Aspies in University?

[Mr Allen]

Topic.

I do think at 40 I might be a bit long in the tooth for it plus I don't really have the Academic acumen, but could I do a course as a "Mature Student"?

I'd like to do an IT course like my Brother did, but at Sheffield Hallam, if I moved away for 4 years to a Uni I'd lose the Flat, and would have to reapply to the Housing for new digs 4 years later and everything.

So anyway, would it be worth applying next year?

 

[hiraeth]

Yes, absolutely! I don't think it's ever too old to go back to school. A lot of people say that being a mature student it feels hard to connect with classmates but I think that for us if feeling alien to the masses is already familiar then it won't be that much different from what we are normally used to. Housing and finances are often more of a concern to mature students, if we already have something stable that we need to leave behind, and I get the dilemma there. I suppose it comes down to taking the risk and believing that after the degree you can have a better quality of life than what you have now. Or at least, definitely not worse than.

 

[Mr Allen]

Yes, absolutely! I don't think it's ever too old to go back to school. A lot of people say that being a mature student it feels hard to connect with classmates but I think that for us if feeling alien to the masses is already familiar then it won't be that much different from what we are normally used to. Housing and finances are often more of a concern to mature students, if we already have something stable that we need to leave behind, and I get the dilemma there. I suppose it comes down to taking the risk and believing that after the degree you can have a better quality of life than what you have now. Or at least, definitely not worse than.

Yeah I see all that but the problem is, even if I was successful in gaining an IT Degree, I'm still a 40 year old Aspie with other disabilities and health issues, hence for the last 24 years I've been doing voluntary work.

 

[Katherine Rawstron]

Go for it! Another option is the Open University; it doesn't matter where you live for that, and you won't have the stress of trying to fit in with a large amount of other people. You won't have to cross a noisy campus to get to lectures and tutorials either, or sit in a noisy refectory.

 

[Mr Allen]

Go for it! Another option is the Open University; it doesn't matter where you live for that, and you won't have the stress of trying to fit in with a large amount of other people. You won't have to cross a noisy campus to get to lectures and tutorials either, or sit in a noisy refectory.

Yeah that might be an idea, I might look into that at some point.

 

[Judge]

Yeah I see all that but the problem is, even if I was successful in gaining an IT Degree, I'm still a 40 year old Aspie with other disabilities and health issues, hence for the last 24 years I've been doing voluntary work.

If your medical and governmental bureaucracy basically "blacklists" you from gainful employment, would obtaining an academic degree or vocational certificate change any of that?

I'm only going by some of your previous posts. But if it's on record that your medical condition bars you from gainful employment, I don't see how further education would necessarily transcend this other than perhaps the prospect of being self-employed.

That all said, as far as your age goes, that should never be considered a real barrier to higher education. I went back to school at 41 myself. Increased my wages quite a bit in the process with the next job.