What Majors are Best for Aspies? What Majors are Worst?

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It is funny, because although my Aspie interests are perhaps more along the lines of history and political science, I am actually a Math Major. I would like to be a Math Teacher one day. But what I have figured out is it seems one element that ties all my Aspie interests together seems to be categories. I have made categories of politicians, athletes, musicians, animals, counties in Texas, cities in the United States, countries, imaginary friends from childhood, nintendo characters, mathematicians in history, Christian leaders, and all sorts of stuff. Every time I watch a game I am fascinated by the names of the players on each team and I usually make a list of players on the team.

Although Math is not particularly my factual interest, I have found that I still think Asperger's helps me be better at Math than some people would be because my mind works that way. I am fascinated by the black ink on a math book and the detailed pictures drawn showing a shape take form. I enjoy the rythm of a math problem that I know how to do easily. Math is kind of like a game, like football. You practice at it and get it done.

I am choosing my minor soon and I feel like Statistics would be a good one. Math is the major you usually have to have if you are to be a Statistician. I really want to teach math, but you always have to have a backup plan.

What do y'all think. Should I be in a more liberal artsy field?

I think some of the best majors for Aspies are along the lines of Science, Math, and Liberal Arts. I think the worst ones are along the lines of business and communication. It is funny how so many Aspies are engineers because the engineer and architect stuff kind of intimidates me. I am good at working Math problems but I would never want to build anything.

My deep interest/focus/obsession/cacoethes is history. I majored in Euro history and minored in American.


D

what did you do with a history major?

Nothing as of yet....

I joined the Army to pay for school a couple years ago, and I was a miserable failure as a soldier. I barely made it through basic training; surviving on some sort of sufferance. I deployed to Iraq last year and quit functioning. I couldn't handle all of the Alpha personalities and NTs. When I went to Iraq, my CO and the NCOs tried to turn me into one of them and make me an assertive, aggressive person. They made my life a living hell in an already hellish place.

They made me fill a job slot and tried to make me into a HMMWV mechanic. I was not successful, since I know nothing about motor vehicles and don't care to know anything about them. I have no interest in engines, and I have met 7 yr old girls who know more about cars and trucks than I do. Anyway, they harangued and disciplined me mercilessly for being incompetent and antisocial. The thing about the military is that you are required to perform under highly stressful conditions(many times artificially stressful), and your routine is changing always. You are always forced into uncomfortable situations.

The military also is bad for an Aspie because socialization is mandatory, and the basis of the military is teamwork, cohesion, and espirit de corps(I wasn't diagnosed when I joined; I thought I was just undisciplined and the army would fix me.) You are forced to live in close quarters, do teambuilding and intensive group training, and be around others 24/7, especially in combat. My commanding officer told me he was going to turn me into a social animal. He and the NCO's played all sorts of mind games with me that I could not understand, and took all sorts of punitive measures against me when I erred. They forced me to socailze on my spare time, playing video games with the group and doing things that I am not interested in like drinking alcohol at bars. My hobbies are reading history books and copying words out of the dictionary into notebooks, among other things. I also like working out and long distance running. I am a very solitary person, so the more they tried to integrate me the more I resisted.

My leadership tormented me for 4 months over in the sandbox. They made me work for 14 hours a day while all others worked only 8 hour days. I was very frustrated because my routine was broken. They could not tolerate or understand my rituals and my eccentric behavior. They also had issues with my personal lifestyle, i.e, not shaving every day, sloppy wear of uniform, etc.

Thankfully, eventually they sent me to see a therapist and sent me back. This was after I physically assualted the said commander(I am rather strong). I was disciplined and sent back in cuffs. Eventually I got diagnosed with AS. I am still in the reserves. All charges were dropped.

I want to teach, but I don't know if I can handle teaching at a elementary or high school. I'll probably get my masters and teach college level. If I can't function there, I'll try my hand at writing.

I would tell those with AS to avoid majoring in business, for obvious reasons. Today's economy is so service-oriented that most jobs, if not all, require some degree of socialization. As John Donne said, "No man is an island." In this world it is impossible to isolate oneself.

I suggest pursuing your passion. Avoid business, the military, law enforcement, food service, secretarial work, and anything else you have qualms about.

D

Whatever you are passionate about is what you should study. I think many Aspies are artistic or scientific. Follow your interest, and you will be motivated to succeed.

I didn't even know what Aspergers was until a few months ago. For my whole life I thought that I was just strange, odd, weird, a loser, or a failure. Living in the world, unless I'm running or working out, I feel like a fish out of water. I had no idea it was a condition, but now I feel great knowing why I act and think the way I do. My mother made my childhood one giant golgotha of suffering, pressuring me endlessly to have a bunch of friends, be social, join clubs, and go to a ton of parties. I was always getting punished because I wanted to stay at home and read books instead of going over to other kids' houses to play. My mother saw being a social butterfly as the main measure of a person's worth.

Whenever I am running, that is the only time I feel like I can get away from all of the stress that is created by having to be around people and all of the external forces that disrupt me daily. I go out every other night at 8:00 PM, after work when it is nice, dark, and cool, and run 16 miles. On the days I don't run, I spend a couple hours doing pushups, pullups, situps, squatthrusts, and lifting weights. I don't spend any more time that I have to associating with friends(I have no real friends), or work associates. All they ever want to do is drink.

