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I never knew there was such a thing as a public Ivy school? What school could this be? I'm not sure you know what Ivy League is, but no matter because I get your point - it's a good school.
Ruth4Truth: I have trouble focusing in class and concentrating on homework but surprising I can put a lot of effort into the extracurricular activities I do (research and counseling). If it's a heavy load and if I can't handle it, I'll reduce the amount of activities I'm involved with.
This would indicate to me that your ADD is situational. Meaning, if you're motivated, you can focus. So it's probably more a matter of disciplining your mind than taking a pill.
I suggest you look up some videos on meditation online. Try practicing meditation for a month, if only for 10 minutes daily. It teaches you to keep your mind from wandering, and to focus. It can take time to make any progress (it varies with the individual), but once you experience some improvement, you should discover that your ability to focus on class lectures also improves.
First off, stop making excuses. If you are going to use ADD as an excuse, then just accept the fact that you'll never perform up to a high level and forget grad school.
There's no such thing as intelligence for the majority of us. There's just hard work. If I was considering you for a job and I read what you just wrote, I would never, EVER hire you. If you concentrate and lock yourself in the library, you will do well.
Like what's this crap about not having enough time to study for the GRE? It doesn't take that long to study for it, and it's only offered almost every day of the year. Just do it. You'll need to take it by October to get your scores in.
The good news is that despite what people say, graduate programs are almost always more lenient on GPA requirements than people think. The bad news is that Psychology is a particularly competitive program. I suggest you do as much research as you can, work on getting your grades up, and take the GRE.
If you just want to get into a Masters program, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to. I don't care what your GPA is. If you want to get into a pHd, that's a little trickier. To counteract your poor GPA, you'll need research and possibly publications. I think the best way to do that is to go do a Masters in Psych and get a prof to supervise your research.
Work experience could help too, but not as much as doing research and the Masters IMO.
I agree. I do have ADHD really bad too and it never got in the way of succeeding. There was a time I was doing bad but that was because I wasnt pushing myself. Also having ADHD I see people who dont have get diagnosed with it all the time. It isnt a crutch it is a blessing. I think faster than most people and can learn new things really fast. You just need to learn to work with it.
IMO it is not a learning disability and not something to blame grades on. Im in my 20s and feel American society needs to start taking responsibility for failure. I think my generation is awesome and feel most of the criticism against it is not true. However, it is true that too many kids were brought up thinking they were special and failure is not their fault.
Per the OP's own admission they didnt put any effort into your classes. That is not ADHD or ADD. That is being lazy. Procrastinating isnt a learning disability it is a bad habit. Medication cant fix that.
For the OP I cant recommend psychology. No jobs. Same with philosophy. I would definitely try to get your GPA up. End with all As. If people ask about your GPA tell them you started bad but finished strong. It looks good to show improvement. It is normal in life to make mistakes, so instead of making excuses, just stop making them. What do you want to do in life? Think about that.
Not all grad schools require GRE or GMAT. I got accepted into several without taking either. However, if you can get all As, or mostly As and do really well on the GRE you can get into a good grad school. It will make up for your earlier low grades. Work experience does too, assuming you can find a good job.
I think you might be better off really putting effort into school, finishing strong, working full time for a few years, while studying hard for GRE/GMAT/LSAT/ETC. THis is assuming you will study hard for whatever test you need and will do well. However, you run the risk of not studying or not going to grad school. Many people say,"Ill work for a few years and go to grad school," and they never do. Either they cant because life changes. You know you work 60 hours a week, you get married and have a kid, you change your mind. The longer you wait the less likely it is that you are going to go. Also you get less from the degree. For instance a grad degree is expensive and in your case might not make any difference in finding a job or getting more money. That is why it is better to get a grad degree at 25 and work for 45 years with it instead of doing it at 35 where you would get 10 less years of the benefit.
Last edited by cry_havoc; 07-19-2013 at 09:23 PM..
No, having ADHD doesn't mean that you have low intelligence or that you're incapable of succeeding. However, the educational system is built for the majority. Einstein was thought to be slow. Thomas Edison was thought to be mentally retarded. His mother decided to homeschool him. We all know that Einstein wasn't slow and that Thomas Edison wasn't mentally retarded. They just had trouble functioning at traditionally structured schools. There is actually a college or two designed to serve students with ADHD and I think Asperger's. Before the modern school system existed, ADHD probably developed as an evolutionary advantage.
I agree. I do have ADHD really bad too and it never got in the way of succeeding. There was a time I was doing bad but that was because I wasnt pushing myself. Also having ADHD I see people who dont have get diagnosed with it all the time. It isnt a crutch it is a blessing. I think faster than most people and can learn new things really fast. You just need to learn to work with it.
