How do you deal with having special interest in College?

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zeldapsychology
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22 Aug 2009, 8:27 am

This thought just occured to me LOL! While my special interest is Psychology like others with AS I have a narrow interest more along the lines of mainly research Psychology not what the teacher is teaching and grades for my other non Psychology courses while I did pass the grades weren't as good as Psychology any tips for when I do get back into College?



Woodpecker
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22 Aug 2009, 10:51 am

As a man with a PhD and a long history (> 10 years of research after my PhD) I would advise you to try to get through the first degree with as good an overall grade as possible. But at the same time when you get into the final and second years of a three year degree make contact with the people in charge of the research groups. Find one which is working on something you find interesting, and try to join it (also get a studentship to pay your postgrad fees and some money to live on).

I am sure that the best time for the aspie speical interests will be when you are a postgrad.


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Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity :alien: I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.


Aoi
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22 Aug 2009, 12:38 pm

I agree with Woodpecker, though my education ended at the Master's level. I pursued my special interest in college, and put up with a lot of other classes, though didn't do well in some cases. That plus poor social skills made getting into graduate school very difficult, and I had to prove myself academically while there.

Ultimately it worked out quite well. But Woodpecker's points are lessons I wish someone had told me when I was starting college.



Woodpecker
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22 Aug 2009, 12:55 pm

Well much of getting into graduate school does not involve face to face things, oftein people will apply by means of post at first (at least in my day).

When you join a research group you need to understand that you do not have to be best friends with the rest of the research group. You just have to be able to get on with them, some research groups behave like the frat house in "animal house" and go out and paint the town red as a mob. While others are a bit more mild mannered, I would strongly advise any person wanting to join a research group to find out what the research group are like.

I think that an aspie could be very unhappy in an "animal house" style research group, they might rather a more quiet and calm research group.


_________________
Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity :alien: I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.