colleges for teenagers with aspergers syndrome

Post Reply New Topic

The way I see it, there should be absolutely no aid or adaption for students with Asperger's in College. There is no aid or adaption in the workplace. Teens with Asperger's should go for easy unskilled work instead.

Lonermutant:

You are saying that a person with AS should never be able to reach their full potential because employers do not feel like following the law and providing reasonable accomidations? Based on what you are saying, colleges should not offer wheelchair access or braille books either because the employer may not offer either. That is almost a fools way of keeping the workforce in check by stunting the professional growth of a group of people artificially.

I believe that some students with learning disorders should not be allowed to go to College and that some of these students get too much assistance in high school when what they should get is an unskilled job that would suit them better.

and who decides that. You, me, G.W. Bush?

You cannot put a blanket statement saying that person with disability X should not go to college or be able to do a certain type of job. That is up to the individual to determine. I know I would have a hard time with being a cashier so I do not accept any cashier positions. Another person with AS though may be able to do fine with being a cashier. I have also seen it said that persons with AS should not drive any commercial vehicles (which is a skilled job). Besides myself, I know about 2 or 3 people with AS who drive commercial vehicles and have driving records as clean as those of most NTs. I am one of those people. Should I have been denied a chance at a commerical license simply because I have AS?

There are people who are not suited for college but I think that most of those people either know it, or in some cases, are under guardianship where someone else decides (and there is a high threshold to grant guardianship anymore in the US). Those people will probably never set foot on a college campus except as a visitor.

There are others however, who with simple accomidations, will succeed in a skilled or professional career. Those people should be given the chance to succeed. Does it make a difference if the person computer to type up a memo rather than write it? Would you say that a blind or deaf person should be denied accomodations because of their disability?

There will be people who are unsuited for certain jobs (be they skilled, unskilled, professional, etc). It is not up to you or me (or even GW Bush) to decide who should work which jobs. It is also not right to relegate people to certain careers simply based on lables.

The school you mentioned in West Virginia is Marshall University. I'm really interested in that college. Here's the link to their AS program: http://www.marshall.edu/coe/atc/modelcollege.htm#faq The prerequisites are fairly simple to complete, for both the program and the university itself. Does anyone participate in Marshall's AS program? It would be beneficial to those interested in the program (including myself) to get a first-hand view of the program.

The "accommodations" in the work force are that they lack gen. ed. requirements. For instance, It’s quite easy to find a job where you are never asked to do algebra. The same cannot be said for college.

im at MSOE, milwaukee school of enginnering an enginneering school in milwaukee. I get help from TRIO a federal program for people with disablites, low income, first in famiy to go to college, and/or minorities. im white and my mom has a masters and dad has a doctorate. unless u get get documentation don't expect to get into it for the first reason

I'm attending a regular NT college, and this place is AWESOME! Because it'a a small campus, you get to know who's where and who to go to. The counsellor is awesome, and will help anybody who asks for help. Because the campus is small, you get to know people, and they're really nice. If you have a problem with anybody, one of teh strictest rules is concerning harassment: If you harass another kid, you're going to have at least 20 people on you @$$ trying to get you kicked out. The amazing thig is they have cameras in some places, and they really listen to you. So far, no reports of anything other than damn hard assignments. They actually do care here!

There's a difference between a job being easy to do, and merely easy to get. Most 'unskilled' work tends to be the latter, but not necessarily the former - most lower end jobs require either good people skills, impressive speed and coordination, or are mind-numbingly boring, all of which can be hard to cope with for an aspergic person. Harder, even, than going to college, getting some form of assistance and then getting a job they're actually happy with.

I believe that if you need assistance in College like more time on tests or adaption of things, etc., you should be raking leaves instead.

Some Aspi’s may not have yet had the opportunity to find what it is that they’re good at. It wasn’t until getting kicked out of college (F’s), going into the Army, getting arrested (they’d been wanting me for years – yes), then finally dropping 2 classes that propelled me to become a writer. I do very well on essays (I can’t wait to get more of them) and in my fiction writing classes. Aspis’s are renowned for being very famous artists. Hemingway, Picasso, van Gogh, Fitzgerald and many more may have been aspie’s. The most difficult part about college for us is making friends outside of class (we can’t always talk about the lecture – now can we). This social awkwardness is what creates so much pain for the artist. We must become rich and famous before we can have friends – which still leaves us with the emptiness (they like my aura and work, but not me). Aspi’s are also very successful in their chosen fields. Einstein may have very well been an aspi and maybe even Nietzsche who was very much like a hermit outside of his academic/philosophic life. Let the normal people rake the leaves – God knows that they’re so ordinary that it will be quite fulfilling in their life.

I've found that small, private schools... no matter where they are... are great for aspies. I'm at a private university with only 5,000 students and I love it here.

Wow... that's a lot of people. Yes, smaller private schools would tend to be the way I'd choose to go because a lot of the time, you'll be in smaller classes and get to know your profs better. I've had friends who go to "University of (insert State here)" and have 500+ people in general chem or general bio class. Then, when you get to a smaller, private school, you'll generally have no more than 100 or so. But my largest class is 60 and my smallest class is 15, not counting lab sections.

Lonermutant- if you don't mind me asking, why are you so against giving people with disabilities the appropriate accomodations? Yes, people with AS will eventually have to learn to cope and function in the world at large, but just because some of us get distracted and can't concentrate with noises going on, it doesn't mean that we won't be able to get a decent job after college and live independently.

Unfortunately, Colleges won't full on bend over for you just because of AS issues. You need to know how you learn, academic wise and communication wise, and find ways to work through these issues, you need to know which study skills work for you for each class, you need to know how to communicate your needs to your teachers and your disabled students program at your college, you need to know how to get prepared for your classes, plus many factors.

Lonermutant, you must have no idea what you speak. I have as, and also have an IQ of 157. Do not suggest that because you have Autism you need a low-skill job, or are at a lower skill at all. It is the social aspect of school I have trouble with, not the books. Also I was never 'babied" in grade school. On another hand I could never work at McDonalds and be successful at my job, yet I run my own internet business at home and have been very successful. This is America, everyone has an equal opportunity in life. Being disabled is no reason one shouldn't "be allowed" to go to college. You, sir are disabled in your thoughts.

So far no-one has mentioned State Colleges. Are State Colleges/Universities a bad idea for people with AS?