PhD Students with Autism

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Hi,

I've not used this account in quite a long time, but I've recently been considering applying for a PhD programme (and I have a potential supervisor who has offered to discuss 'open problems in research' which I think is suggesting PhD supervision) and I'd quite like to get some perspective on the prospects of doing a PhD with Autism. In particular, I'm wondering if anybody here has earned a PhD, started studying and subsequently dropped out of one, or is in the process of studying for one, and what their experience has been and if they find it to be a relatively feasible prospect.

I know academia is allegedly good for some with an autistic spectrum disorder, however I'm interested in more than just those who completed one (who you are more likely to hear from) and what the entire experience was like, from the alleged emotional difficulties a PhD can allow develop, it being a potentially isolating experience, and whether it's difficult to work with a supervisor for that length of time. As I'm very much interested in any sort of data on the percentage of individuals with autism who apply for a PhD (versus those with autism who complete a PhD) but have been unable to find such data, if anybody knows any study on this I'd be very much appreciative.

I've searched and not found many recent relevant results threads on the matter, but if there are and I've missed them I do apologise.

I succeeded for a year as a PhD student, then had to stop because of money issues. I found it isolating, but I could have taken advantage of more opportunities to bond with people. I feel like my professors will recall me fondly, if given the chance. I asked a lot of questions in class, and didn't excessively fear giving wrong answers to questions.

It's a lot of work. You need to really love it and want it. I had myself all psyched up to continue, and when I couldn't I felt heartbroken for a long time. I will go back, though.

I was seriously considering getting a Ph.D after I graduated college. I applied to two programs my senior year of college, didn't get in. Went to community college for a year after I got my bachelor's as a way to take classes I didn't take in college (like calculus and physics) while I applied to two more grad programs. I actually got an interview at one, but 30+ people were given the interview, so it wasn't as special as I had heard. Didn't get accepted to those programs, so I just ended up getting a job in research to pay my loans. I was there for almost four years, hated the job because of the people I worked with, but I got good experience in how to manage a job and how to better hide some of my Aspie traits. Left that job when I got laid off, which was a blessing in disguise, because I hated it there and only hadn't left because I hadn't found another job. Got my current job doing a different type of research. Absolutely love my current job! I get to work with data all day, and it's the perfect Aspie job. I'm rewarded for being detail-oriented and hyperfocused.

Although I would love to have a Ph.D to be more taken seriously as a scientist, grad school is the furthest thing from my mind right now. I've heard lots of things about grad school (my good friend from college has his Ph.D) that just don't gel with me. For one, it is supposedly very unstructured, where you have to make your own schedule and such. And no matter what subject you get a doctorate in, you have to write your dissertation, and writing has always given me intense anxiety. I'm a good writer, but I hate doing it out of OCD perfectionism. And more and more people are going to grad school now, which means more neurotypicals are going. And the stories of all the politics and social goings-on that happen in academia are not false.

Plus, the reason I applied to so few programs to begin with is because I am not willing to go to grad school and study something that is not my passion just to get a degree. Grad school is a lot of time and money. Most neuroscience grad programs want you to do lab work with human specimens and/or rats. I did rat research in college, and I loathe it. I do not have the technical skills to do lab work. And grad programs studying bipolar disorder and/or psychosis, my special interest in neuroscience, are few and far between to begin with, let alone ones that are doing fMRI research.

Having a daily job fits me great. It has given me back a daily routine. I love how, when my day at work is over, I can go home and do my special interests. No homework to do, no exams to stress over! I'm still studying every day, as I read science books on the bus on the way home from work, but it's on my own time, no pressure. I always thought I loved school, and when I didn't get into grad school, I was devastated, not knowing how to deal without school. But after getting a job, I realized that it wasn't school I loved, it was learning in general that I loved. Who knows? Maybe sometime way in the future I'll decide to do the grad school route, but I certainly am not even considering it now. I just like to offer a different perspective, because I haven't heard of many Aspies who have gone my route. Many either don't go to college at all and start working right away, go to grad school, or (sadly) are unemployed. I think there are definite pros and cons to grad school for an Aspie that need to be considered. Hope this helped!

Oh, and what subject would you want to study? I love knowing other Aspies' special interests.

For the first two years, you'll have so much studying to do that you will have to schedule well. I had done great with that while getting my Bachelor's, but some of that willpower got drained by having to think so hard during class. I didn't want to get hooked on energy drinks, like most of my classmates, but I could have been more careful about my blood glucose levels.

I worried just a little about writing my dissertation proposal, getting the research and other prelim done rapidly, and writing the damn book. A PhD, at least in economics, means producing an entire book of original content. There may be other ways, but that's how I saw it. I expected to treat my schedule for those two or three years the same way that I had treated it for the first year: do nothing but study, take breaks, eat and sleep. Try to socialize with my study group from time to time. Meet with professors as needed.

Writing the dissertation seemed to me like making my most ambitious outline ever, and then filling the MF in, down to the last detail. That's it. It would just be a matter of doing it, and doing the research to answer my own questions.

Have a plan to take care of your physical health. I found an apartment literally next door to a grocery store. I still lost weight, past the point of where I wanted to.

I want to reply to this, not to try to convince you to go to grad school, but for readers who might be on the fence about grad school.

With regards to structure, it can be as structured as you want it to be. I'm in the office from 9 to 5 everyday, take a lunch everyday around 11:30, and have lists of daily, weekly, and long term goals. The projects I'm working on which pay my stipend have pretty clear goals and deadlines, and we have progress update meetings with our project sponsor. Since these projects will form the basis for my dissertation, this keeps me on track.

With writing, sure, you have to write, and I hate writing, too, but the writing style in science and engineering is pretty prescriptive. I like to remember that other than the article's abstract, people only read the text when they can't understand the figures. When it comes to dissertations, my advisor always tells me that no one reads dissertations.

And the social aspect of grad school... Totally different from undergrad. None of my colleagues are social people, for the most part. There's a reason why academic conferences always have an open bar.

I'm doing PhD in theoretical physics. My advisor is also an aspie and it is the most aspie-friendly place I know of. That is where I make friends I'm really comfortable with.
But I often hear that my faculty is unique in many aspects and that it is not so nice elswhere.

I just wanted to thank everyone for their assistance. There's been some very insightful perspectives in the thread. It has certainly been refreshing to get a bit more perspective than the typical "Oh but most people aren't social[...]", which isn't even really my concern, "[...] doing PhDs you'll be fine" that I've heard from some

I would be doing a PhD in Maths. Specifically, I would be doing it in the intersection of hypergeometric series (q-series), combinatorics (particularly graph theory), and modular forms.

Great! I needed to google what modular forms are and it seems I even came a bit close to the topic - althought not exactly my field of interest. My boss likes to use such subtle math to make the programming part easier but I prefer the opposite.
Anyway, with Maths it could be quite ND-friendly.

Hi Solid_Snake,

I have a Phd in philosophy. I think its correct that Phd study is little more isolating than undergrad, but I think that you can adapt to that by making sure that you attend conferences and postgraduate activities in your department. I used to go to academic reading groups with other other Phd students and academics quite a lot.

Its also good to present papers and publish over the course of your Phd in any case if you are keen to develop an academic profile and build a career. It gives you a solid portfolio of work when you are applying for academic jobs in the future and hopefully also allows you to meet some other people working in or near your area of research.

I was lucky enough to have a scholarship for my Phd study and I also taught at the same time. I think it would be a lot more stressful without a scholarship as well, although teaching at the same time was a bit distracting at times.