Students balance ADHD, classwork

Every year, around 300 students at Penn are identified with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder by Student Disabilities Services.

But Disability Services Director Susan Shapiro suspects many more students suffer from the mental disorder.

Recently, ADHD diagnoses have increased substantially in the United States, rising an average of 5.5 percent per year from 2003 to 2007, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

One factor leading to this rise in diagnoses may be that students abuse disability law to gain special accommodations, The New York Times reported two weeks ago, pointing out that parents may push for their children to get diagnoses.

At Penn, SDS is committed to “maintaining the academic integrity” of the University by only providing accommodations to students who truly need it, Shapiro said.

To determine reasonable accommodations for students, a committee reads the student’s history of treatment, Shapiro said, adding that approving accommodations — from extended time on tests to taking tests in smaller rooms — is “not a simple process.”

“Often standards are different in high schools,” Shapiro explained, adding that Penn denies students seeking accommodations every year.

Students at Penn who suffer from ADHD have mixed feelings about medication and special accommodations.

A College sophomore, who wished to remain anonymous because she did not want to make her medical issues public, felt that Adderall, the drug typically prescribed to ADHD patients to improve concentration, “helped so much for the SATs.”

Although she believes it is “kind of sick and unfair” for some students to get this advantage, she said there isn’t a cut and dry way to determine whether an ADHD patient should be prescribed a drug.

“A lot of people would focus more from [the medication] even though it’s wrong and could be abused,” she added.

Other students who are diagnosed with ADHD do not feel that the medication gives them an advantage.

“It made me tired,” said a College junior, who also wished to remain anonymous for personal reasons. Although he had been taking Adderall since second grade, he stopped taking the medication when he came to Penn because its side effects made it difficult for him to stay awake.

However, without medication, he has a hard time focusing and taking notes during class.

“I feel like sometimes I’m wasting my time going to lectures,” the student said. “It’s frustrating because I pay so much to come here.”

He compensates by doing all the readings and sharing notes with classmates.

“It can be an advantage. I have a lot of energy,” he said.

He feels the actions of students who fake ADHD symptoms to get extra time on tests is “total garbage,” adding that students “have to learn to make do with the limitations they have.”

Both students have gravitated towards the humanities, which Shapiro says is common for students with ADHD, who may find writing papers easier than taking tests.

In high school, “I made a lot of math mistakes,” the College sophomore said. “When I started using Adderall, I could do math tests without a lot of mistakes.”

Studying humanities is “significantly easier for me,” the College junior agreed. “If I don’t pay attention in an English class, I can still read the book,” whereas if he gets distracted during math lectures, it is hard to make up the material.

Faculty members are required by law to accommodate their students with ADHD.

“Once we hear the accommodation from SDS, we always accommodate it,” Math Undergraduate Chairman Robin Pemantle wrote in an email. “It’s not just a good idea, it’s the law.”

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