ADHD and Law School Admissions Forum

[Chagolla123]

Hello everyone,

Does anyone know if informing the admissions board of a recent diagnosis of ADHD would hurt, or help your chances of admission? I am 30 years old, I have been accepted to some good schools with scholarship, however I have been waitlisted at a couple other schools. I was diagnosed with ADHD last week and I was wondering if this would hurt or improve my chances of getting admitted off of the waitlist? Also, do you think I might be able to increase my scholarship awards due to this? Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

[OhBoyOhBortles]

Why would that have any impact on admissions or scholarships?

ETA: No.

[Chagolla123]

Well since it is considered a "Learning Disability" I was curious that since I scored in the 90th percentile in the LSAT, and had pretty good grades without any medication or treatment, if they would take that into consideration. I've just heard different things around the Law School student pipeline that I was hoping to get a fresh view on.

[blsingindisguise]

It's not taken all that seriously because it's so easy to get diagnosed with it and not all that debilitating. I think claiming it could harm more than help as it could be perceived as an "excuse." I say this as someone who has been diagnosed with it by three different psychiatrist and tried various medications.

[AReasonableMan]

it would be more prudent to focus on how you will treat it before you start school. your brain probably also compensates due to the adhd (which is largely just weaker prefrontal cortex finctioning) so you might have a better memory/be quicker because of adhd, and such advancements are likely to regress once the rest of your brain no longer has to compensate. honestly if you're tryig to game the system, you may be best served by just getting extra time. it was annoying when people did this and i never found it fair but you actually have a diagnosis so why not?

[PhilippeStandingOnIt]

If you had two crappy years of undergrad GPA, followed by an ADHD diagnosis and treatment, followed by two years of phenomenal grades, it would be worth bringing up in an GPA addendum. However,

"I made a decent-ish LSAT and decent grades, and oh by the way, I was overcoming ADHD and didn't even know it, aren't I impressive?!" is stupid. ADHD is not a sob story on the level of a parental death or immigrating as a non-English speaker or cancer or racism or anything else that shows "overcoming adversity". Don't do this.

***Lifelong ADHD diagnosis/battle here. See my post history for my (at times vigorous) defense of ADHD as a real disease, accommodations, etc.

[howsthecow]

If you had two crappy years of undergrad GPA, followed by an ADHD diagnosis and treatment, followed by two years of phenomenal grades, it would be worth bringing up in an GPA addendum.

This was my exact situation when applying. Currently stalking your post history for insight.

[PhilippeStandingOnIt]

If you had two crappy years of undergrad GPA, followed by an ADHD diagnosis and treatment, followed by two years of phenomenal grades, it would be worth bringing up in an GPA addendum.

This was my exact situation when applying. Currently stalking your post history for insight.

Upon review, my post history on this topic may not be as robust as I remembered. I may have been crediting a lot of angry/impassioned thoughts held in my mind as posts themselves, while I actually made more mild, tempered posts. But you are welcome to PM me if you have questions.

[Mack.Hambleton]

No

[xael]

Hello everyone,

Does anyone know if informing the admissions board of a recent diagnosis of ADHD would hurt, or help your chances of admission?

Maybe at WUSTL.