Aspies For Freedom

I live in the Uk, I'm 17 years old and I have a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome.  I've been wanting to go to college for a while now, but I haven't got the confidence or the grades to do the course I want.

My parents have spoken to me about a programme called Entry To Employment (E2E), and they just happen to run it at the college.  E2E is basically a programme to help people get their grades higher, to suceed socially and to be confident and work ready.  I can do E2E in 22 weeks (or a shorter time, depends on how much help I need), and they can help me get onto the course I'd like to do in September.  It seems like a good programme and I want to find out more about it... but I'm not sure it's a good idea, because I worry a lot and feel like my AS might hold me back.

What do you think?

Yeah, you're right.  I'll try it.   Thanks.

I tried.  And failed.  Period.  
It was a classroom full of idiots.  I mean, some of them didn't even know how to add and subtract!    What happened was, I went in and it was a bunch of chavs (do you guys know what chavs are?)... they were playing awful music, drinking, smoking, talking about drugs, swearing, and interrupting the tutor!  No WAY would I ever want to bother with ----heads like that!  So there is NO CHANCE that I will ever go back to that course... and with good reason too.  

If you got the grades to go to college, but not to attend the course you preferred, you should try it anyway. E2E seems to be a programme for pupils who can suceed socially (being nt) but don't want to.
… difficult to look into the real meaning of pc descriptions.

It wasn't always easy but I managed to obtain a bachelor's in engineering and a master's in computer science.  I was spared the experience of college bullying that some of you describe.  I guess the trick is to stay away from dorms and choose to live in an apartment off-campus.  Of course, you can get scummy neighbors too, but the ones I had seemed to know their limits.

In college, the vast majority of students are adults.  It seems that if you get bullied you can call the cops and say you are being stalked, harassed, and a number of other things.  What allows it to continue?

I absolutely loved university. I didn't particularly like school, I never ever studied while at school and often skiped classes or whole days (my grades were still fairly good) but university really was a place where I felt at home. I loved it, I studied, my lecturers liked me, I found (reasonably!) like-minded people, I learned... it was a thoroughly wonderful experience for me, and although I don't directly use my qualification (I could if I chose do, but it is not my choice), it was not a small part of why my life turned right around for the better.

Yes, good idea, but see a career counselor as soon as they accept you.  Try to target careers with minimal competition (inevitably, too many NTs prefer their own) and maximize earnings.  Force some person to hire you because there is no one else.  Try not to borrow too much money to go to school (sorry, that is American advice, might not apply in the United Kingdom)

tenaciouscj, what I meant was target careers with a shortage.  

Personal application: In 1998 I was a short-term Federal employee with a Master's, my occupational fit sucked and I couldn't fit in where my skills were best.  I think there is an artifical expectation that new hires must be socially attractive, even if all it means is that people like that prefer other people like that.

I had student loans and some medical bills, and when I lost the job and then the apartment, fortunately, I was not held to finish the lease.

A mere matter of days after leaving said apartment, November 1998, the State of MD Dept. Rehabilitation Services had me come to Baltimore (several days with room and board) for a repeated series of occupational tests, which very confirmed that I had strong potential in computer programming.  It confirmed what Dad always told me, to go into programming (my brother studied computers sooner and made it a career sooner, but we are equal in potential despite his almost 2:1 salary and experience leads, I work for a contractor to civilian Federal agencies, mostly Web development and the rare computer programming or database design task, and maybe will get a little military work some day.  My brother is private-sector computer programming and Web design.).

I was accepted into the Maryland Rehabilitation Center's first graduating class in computer programming, effective almost immediately in January 1999.  They found six other high-functioning adults, all men.  Folks, are you as surprised as I am that they couldn't find MORE in the whole state of Maryland?

It should have been 12 months.  It ended up being 6, with Microsoft Office 97 in front, then programming concepts (modular programming), database design (normalized design, no redundancy of data in one or more tables, no possibility of inconsistency), Visual BASIC, C++, something else, and a little SQL tossed in at the end.

It took me six weeks, mid-August 1999, to get an internship where I still am after nearly 8 years.

