Don't fall into the trap of thinking that your college student with ADD will "learn his lesson" from the disastrous first semester at college. Chances are that he won't! Is he lazy or unmotivated? Not necessarily! He may not have the skills to be successful.
For the second semester to be better than the first, a structure needs to be put into place. Each student is different, with diverse needs, but in general, they need some of these things:
-a schedule to help them follow their college class schedule
-materials to help them follow the schedule (One semester I had two back packs. One had my books and materials for Tuesday/Thursday classes. The other housed the materials for Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes. This simplified life, since I didn't have to keep switching things around. More importantly, all of my materials were where I could easily access them, and I wasn't losing things every time I rearranged the backpack.)
-a med check from a doctor who understands ADD
-a designated person to go to for help if they start falling behind
-a tutor for subjects that are difficult for them
-a good counselor for any mental health issues, like depression.
You might shake your head at this list, but some of our kids with ADD are little hot house flowers. They need nurture. They do not need to be told to "straighten up" and to be tossed into college to sink or swim on their own. This is especially true when they have just had a failure.
