Question:
I was recently diagnosed with ADHD. I was tested for 5 hours by a battery of testing and it justified that I have ADD inattentive type. I was dismissed from school (Dental school in FL) from poor academic performance. Now, I have to show them the documentation when I ask to be readmitted. Dentistry is what I really want to do! What are my chances of getting back in since now I have the test? Do they consider adults recently diagnosed? Thanks.
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Answer:
There is no way for anyone to predict whether or not you will be readmitted to Dentistry School. Each school has their own set of criteria, rules and regulations for readmission. Part of the question they are likely to consider is what role ADD played in your poor grades? You see, there are many people with ADD who can hyper-focus on their school work with the result that they can achieve very high grades. Please understand that I am in no way implying that your grades resulted from any other cause than ADD.
I believe that what you need to consider is the question of how much medication for ADD will help you concentrate and achieve your career goals. The fact is that you scored well enough in college and on the GRE exams to gain admission to dentistry school. That is a good indicator that medication should be able to help you.
Another factor that you need to think about is the fact that ADD is often accompanied by feeling of depression. Depression can interfere with concentration just as much as ADD. It is important that you and your doctors weigh the importance of anti depressant medication just as much as ADD medications.
Finally, you need to learn how to organize your work, your reading and your note-taking so that you can study for exams with a minimum of interference from disorganized and confused paper work.
Best of luck with your pursuit of readmission and, if that does not work, admission to a new dentistry school. I hope you do achieve readmission so that you can demonstrate your true capabilities without the symptoms of ADD or depression.