My work associates still try somewhat to involve me in their activities. At work, I do just what is necessary, the bare minimum, and then I am out the door and back to my residence as soon as possible. Despite my love of history and military history, I have no personal interest in being a soldier. I get nautious every time I have to put on the uniform. I thank god I only have two months left and I can go back home. I'll start going to school again, I suppose. However, every day that passes, I am less and less able to function and integrate into society. I have a shorter tolerance for other people as time goes on.

I told my therapist the other day that I live in this world, but only physically. Mentally I exist on a different, askewed plane. I socialize only with my peers, and since I have no peers, I socialize with no one.

D

Pursuing what you love is always the best option. Do give yourself a second skill in case of economic swings. Most Aspies seem to thrive in technical fields, but many also enjoy teaching, social work, medicine, etc.

The Army demands socialization above everything else. Aspies on other forums report success in the Air Force, where the socialization demands are less.

From what I know of the Air Force, they play more mind games in their basic training than any other service. It is the most mentally demanding branch.

The Airforce, however, is physically the least challenging. The Airforce tends to attract alot of College recruits and those with higher intelligence. Most of the Alpha males and the ambitious, aggressie ones go for the Army or Marines(I was in Marine boot camp 3 years ago, where I failed and was sent home after a long period of intense personal suffering that perhaps I will describe later.) For the Airforce, deployments are only 4 to 6 months, while Army deployments are 12 and are being extended to 18 months. There is very little chance of combat or "boots on ground" action in the aeronautic branch. Overall, the Air Force is more laid back and there is more emphasis on the individual.

I believe that one can succeed in the military with AS if the individual enters as an officer and is assigned to some rear area job with a degree of personal skill that they are competent at, such as doctor, dentist, therapist, engineer, chem. specialist, etc. I don't think someone with AS can succeed as an infantryman or in a combat role. Life in the military, even in garrison, is anything but routine. The challenges one faces are myraid; everything from loud noises, combat, close quarters living, long periods of time isolated from home, punitive and arbitrary leadership.

When I was in basic training, I was abused and suffered the unwanted attention of all of my drill sergeants, the 1st sgt., the commanding officer, and about half the recruits in my platoon who taunted me to no end. In fact, I was only kept around so I could translate from English to Spanish for two recruits who spoke no English(I am tolerably fluent in Espanol.) I spent any free time I had writing vocabulary words into a notebook I had and writing and rewriting lists of things such as Popes and Tsars of Russia with their regnal dates. Instead of sitting around the bunks bullshitting with the guys(I am terrible at small talk), I sat against the wall every night and wrote in my notebook. The Drill Sergeants and CO started asking me, "So, what's the word of the day?" I would be required to give them an interesting vocabulary word and the definition. I was targeted eternally a la Gomer Pyle/Leonard Lawrence in Full Metal Jacket. AIT was more of the same.

When I was finished with all of that and went to my reserve unit, I thought it would get better. But it was just as bad in the everyday army during drill and training. Then I got a funny little letter in the mail saying I had to go to Iraq for a year. I felt my world crash around me, crumbling like a house of cards. How could they send me?! My entire routine and fragile security collapsed. I rapidly spiraled downwards.

D

You made a bad decision by leaving the military. Trust me.

The only cure for your condition is what your sergeants were trying to teach you. Anything which promotes non-verbal, physically motivated aggression is a sure-fire solution to aspergers syndrome, and that's a fact.

As far as I can see in my college, people are always penalized for answering differently even though their answers are correct. Which is a bad thing for Aspies since we tend to stand out from the crowd.

Therefore I think that Maths is the best major for Aspies. Maths leave virtually no grounds for subjective marking - therefore lecturers can only grade you based whether your answers solve the equation or not and nothing else.

Even better is Computer Programming. If you can write a program that fulfills the criteria of the given task, then you will be given marks. No matter WHAT code you wrote.

But if you ask me, if I don't need the f*****g piece of paper called a "degree" I'll be better off not taking any majors at all. Autodictation works best for me. I'll learn strictly by what is correct, at my own pace and at my own inclination, without interference from bigoted teachers.

With a math major you'll have better chances at getting a job out of college than with a liberal arts major. You are lucky that you can do mathematics. I was a computer science major, but switched to a liberal arts major (history) because I couldn't do the higher-level math (Calculus B and on) and I didn't want to major in something business-oriented.

Go with your passions.

I studied psychology for four years (mostly because I sought to understand so many things about myself and the people around me) but my real passion had always been medicine. At the last minute I switched my major to a degree that allowed me to take a lot of science electives to finish it. I'll be starting nursing school next spring, after graduating from my current degree program this December. I wasted time (and money!) by not just doing what I really wanted.

Major in whatever you want.

If I were asking about what majors were good for Aspies, I would like a list --

So, here's what I've heard other people on this site mention as good majors . . .

For technical types . . .
Math
Engineering
Computer Science
GIS
Architecture
Geography
Geology
Physics

For artistic types . . .
Art
Playwriting
English
Acting
Music performance
Film

(the above about artistic types is PURELY my opinion, whereas the the technical majors I have read over and over on this site as well as others.)

So what do you all think of this list? Tell me the pros and cons . . .

Kris[u]