Could it ever help to disclose Asperger's?

Graduate School
1

<p>Software</a> Company Only Hires People who Have Autism - ABC News</p>

<p>It seems that some people recognize that autism could actually help people with certain computing tasks (and it's quite possible that this also applies to science, especially fields of science involving categorization/classification). Furthermore, many grad schools suffer from high attrition rates, and an autistic person (with an intense interest in the subject) may be seen as less likely to leave than a more neurotypical person who has many other potential opportunities.</p>

2

<p>The question reminds me of my topic about IQ. I guess most of the replies you get will state that it will not be a good idea to mention the fact, although there might be a correlation with high-functioning autism and doing well in science. The reason is that with that kind of an advantage you should have excellent GPA, GRE scores and recommendation letters. Thus, either you have them and there is no need to mention the fact, or you don’t, in which case there is probably some red flag causing you to perform badly regardless of the advantage.</p>

<p>I don’t agree with what I’ve said above, but because that seems to be the general opinion, I would still not disclose it. Were I in an admission committee of a hard science program, I would weight such a fact favorably, though.</p>

<p>Finally, I wouldn’t be surprised to be completely wrong with everything I said above. I seem to have hard time thinking like the majority of posters in this forum. You should wait for some more opinions.</p>

3

<p>Ah thanks - I really appreciate your reply and sympathy! </p>

<p>I think there are a couple other wild cards to add into this:

  • I’m strongly considering disclosing AS to a couple of those who will write my recommendations. It’s very risky, which is why I’m hesitant, but it would explain a lot (and sometimes I do things that do inadvertently turn people off - even though I’m really trying to be better now). One of the major problems is that it almost always means that people will have to have more patience for me than for other people. (especially when the AS is combined with ADD)
  • It might also help explain a few other parts of my application. I was very immature for a long time, which wrecked my GPA for the first 2 years (but ultimately I can become as mature as everyone else). After that (and after getting an adderall prescription), my grades significantly improved. But this may be better served by disclosing ADD rather than asperger’s (as I’ve also been diagnosed with ADD). The rationale of that being that past mistakes don’t necessarily carry over to the future when background conditions change.</p>
4

<p>william,</p>

<p>Asperger’s is “high-functioning” in that it brings them up to average intelligence (whereas most autistic individuals are well below average intelligence). It’s a myth that people with Asperger’s are gifted - AS is autism without mental retardation not autism with giftedness. A small number are gifted, but that’s true for the general population as well.</p>

<p>So usually AS means average intelligence with crippled social skills. In grad schools applications they’re beaten on both fronts. Why admit a weakness? And if you were one of those rare savants, then you should already have research accomplishments that trump the need to use AS or anything else to gain an advantage. I can’t see a situation where mentioning it helps.</p>

5

<p>It seems that I was mistaken, then. All the AS people I know are extremely intelligent, but I have to admit that I know only a few with a real diagnosis. Do you have a name of some study? I don’t mean to doubt what you said, but I have special interest in this matter, and would like to know for sure.</p>

<p>However, I would like to challenge the statement that gets thrown very often here. Having extreme talent does not automatically mean you have something to show for it. I believe it is accepted that high talent does not grant good grades. As an example, one might like solving puzzles (sudokus for the sake of an example) rather than doing homework, only because puzzles usually are lot more fun than homework. I agree this is highly irresponsible, but it does not make it less possible. Again, my sample size is quite small, but I have a friend who barely finished high school because he liked memorizing pi digits more than studying.</p>

<p>The problem then comes from the fact that grades are sometimes understood by the faculty to be the best indicator of research ability. If you have bad grades, it’s extremely difficult to get research experience, even unpaid. One might get lucky and have a smart professor recognizing the potential, but that’s not something that can counted on.</p>

<p>The last possibility is then to do independent research, which is often extremely difficult. One has no colleagues with whom to discuss the research, no support from senior researchers, no facilities, etc. Even with great talent, that is quite disadvantageous and getting any real results, especially as an undergraduate is not going to happen very often. And while I don’t know, I’d guess independent research with no results is not going to weight very much.</p>

<p>There are also very real problems with the social shyness. I am not kidding, but last friday I overheard a conversation where a physicist was telling another that one of his students or other young affiliates is very smart, but so shy he doesn’t reply to e-mails unless they come from his very small group of “safe” people. Not to mention answering to phone or <em>gasp</em> meeting them. I guess that can ruin a few opportunities.</p>

<p>So while it is possible for a high-IQ AS person to have huge research accomplishments, I don’t see why that would be particularly common.</p>

<p>Edit: Damn these English prepositions are difficult!</p>

6

<p>I read somewhere that Warren Buffet has a mild form of Asperger’s; I guess he utilized it to specialize in investing!</p>

7

<p>william,</p>

<p>[An</a> Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie](<a href=“http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/jocn.1997.9.4.548]An”>http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/jocn.1997.9.4.548)</p>

<p>(You might need to access it through a university network)</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Basically, it’s <em>defined</em> as not being mentally ■■■■■■■■ but still displaying autistic symptoms when it comes to social interaction, with some differences in verbal abilities. So you’ll never meet a low IQ person with AS (it’ll be called autism instead), but that doesn’t mean they’re significantly more likely to be high IQ.</p>

<p>

I can agree with all this, but grad school admission operates on information asymmetry. They have to decide whether to fund a person for 5+ years or not based on the information on some pieces of paper. You have to have <em>some</em> demonstrated ability by this point in life in order for them to take the risk and invest in you. Or else how do we separate those who might have talent and those who don’t? We cannot simply count on the potential for savantry in research if it hasn’t been demonstrated and therefore mentioning AS shouldn’t help.</p>