I’ve seen this happen time and time again. A bright-eyed and bushy-tailed freshmen, entering into their first year of college decides to live it up… I mean it’s college after all, but the impulse to socialize or party, sleep through classes, let your messy room pile up with dirty clothes for a month, and race over to your exam after pulling an all-nighter. These can seem like perfectly good strategies for a young person who’s just gotten their first taste of freedom…. ahhhh… Yet, there’s a flip side to that as well.

So you might be wondering, “what’s this have to do with ADHD?,” and how does that comes into the picture? 

Well, even though this is a common phenomena and most college students can relate to some degree to the scenario above. Like everything else individuals with ADHD tend to experiences this to a heightened degree. When it comes to mixing all the temptation of a college environment with ADHD, impulsivity and the ability to think through decisions comes into play. You see, the issue is that your ADHD mind is already struggling to adapt to an overstimulating environment (i.e. college), which is largely unstructured (when compared to their high school years of curfews and parent’s breathing down your neck about everything) and you have to do this on your own for the first time. For many people with ADHD they have been reliant on parents, teachers, or other adults in theirs lives to help guide them through their daily challenges. These known systems of support are often not available or miles and miles away. In addition, the learning curve is more steep and it take longer of an ADHD individuals to adopt unfamiliar routines. Couple that with the overwhelming peer pressure and we have all the makings of an epic crash.

Enter the ADHD freshmen fallout cycle

You see there are some things that we really don’t teach our teens. The college prep classes do not teach you how to manage your time effectively, take notes in a lecture hall filled with 300 other students, or be self-motivated enough to make it to class – knowing that the teacher is probably not missing your company. These skills are what we call “executive functioning” difficulties and young adults with ADHD struggle with planning, schedules, timeliness, cleanliness, organization, and future oriented tasks. Society expects that young adults have a good handle on these basic skills by the time they reach college, or at the very least they get thrown in the deep end and it’s either sink or swim.

How coaching and the right supports can help 

The are 5 essential things to do when you or your child is preparing to start their freshmen year of college:

1) Learn how to learn and study smarter not harder. 

College is a different ball game. If they go into it thinking, that what worked in high school will work in college, they are in for a rude awakening. Learn to take clear concise notes, highlight and mark your text books for easy referencing, devise an easy and efficient calendar/planner system to keep track of assignments and other items on your syllabus. Form study groups, and most importantly show up to class as much as possible. Even if you have to drag yourself to class, down an entire monster, and arrive 5-10 minutes late (BTW- I’m not advocating this strategy), at least you have the chance to retain some of the information. Which is better than NONE- if you just roll over, hit snooze, and go back to sleep.

2) Balance your time between friends, school, and personal health/wellbeing. 

Often times college students will eat pizza or ramen or whatever is easiest for days at a time. By doing this you are depleting your body of essential vitamins and the fuel it needs to function at it’s best. If your life is out of balance (i.e. too much partying or not exercising) then your brain will also suffer, not to mention your mood and motivation. Therefore it is super important to block out times to be with friends, times to take care of yourself, and times to study/read your text books.

3) Getting good rest is vital for your brain. 

During your resting hours your brain is busy filing away all the important information throughout the day. Adequate sleep also helps with working memory and longterm memory storage. If you aren’t retaining the information that you are learning, then look at this area first (then consider the previous two suggestions).

4) Cramming is an amateur move. 

This may have worked for your short tests in high school, but it’s not a good idea for college. Yeah, I know you will see lots of people doing this, but in some schools the rates of freshman failing out are as high as 30-40%. (1) That means on average one in three freshmen students end up failing out and not returning for their sophomore year. Studying in an efficient way can better your odds not counting yourself among that crowd. Therefore, study in groups (to keep yourself motivated externally) and study on your own in 2-4 hr blocks max, on at least 3 or 4 separate days (prior to your final or midterm exams). Obviously, this is just the minimum guidelines for passing your classes and not ending up on academic probation. If you truly want to get a 4.0 you will have to study 3-5 hours outside of class for every course lecture you attend (that’s a good rule of thumb).

5) Get support and help before it becomes an issue. 

Most of the time the college student comes to see me or the parent gives me a call after the student has already been placed on academic probation. While it’s not too late at that point and typically we are able to pull things together. Get support set up at your school. Look into tutoring centers, mentorship programs with senior classmates. Likewise if you require extra time or other accommodations, make sue to visit disability services at your college and tell all your teachers within the first week of classes (just pull them aside after class and hand them your qualifying paperwork if necessary). My hope is that by bringing awareness to this issue we can help prevent the freshmen crash.

If you or your child would like to speak with me further about college planning or the coaching services that are offered to college students, please feel free to contact me at 347-504-0633 for a free 30-min phone consultation and strategy session.

Sources Cited:

(1)- See US News & World Report: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/freshmen-least-most-likely-return/page+11