ADHD: The College Experience: how to make it through college and reach your potential by embracing your unique strengths

by Arash Zaghi, Connie Mosher Syharat

The College Experience offers a strength-based approach to learning that flips the script about ADHD for students who are struggling to succeed in college. This transformative perspective shows students with ADHD how they can embrace their unique abilities to find joy in learning, succeed in college, and reach their potential. Through humorous storytelling, Zaghi explains how ADHD traits are a genetic inheritance that benefits human societies, how procrastination and inattention can lead to highly creative solutions, and how risk-taking and impulsivity can lead to unexpected discoveries. This guide offers valuable insight for students with ADHD, along with their parents and educators. You’re sure to see yourself or someone you love in this mix of observations and reflections based on Arash Zaghi’s personal experiences as a university professor who was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. This book was inspired by countless emails from students all over the country who, despite their high creative potential, are still struggling in the traditional education system. With The College Experience, Zaghi shares a message of hope that will help students to think differently about their ADHD, to recognize their unique potential, and to build on their strengths for success in college. In summary, this book aims to answer these important o What does life feel like for college students with ADHD? o Why does ADHD exist? What is the unique role of people with ADHD in society? o How can we understand our weaknesses and embrace our strengths? o What are the challenges that we face in a college setting? o How can we leverage our talents, nurture our unique potential, and find success in higher education, despite all the challenges? o How can parents support students with ADHD as they go through college? o How can educators challenge the status quo to nurture the unique abilities of students with ADHD?

157 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 17, 2018

Reviews

[Rebecca Grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

Actually, this might be a great book for someone who is first diagnosed with ADHD as a college student or young adult. It's an overview of the different ways that having ADHD traits can impact your college learning experience in negative as well as positive ways, and for that reason it might help someone who is coming to terms with a new diagnosis. There's a lot of feel-good hypothesizing about why ADHD genetics persist in the human gene pool, why these traits would have contributed to the success of ancient human societies, and how these traits can be linked to success over time, if a student makes it through school and lands in an intrinsically motivating field. However, I was looking for something with more concrete strategies for coping with ADHD challenges in the college environment, and this book doesn't give those suggestions. There were some vague admonitions about how "everyone's brain works differently," and random suggestions for art students to paint visual representations of their British Lit class poetry, but next to nothing that a student could put into practice. Glad I skimmed through the book before giving it to my son to read, because he would have been frustrated that the "book to help him with ADHD in college" didn't have any ideas to help him at all.

[Nikki Strange · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very relatable with my daughter in college. I’m encouraging her to read it. Hopeful that she will see that ADHD is something she’s going to have to work with and that she might have to put in more work than others that don’t have it. That it is not because she isn’t smart, but because her brain doesn’t process like the general population.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's okay

The writer is excessively tangential, bulking the document with unnecessary longwinded story narrative. Some recommendations contained may be helpful, but this isn't the first book I'd recommend on navigating college life with this disorder.