather than try to hide it and drag my feet, I began to look at how people can use their disability to their advantage.” Sawhney, who is majoring in illustration at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City, gave the example of famous artists and writers who may have had to deal with depression, anxiety, or OCD, but that and as a result their creative work seems extremely powerful. He likes to think ADHD contributes to his own creativity.

 

Sawhney said that working in the disability office helped him realize how easy it is to resolve problems when you ask for accommodations. “If you have ADD or depression or dyslexia, you can get extra time to take tests, or finish school work. Working with a tutor or coming in and talking to someone in the disability office you can create a plan that will help you achieve your goals.”

 

Sawhney said many of his own problems centered on a lack of focus, poor organizational skills, and procrastination, but that no one really addressed his ADHD prior to him enrolling in the SVA. He realizes now that he should have advocated for himself and could have benefited from all the accommodations available today.

 

Now determined to do his best and get the help he needs in order to achieve, Sawhney, is planning to either enroll in a master’s program in psychology, or may jump straight into a Psy.D. program, explaining that a Psy.D., rather than a Ph.D., may be a better route to go for those who are specifically interested in clinical psychology. Someday, Sawhney would also like to write self-help books for young people with disabilities. He believes that if you approach kids at an early age, and provide them with an understanding of their disability, as well as giving them the right tools and strategies, they will be better prepared for their future.

 

Sawhney admits that he didn’t do very well in school until reaching SVA, and could have done better if he had applied himself, but he wasn’t sure how to do that. He said when he made the switch from a community college to SVA, he decided he would not settle for less than his best. “I can either go down the dark road, or get all the A’s I can,” Sawhney said. “People will surprise themselves if they just create their own support system. And once you get one A, whenever you doubt yourself, you just go back to that A, to that positive reinforcement, and whatever you have done right before, and you know you can do it again. Success builds more success.”

 

“Self-esteem was one of the biggest things for me,” Sawhney admitted. “If you don’t have the right tools, then you’re going to keep making mistakes and feeling badly about it.” Now he says he works hard not to beat himself up. “There are always going to be bumps in life, but when I hit one of those bumps, I just keep going. I don’t want one bump to turn into three bumps.”

 

“For me, just learning more about the disorder and understanding how it affected me felt like half the battle,” said 23-year-old Kyle Dopfel, who was not diagnosed with ADHD until her second year at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. “Suddenly a lot of things about me made more sense and because I was aware of it, I was able to identify times when it may come into play and could avoid further problems arising.”

 

Like Sawhney, Dopfel admits that she struggled around her diagnosis, having trouble accepting it. She said she has always been a bit skeptical of an ADHD diagnosis, her perception being that it was over diagnosed and was either an excuse or a way to get an unfair advantage. Dopfel now believes she was able to be successful despite having ADHD because of her strict upbringing and how her ADHD was masked by some of her other struggles.

 

Once she “came around” and accepted her diagnosis and pursued treatment both in the form of medication and therapy, she was amazed at what good it did for her life. “It wasn’t that I hadn’t been able to achieve some degree of success previously, but it had been an extreme struggle. I had been dealing with a huge obstacle without even realizing it was there. It didn’t just improve my academic performance, but also made a huge difference for me in pretty much every aspect of my life,” Dopfel said. “I began to feel happier, lighter, and I was able to go through life and get things done without nearly the difficulty I’d had before, or the stress and frustration.”

 

Ironically, Dopfel’s work now centers almost wholly around ADHD. After graduation, Dopfel worked with the ADHD Corrections Project at the Delaware Center for Justice, a position she found through AmeriCorps Vista. The project also received additional funding from ADDA. Recently, Dopfel was hired by ADDA to continue her work with the ADHD Corrections Project, developing a national program for ADHD based on her work with the Delaware corrections pilot project.

 

“This is a pilot re-entry initiative which aims to identify inmates with undiagnosed or untreated ADHD and to help them be as successful as possible by preparing them for their release and connecting them with all of the necessary support services in their communities,” Dopfel explained.

 

“What I have learned is that brains with ADHD don’t necessarily function any better or worse than brains without ADHD – people with ADHD are no more or less intelligent,” Dopfel said. “Brains with ADHD just happen to function DIFFERENTLY than those without. I would recommend people with ADHD avoid thinking of it as a flaw and try not to be discouraged by it. People with ADHD can be just as successful as anyone else – if not more so. People with ADHD are often some of the most creative, innovative, and inspired people because of the way they process their thoughts and ideas.”

 

As Robertson summed it up, “You just have to believe in yourself.”

 

Judy Brenis is an ADHD coach based in Santa Cruz, California. ADHD has touched her life in the form of her 22-year-old daughter who was diagnosed with ADHD at age five, and Judy is passionate about helping those with ADHD create successful, happy, and healthy lives. Reach her at www.adhdcoachingjudy.com