Aspies For Freedom

I was wondering, do you think that there is sometimes a connection between the two? I have known (or at least have heard of) quite a few individuals with AS who took several years to finish their degrees in college, or started working towards another degree after they got their first one.

Well, I plan on getting at least a graduate degree. I like learning as much as I possibly can.

I wish I could still be a student. University was the best place, and I could actually talk about stuff that interested me!!!

(I took four years to complete an Honours degree -- which is apparantly pretty standard.)

Anyway...

I used to know one guy who was taking forever to get through uni. (Not because he wasn't smart, but rather because he was always either partying or getting so involved in uni politics that he never really studied that much.) I kind of suspected this guy might have AS (for other reasons) but never confirmed.

I'm not for or against doing what he did / does. It's just the way he was / is.

College is great. I plan on taking two accelerated degree programs (separately of course), which would allow me to get a degree in a year (art and applied science). I start that this fall, after that I am not sure.

As for being a perpetual student, I could definitely see the attraction. Right now I have no idea what I want to be, I just sort look into things which interest me.

The AS perception of "what is intellectuality?" differs a lot from that of the NTs.

Aspies are pro-intellectual (irrespective to IQ) by nature.
NTs do it for the MONEY ! ! Pooh !

Aspies are holistic ... much more than the pioneers of oriental religions (some of whom might have been aspies too!). Aspies can compare anything with anything.
NTs aren't holistic at all. Their comparisons are bound within the same field of knowledge ... example: art with art and science with science.

Have you ever come up with a brilliant comparison and an NT told you that
you're crazy coz your comparison is incomprehensible?

Hans Asperger described AS by calling it: "superior intelligence" !

If I were independently wealthy, I would be a perpetual student on a non-degree program, and just go and sit in on classes.  For now I'm just an autodidact, the poor woman's perpetual student.

I never did well in school either--at least not at first. I ended up with a single qualification in art (mostly because that didn’t require any reading or writing). I got very easily distracted and could hardly read by the time I finished school. Not much has changed--I can read now--if rather slowly--and I still get distracted.

I have managed to get a averagely good degree in Archaeology. Only averagely good because although I had no social life to speak of at uni I never got much work done. I always seemed to wander of the syllabus--following my own train of thought. I spent most of my time studying things totally unrelated to my degree (distraction again).

I wasn’t very well organised. Any paper I had to write was written on the day it was due in. Any exam I had to sit was revised for the morning of the exam. Even my end of year dissertation was written in less than three days. Considering the amount of time I actually spent studying what I was supposed too--I’m surprised I passed.

That being said I don’t think having a degree proves someone is intelligent. I’ve met many people without a degree who are far cleverer than I am.

I think I am a perpetual student--but not in the traditional sense. I’m always thinking about stuff, coming up with half-baked theories and ideas. But my mind sort of does that on it‘s own--it won’t let me tell it what to do.

I’ve found turning my ‘intelligence’ to any useful purpose is almost impossible.

You say non-degree program... so I want to ask, did you have difficulty with certain subjects/certain tasks required within classes, etc.?

I like your approach...  sitting there and soaking the information in at your own pace.  The pace required of today's college, whatever kind it is, community or satellite campus or state university, is far too demanding for me.  I'd probably need 50mg of Adderall every school day to have a chance... but amphetamines make me psychotic and paranoid and euphoric, so that's out of the question...

My brain is contradictory.  I have massive ADD but stimulants speed me up and energize me, rather than allowing for calm focus (the "paradoxical" ADHD effect, which is not the primary effect for me, somehow.)  Sensory stimulation is actually the primary effect; it seems the focus is secondary.

That's a great observation, and I'm certain I have the exact same problem.  I kinda have a great "personal" creativity, but how to use this to do anything worthwhile in school, is beyond me.

I wonder if this is sort of from the ADHD/Asperger's combination...  the Asperger's makes you "trapped inside yourself," which extends to intellect sort of (certain skills/abilities you might have without AS are very hard to reach) and the ADD makes it hard for you to concentrate on intensive/boring tasks for a long period of time.

I've said before that I think the Executive Dysfunction you get from AS (if you have a significant AS..  I don't think Borderline AS/NT gets this) combined with the Executive Dysfunction you get from ADD, makes it extremely hard to reach your potential.  The disorganization (ADHD), distractibility (ADHD or AS), trouble seeing the big picture (AS)... all these things combined make for more problems than you'll see in Asperger's or ADHD alone.

Count me into the perpetual student camp--I logged twelve (12!) years in two different grad programs.  Didn't start working in the real world till I was 36.

Yeah, I hated the whole "administrative" aspect of college, registration, advisement, prerequisites, you-have-to-take-class-A-before-you-can-take-class-B-but-class-A-is-full, blah blah blah.  I also have a horrible time with independent research, and, to a certain extent, with answering questions.  I've just started taking an intensive 8-week computer literacy class, and I can already tell this format is much more suited to my learning style than traditional college.  I would much rather go the non-degree route and just go to class, listen to the lecture, read the book, absorb the information, and go home.

Well that and the fact that a degree can sometimes help you with getting a job and such; without the degree you may as well be paying for nothing but raw information.

An aspie friend of my parents is reaching retirement having been a perpetual student. Yeah, there have been research jobs and research studentships in there, but perpetual studentdom for the last 30-odd years really. And as for beign rich - well, I know there were points when he had so little money he was hunting and foraging for food.

That's precisely why I didn't want to stay on after my MSc - I feared becoming yet more other-wordly. Mind you, it took me so long to secure a proper job that I might just have well have embarked on a PhD. And now I'm being held back from promotion because of my lack of research experience. >sigh<

I miss university. (sigh)

At uni, my friends liked to talk about the same stuff as me.

All anyone I know now seems to talk about is skiing and tourism and the weather and what they ate for lunch yesterday... and stupid, boring things like that.

('scuse temporary moment of negativity.)