IMO it is not a learning disability and not something to blame grades on. Im in my 20s and feel American society needs to start taking responsibility for failure. I think my generation is awesome and feel most of the criticism against it is not true. However, it is true that too many kids were brought up thinking they were special and failure is not their fault.
Per the OP's own admission they didnt put any effort into your classes. That is not ADHD or ADD. That is being lazy. Procrastinating isnt a learning disability it is a bad habit. Medication cant fix that.
For the OP I cant recommend psychology. No jobs. Same with philosophy. I would definitely try to get your GPA up. End with all As. If people ask about your GPA tell them you started bad but finished strong. It looks good to show improvement. It is normal in life to make mistakes, so instead of making excuses, just stop making them. What do you want to do in life? Think about that.
Not all grad schools require GRE or GMAT. I got accepted into several without taking either. However, if you can get all As, or mostly As and do really well on the GRE you can get into a good grad school. It will make up for your earlier low grades. Work experience does too, assuming you can find a good job.
I think you might be better off really putting effort into school, finishing strong, working full time for a few years, while studying hard for GRE/GMAT/LSAT/ETC. THis is assuming you will study hard for whatever test you need and will do well. However, you run the risk of not studying or not going to grad school. Many people say,"Ill work for a few years and go to grad school," and they never do. Either they cant because life changes. You know you work 60 hours a week, you get married and have a kid, you change your mind. The longer you wait the less likely it is that you are going to go. Also you get less from the degree. For instance a grad degree is expensive and in your case might not make any difference in finding a job or getting more money. That is why it is better to get a grad degree at 25 and work for 45 years with it instead of doing it at 35 where you would get 10 less years of the benefit.
I'm not making excuses, I know I messed up as I've dug myself a big hole and I have worked very very hard to slowly get out of that hole. I am just explaining the situation as it is; the first year of college I was wild, lazy and crazy but now I am working my ass off as I've changed a lot. Even if I am not diagnosed with ADD, I will still be working as hard as I can to keep up the good academic performance; I'm just disappointed I'm not able to do more because I know what my potential is. Also ADD is quite different based on the individual. It's not the same for everyone.
I think they are trying to do away with the term ADD. They are using ADHD hyperactive and ADHD inattentive. Some people are hyperactive and inattentive while others lean more toward one side. The majority of females with ADHD are inattentive. The problem with those with ADHD is that their brains are understimulated. When someone with ADHD is studying a subject of little or no interest, the brain lacks stimulation and it's difficult to concentrate. Those with ADHD tend to hyperfocus on subjects of high interest. This leads to more problems with procrastinating and not finishing everything else that needs to be done.
I'm not making excuses, I know I messed up as I've dug myself a big hole and I have worked very very hard to slowly get out of that hole. I am just explaining the situation as it is; the first year of college I was wild, lazy and crazy but now I am working my ass off as I've changed a lot. Even if I am not diagnosed with ADD, I will still be working as hard as I can to keep up the good academic performance; I'm just disappointed I'm not able to do more because I know what my potential is. Also ADD is quite different based on the individual. It's not the same for everyone.
Thanks for the other information, though.
Look I was in the same situation.
I partied a lot my first semesters and did terrible. I finished with about a 3.4 GPA after getting most As my junior and Senior years in hard classes.
I am going to what is probably a top 50 grad school. Had no issues getting in. I did take 2 years off and worked.
I am not trying to be hard on you, but I just feel the ADD part didnt need to be mentioned. Saying you messed up was enough. It doesnt matter why it happened. Just focus on finishing strong. Like I said making mistakes is common enough. What people want to see is that you can fix them. I wasnt in too different of a situation at one point and I am probably only a few years older then you. Here is how it works in my experience in the real world. Generally nobody cares why you made a mistake. They care that you made it, admit you made up, and work on not making it again.
You might not get into Harvard grad now, but you can still get into a good grad school. If possible try to atleast get a 3.2 GPA. If not you can do good with a 3.0+ GPA. Supplement it with good test scores and/or work experience.
So I would suggest estimating your final graduating GPA if you received As and Bs in the remainder of your courses. In order to be competitive with a graduate program, I'd venture to guess you'd need to have above a 3.0 cumulative GPA. Will you be able to meet that minimum? (Depending on the program/school, this may be marginally to a lot higher.)
Do your research - see what the average GPA is for students accepted in those programs/schools you may be interested in and compare that to what you could end up graduating with. If you're in the zone, you need to double-down and focus on getting good grades and push the other noise out of the picture.
If you have damaged your GPA too greatly, there may be a way out of it. I'm not sure if this is true with all universities but in my state when you transferred to a different institution, classes transferred but grades didn't. (I never did this but a few folks that transferred into my university did and this was the case for them.)
In any case, get your issue properly diagnosed, maximize your ability to achieve and do well, and then go kick some serious butt in your courses. Good luck!
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