No, don't mention it.  You can talk about your unusual way of thinking and your skills without discussing it as a condition - I mean, if you were only diagnosed with it two weeks ago it's not as if you've been consciously working in a certain way because of the ADHD - you've just been doing what you do naturally to do the best you can, and that is what your portfolio should reflect.

I agree with Donna.  As you say, it might raise a red flag, rightly or wrongly.  Rely on the other attributes you describe to offset any GPA deficiency, not a hastily conceived retroactive excuse.  Good luck!

Why would this be relevant to - or any business of - the review committee, any more than maybe something like chronic asthma? The bigger question might be: "do you think ADHD will affect your ability to do the work if you're accepted?"

Well, you see, my learning disability caught up to me while writing my thesis and I practically had a meltdown just days before it was due.

I got a 2.3 on the thesis. It's just one of 2 C's in my transcript, but I think that might be a bigger red flag than the ADHD.

On the other hand, I am now getting treatment for it, and if I perform well on Career Discovery this summer, I might convince the schools that my academic difficulties are in the past and the thesis fiasco was due to my inability to focus on or organize a 40-page paper. It's easier to understand the grade if I explain my ADHD.

Only understanding and sympathy here.  I think you might be able to write something compelling and persuasive.  But the process all depends on who's reading your letter/essay.  It remains a calculated risk.

Are any interviews involved?  This is just the kind of thing for a discussion, where nuance is part of the equation.  When written in black and white and read by someone you don't know, it's different.

Here's a quick ADHD test online. I answered sometimes to all the questions aaaand...

I too have ADHD!

I remember when adhd was an exclusive club. Now a days they'll let all kinds of riffraff in.

Certainly not.  Many of us have significant "challenges" that have made things more difficult (and continue to do so).  But that's life.  

Would you put "I am in a wheelchair" also?  No.  We all deal with what we have.  Persevere, keep your chin up and be grateful for being in a position to apply to those schools.

You made  it this far, don't make excuses for yourself, it won't look good to anyone, including yourself.

Wait, what was this thread about again?

They will absolutely appreciate your earnest but definitely not going to help your acceptance.

Thanks for the advice. There seems to be a consensus that it would not be a good idea to mention ADHD.

However, there is still the matter of my 2.3 on my thesis. How much do architecture schools care about theses? Would they care about whether I can perform original research and write scholarly papers?

I would guess not, but it still makes me uneasy.

yes, tell them.  sorry, I am just getting around to looking at archinect.

The likelihood that your thesis grade will be noticed in the five minutes the committee looks at your application is about 1 in 10. The likelihood that talking about ADHD in your statement will get you moved to the bottom of the pile is almost certain.

put some corporate spin on it and proclaim your thesis score was 2.3 points higher than FLLWs

Rusty! I took that quiz several times and found that with a mix of only "rarely" and "never", it still suggests that ADHD is likely. Only all "never" responses appears to yield an "unlikely" suggestion. hmmm.

Ragby,

Many of our CVs (including GPAs, GRE scores, etcetera) have positives and negatives.

This is why the statement of purpose/intent (whatever it's called in any particular application package) is so important.  That is YOUR space to craft a narrative about YOU, and how your strengths as an applicant outweigh your weaknesses.

You may decide to include your diagnosis in that essay, or not.  The consensus among most here is that you should not.  If you disagree, that's fine.  But if you agree, all that means is that you need to craft your narrative using OTHER factors: particular courses in which you excelled, portfolio projects, work experience, passion about materials, service work, etcetera.

Don't let this paralyze you.

Absolutely not, under any circumstances.  Look, ultimately there is really nothing wrong with ADHD, but you have to understand how competitive the market is.  People do read these essays.  There's a negative stigma around ADHD, be it accurate or not, and you don't want ANYTHING potentially negative on your application.  The graduate student who's sorting through the applications will simply drop it on the stack you don't want it to be on top of.  Reviewing student applications is a long and arduous process, and after a few days of it people won't hesitate for any excuse to just dump an otherwise spotless application. 

You should mention it in half of your applications, and not in the other half.

See what comes back and report results here.

We like guinea pig experiments, and you seem like a perfect candidate. It's not like you have a soul anyways.

I would talk with your academic advisor, or someone else who is directly involved in the admissions process, about it. I had a situation where an extraneous circumstance might have impacted my academic work (but ultimately didn't), but I was very afraid about the potential impact at the time. My advisor, who has previously helped guide other students into top schools, recommended that in my case my essay would be an opportunity for me to better explain my situation.

Your mileage may vary, but talk to more people than just Archinect before making decisions about something as important as your graduate school application.

I was joking - don't mention it, really - at this time it is irrelevant to your application since the diagnosis comes after your course completion and your  lame suggestion about it adding creativity is just nonsense - 

Where i teach at least 25% of the students are registered as ADAH and get support within their course from student services in addition to academic staff are specially trained in supporting students [many get extended deadlines for submissions].

is that a 3.4/4 or 5?

If the quality of the work suffered, you now [and since finishing] have had sufficient time to top-it off and if your committed to the ideas you should have -

when you start school, seek advise immediately from the school advisors [who are not your direct tutors and often are not within the faculty] on how they can support you - universities normally will re-test you directly [not the 6 questions via the internet] and will report back to your faculty on supporting your learning - all ADAH cases are different and no single universal answer applies - most folks who review entry apps wont have a clue -

I thought ADHD was prerequisite to get into Architecture school.

So, getting past the ADHD thing…

mespellrong said that it is relatively unlikely that the committee will notice my thesis grade. Would others agree with this? How much importance would an architecture school place on your undergrad thesis if it is unrelated to architecture? (My major was urban affairs.)