The state of Maryland was betting on the fact that we could not be ignored.  Sure, we were trained for a potentially hostile job interview, just like Top Gun, my classmate had interviewed people before, and annihilated me in 30 seconds.  Demand is so strong in IT that sometimes companies will seek Federal government permission to hire foreign nationals, H2B visas.  It is implausible to consider why a citizen couldn't work, too, if he or she made it through training.

I could be ignored as a quantitative research analyst, but not as a computer programmer.

tenaciouscj and fellow Aspies, please target careers you can do and like, or would accept, that have minimal competition.  Regardless of feelings, employers will do what they gotta do, and that means you.

By the way, it was a formal community college certificate program.  Our staff came from Catonsville Community College, one of the Community Colleges of Baltimore County, and they taught Catonsville courses for college credit.  We enrolled as though we were any other student.  The ridiculous part was that I had to list all my education from high school onward: high school, college, and graduate study.  (It did mean I was an experienced student and knew the routine.  Elsewhere in this blog I said you get good at something by sticking to it a long time.  So stick with it, folks.)

The difference was that all of our supplies and books were paid for by the taxpayers (probably also the tuition and fees), and those of us who chose could stay on the facility which had its own residence quarters, cafeteria, medical facilities, and recreational items, and included a small stipend ($10/week) for basic personal supplies.

Me too, I feel bad and anxious if i am not learning something, or working in something, or doing some beneficial thing, for me or for someone else, because of that i will gonna study medicine, it's better for an aspie study a career in accord with your interests, and our tenacious and some obsesive nature are a bonus to make it very well

yea i know medicine career is stressful :s a ranch is a good idea, I'm trying to don't let nothing to stress me, it's a way to prepare me.

Hello, Aeolienne.  You remind me of our IT Group Manager, from Scotland, woman, similar build and height, and I thought your pic was smashing!

Sometimes an Aspergian can catch a lucky break.  My little brother quit college in a week because a) he hated the Air Force officer training program that was 24/7 and regimented and b) he wasn't going to afford the on-campus expenses without it and c) commuting would have been 250 miles each way.

Two months later my brother (not dxed but I suspect it, I am dxed) took a chance and applied with a library automation software company on the south side of the county near the Virginia state line.  He was self taught in computers and respectful of his teachers.  So when the man told his mom (brother's chemistry teacher) about my brother applying, she told him to hire him.  As a good man under the parental respect of India, he did.  

Eventually my brother got almost the equivalent of at least one semester of college, maybe two, but makes nearly twice my salary with twice my experience.  My academic advantage is of no consequence.  Although my Master's in sociology is very helpful in understanding why society is as it treats Aspergians, it did nothing for my career, and 1.5 semesters worth of computer study got me my job in Web design and computer programming.  

But at least I refused to spend my post-college unemployment doing absolutely nothing, when I could get a Federal student loan and try to do something about my life.  

Now I am trying for a lady to share life with.  I think the biggest problem is not reading her signals of interest, that is why I feel invisible around ladies.  I have bought the books recommended in this article and am reading them (although the books are aimed at "players", I have concluded that even for honorable intentions you still have to get into a woman's heart nonverbally.)

The article is http://www.wrongplanet.net/article297.html by one Groovy Druid and bluntly suggests that
1.  The woman makes the first move
2.  The man is supposed to notice and send back an appropriate nonverbal signal, not be too eager (Young MC "Get shot down 'cuz you're overzealous), small talk but not lame, etc.
3.  You have to get into a woman's heart nonverbally even for an honorable reason, like finding a life partner.  
4.  Your character is not good enough.
5.  Your character is like the hydrogen bomb that couldn't scratch the UFO over Houston in Independence Day.  
6.  Your nonverbal response, to her nonverbal invitation, makes her drop her shield

Yeah, it's like you wanna be independent, but then you ain't ready for it deep down inside and you have a crisis without knowing why.  Then 20 years later Pakrat suggests, you know, maybe not every frosh should live on campus like parents in America take it for granted.

I almost lost it in semesters 5 and 6 but I did manage to recover and graduate, even go to grad school and get the Master's too.

I had a broken heart in college.  We're friends now and she (married now) believes in a fair level playing field I would not only be married but an excellent husband too (all I needed was some time to grow).