<p>I have an autistic cousin who lives in NY, on Aspergers syndrome, who is currently a senior in HS, with currently 5 AP classes and several honors classes taken the year before. He has gotten a 32 on his ACT and is involved in a few clubs at his HS. I know him very well because my family occasionally goes to his home to visit. Right now, he is looking at several colleges, some within the state, but a bunch are hours away (Georgia Tech, Northwestern, and Carnegie Mellon are the farthest). He really wants to go to those schools, but he has a little social anxiety and occasional reminders. He is a very self-directed and motivated kid, and believes it's about time to go away and face life on his own. However, his parents are concerned that he'll have a hard time adjusting to college, and that he'll have a lack of support very far away, despite his desire to go far away for college. Any advice on this situation would be appreciated here</p>
<p>Your cousin sounds a lot like my son who is a very bright Aspie. He is currently a junior at a college 6 hrs away from home. He is doing very well academically, is living by himself and taking care of himself. The one part he is struggling with is the social piece and he has no close friends but is very involved in a couple clubs. If your cousin has good executive functioning skills ie. does not need constant supervision to get things done , I feel that college away is feasible. I would recommend making sure the college has a good disability office who understand Aspergers in case he needs help. We set my son up with the disabilities office to get help with planning and organization. He realized soon after getting to campus that he didn’t need organizational help but did see a counselor who helped him to adjust. If there are doubts as to his executive functioning then staying close to home or going to a school with a specific autism program like Rutgers, Connecticut or Alabama may be a better choice.</p>
<p>He should research the disabilities services offered at any school he’s interested in. </p>
<p>I agree with adamom. It sounds like he has pretty good executive functioning skills but with an aspie, I really think that mom and dad know best. They know he should be closer to home.</p>
<p>Our S is pretty high functioning but include dyscalculia to the mix. He is a junior who wants maximum independence but whose academic performance fluctuates from going through the ceiling to going through the floor. We knew he needed to be close and he is a college junior 20 min from home.</p>
<p>Trust me on this one truth - the parents of spectrum kids are not helicopter parents although our actions may look like it. We study our kids like scientists to find what makes them tick. Don’t doubt the parents.</p>
<p>OK, so how does being close to home help? My son is 45 minutes from home, and I don’t anticipate any significant advantage. What specifically can one do with an adult in a closed institution? My biggest influence is in speaking to his advisors (in person to establish rapport, but then email or phone). What more, specifically, can I be doing? I have found that the second best experts on ASD students is their parents. The (surprising) expert every. time. ends up, again surprisingly, being the student. Even when what the student says seems non-sensical at the time, his expertise ends up instinctively being right. I wonder if, after the parents doing extensive groundwork to help develop the safety net, the student wouldn’t perform better at his first choice school?</p>
<p>Hi- I think the biggest factor is having Aspergers support on campus or having an wraparound support service available. Your cousin will do fine academically, but will more likely need support with social issues…roommates, safety, self-advocacy…that are foreign to all entering freshman, but daunting to those on the spectrum. Your If your family member does not attend a college with an established Aspergers support program (Marshall, Mercyhurst, Rutgers, Western KY, Farleigh Dickenson to name a few), then I’d advise looking into AHEADD. This program is based in Pittsburgh (they serve many students at Carnegie Mellon), but is available nationwide. </p>
<p>Here’s the link: <a href=“http://www.aheadd.org”>http://www.aheadd.org</a></p>
<p>It really depends on the individual. </p>
<p>It does depend on the individual. At the same time, though, the parents’ group I belong to is made up of people with kids either just finishing high school or off to college in the last three years; of the college kids, so far 5 out of 7 have had some sort of crisis requiring parental support. It’s a lot easier to support/intervene/rescue (as the case may require) if one needn’t buy a Boston-to-LA plane ticket to do so.
In our case, D does really well with the structure afforded by ROTC. We’ve made the deal that she could go to college wherever she liked, as long as she remained in ROTC. Otherwise, she needs to be close to either us, her godmother, or her (adult) stepsister.</p>
<p>I haven’t been formally diagnosed with Asperger’s because the school psychologist was an old wheezer who basically said “I don’t know about Asperger’s for girls…”, but I did get placed on the autism spectrum. </p>
<p>For me, I always felt pretty suffocated by my parents because they don’t understand why or how I’m being affected. In fact, I was not properly tested for anything until my junior year of high school – almost too late to do anything about it. </p>
<p>The transition into college is extremely difficult for me. (I’m currently a college freshman at UC Berkeley). I’m within a reasonable drive to Berkeley, but since my parents are not supportive, it doesn’t affect me; in fact, it helps that they don’t visit. Dorm life is especially hard for me, and I have more than one roommate. In addition to the stress that causes me, classes are hard and I didn’t give myself a schedule to allow for adjustments. What has helped me was connecting with therapy/disability services, and finding supportive people in general (which was very hard). I also found a quiet place I could go to when things got really bad in my room. </p>