So to recap:

My GPA is 3.4 out of 4.0

and my thesis grade is 2.3 (also out of 4.0)

Should I be worried about my thesis grade, considering that it is one of only 2 C's on a transcript in which half of the grades are A's?

Sorry to dwell on this, but I just would like to know if I should explain my thesis grade somehow, or just not bring attention to it at all.

Thanks.

Don't paralyze yourself with this, Ragby.

If your major was urban affairs, your personal statement is a great place to show the admissions committee which particular problems and conditions in the urban built environment compel you to seek an architectural education, where you can learn to do something about them as a future practitioner.

No one here on Archinect can say with any certainty how your transcript will be interpreted.  We can opine, some of us based on experience elsewhere, but it will still be an educated guess at best.  And, so far, nobody has told you "forget it.  No school will have you."  So, relax a little and go easy on yourself.

Spend your considerable energy on the parts of the application package over which you do have some control.  And good luck!

What citizen said.  No one here knows how any school will interpret your application.  In my experience, grades were hardly even noticed; pretty much all attention was paid to portfolio quality, statement, and letters of rec in that order.

And see, if I were reviewing apps, it would be rusty's comment - smart ass, yet perceptive and showing curiosity, that would go to the top of the pile.

Think the problem through. In the two programs where I periodically have to play a role in  admissions (admittedly, neither architecture), we get 150+ applications for 12-15 spots per cycle. To meet yield, we select between 25 and 37 of the applicants, and we might wait-list another dozen.

Usually we have to meet on a Saturday or Sunday, because we cant find a full day during the week when the full committee is available. that means we don't want to run past 8 hours, which works out to 3.2 minutes per file -- assuming we don't have to spend an hour at the start of the day discussing our philosophical approach to applicant processing, or get in a shouting match because a student with strong intellectual merit couldn't edit their crap portfolio -- or vice versa.

These days, chances are pretty good that one of us has had to go to an administrative hearing in the last semester because a student who is failing all of their classes because they are too busy drinking, dating, or watching television happens to be ADHD and forgets to take their medication -- or can't afford the copay on the crap student health insurance they have. Those are frustrating cases -- because generally the student doesn't have enough work to evaluate if they are having a problem, or if they just don't really want to be in that course of study.

I'll admit -- I've given two really promising students a C on their capstone projects who clearly have an attention deficit disorder. In both cases, it became clear on their first assignment, and I was direct about what kind of corrective action they needed to take. They both decided that being differently-able meant that they shouldn't have to use supportive mechanisms that would enable them to do quality work, but rather that I should grade them only on what they can do on their own. That was a bad decision. If I reward it by giving them an A for their effort, then they will go on and do the same thing in graduate school or professional practice, at which point they won't just be embarrassing themselves, they will be embarrassing me and our institution.

Neither of these groups are the norm when it comes to students with difficulties. Most students are capable of recognizing that they are struggling and getting the help that they need. If the admissions committee needs to be aware of anything of this sort, it is that you see what part of this experience was a mistake, and that you wouldn't make it again. You can make that clear in an incisive manner during an interview, but the lengthy discursis necessary would take up more than half of your statement. At that point, you are telling us that you should be admitted because you have ADHD.

I'll agree with Donna -- if you actually wrote that letter really well, you might get in.

Think the problem through. In the two programs where I periodically have to play a role in  admissions (admittedly, neither architecture), we get 150+ applications for 12-15 spots per cycle. To meet yield, we select between 25 and 37 of the applicants, and we might wait-list another dozen.

Usually we have to meet on a Saturday or Sunday, because we cant find a full day during the week when the full committee is available. that means we don't want to run past 8 hours, which works out to 3.2 minutes per file -- assuming we don't have to spend an hour at the start of the day discussing our philosophical approach to applicant processing, or get in a shouting match because a student with strong intellectual merit couldn't edit their crap portfolio -- or vice versa.

These days, chances are pretty good that one of us has had to go to an administrative hearing in the last semester because a student who is failing all of their classes because they are too busy drinking, dating, or watching television happens to be ADHD and forgets to take their medication -- or can't afford the copay on the crap student health insurance they have. Those are frustrating cases -- because generally the student doesn't have enough work to evaluate if they are having a problem, or if they just don't really want to be in that course of study.

I'll admit -- I've given two really promising students a C on their capstone projects who clearly have an attention deficit disorder. In both cases, it became clear on their first assignment, and I was direct about what kind of corrective action they needed to take. They both decided that being differently-able meant that they shouldn't have to use supportive mechanisms that would enable them to do quality work, but rather that I should grade them only on what they can do on their own. That was a bad decision. If I reward it by giving them an A for their effort, then they will go on and do the same thing in graduate school or professional practice, at which point they won't just be embarrassing themselves, they will be embarrassing me and our institution.

Neither of these groups are the norm when it comes to students with difficulties. Most students are capable of recognizing that they are struggling and getting the help that they need. If the admissions committee needs to be aware of anything of this sort, it is that you see what part of this experience was a mistake, and that you wouldn't make it again. You can make that clear in an incisive manner during an interview, but the lengthy discursis necessary would take up more than half of your statement. At that point, you are telling us that you should be admitted because you have ADHD.

I'll agree with Donna -- if you actually wrote that letter really well, you might get in.

repeat

dont we all have ADHD? 

NO - Jesus Christ!

RAGB

so you're looking for an excuse for your poor performance?  that's the way i'd read it.

wait this like two weeks late, how'd you do?

anyway, pyschology and other mental interpretation bullshits are directly tied to pharmeceutical investements....it's all bull shit.

life is what it is and fuck the rationalists for not understanding.

ADHD is a joke on all levels.