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Do you want to go to University?

No I don’t want to attend university a fourth time.

At first I tried to attend the University of Manitoba immediately after relocating to Manitoba with my mother and after graduating high school; I felt like it was what I was supposed to do. The place was massive in size and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do to become a student. Anxiety became too much for me and I left the campus crying.

Immediately afterwards I tried a second university: the University of Winnipeg. It is much smaller in size and easier for me to travel to. With the support of disability services, I was able to register as a student there and begin classes. On the third day I was having a lot of anxiety and it proved to be too much for me - was at the hospital that night for self-harming. Later that month an ambulance took me from my house to the hospital for self-harming again.

A third time I registered with an online distance-education university called Athabasca University, though I never began courses there. Encountered many of the same roadblocks with disability services, support, and funding as I did with other universities.

Ultimately, in my experience, disability services are a sham at universities. After graduating high school from my autism program, it was like falling off a cliff, because all supports and services disappeared on me.

Nor am I able to afford the fees of university.

As far as my educational and future aspirations are concerned, I would like to relocate to back to Ontario and attend a driving school to learn how to drive highway motor coaches (buses) for companies like Coach Canada and Greyhound Bus Lines. I find driving to be easy and somewhat relaxing; buses were one of my first obsessions as a child; and it doesn’t require years and years of studying, planet-sized anxiety, and tens of thousands of dollars in education. A few hundred dollars and a few weeks and I will be on the road working. Sounds doable to me :).

Undoubtedly, though, I do believe that the educational system needs serious changes done to it. Universities are conformity boxes in my opinion where you either conform to their standards or you lose out and that is not how it should be.
 
I did not do well in High School. But I thrived in College. I started at a Community College and transferred to a small Catholic University. We are talking 25 students in a classroom. Upper level classes was much lower maybe 10 students. I lived in a quiet dorm where everyone had their own (small) room.

The atmosphere helped me to succeed. Here in the USA more jobs are now requiring a four year degree. In my position I have seen lots of jobs change. They once only required a High School diploma, now they want a four year degree. It is redicules. But I don't make the rules. Fortunately, back then my parents were able to pay for it.

One note, Steve Jobs never graduated from College - but then we are not all Steve Jobs nor will we ever make that kind of money.

Bill
 
I went to a large public university a few hundred miles away from home. Nobody from my high school went there so I was all on my own. It took me forever to adapt and I struggled with many things my first year. I did not regret choosing to go to that university since they gave me a nice scholarship. I had lots of opportunities there - student organizations, arts events, internships, research, etc. One thing I do regret though is that I didn't take advantage of many of those opportunities. I spent way too much time cooped up in my room.

Overall, I did take advantage of some of those opportunities and going to university improved my career prospects significantly (I did an engineering degree). I also learned a lot about myself during that experience. Most importantly, I learned to live on my own and learned how to interact and live with other people. I would say that the most important thing I got from university was life skills.
 
With my "experience" there.. no, I don't want to. Besides, I don't want to go back to that kind of system either. I had a lot of classes that were mandatory and I just didn't care for and/or just didn't connect with... at all.

I would go back if I could pick any courses that add up for X amount of hours. Of course that wouldn't really add up to a certified degree in something, cause university's around here have the degree packed with all these courses and a few are optional... and in most cases the mandatory courses didn't work for me, the optional ones I felt weren't going in deep enough, but were interesting enough.

So no... no university for me. Besides, the obligation and structure would annoy the heck out of me.
 
King_Oni said:
With my "experience" there.. no, I don't want to. Besides, I don't want to go back to that kind of system either. I had a lot of classes that were mandatory and I just didn't care for and/or just didn't connect with... at all.

I would go back if I could pick any courses that add up for X amount of hours. Of course that wouldn't really add up to a certified degree in something, cause university's around here have the degree packed with all these courses and a few are optional... and in most cases the mandatory courses didn't work for me, the optional ones I felt weren't going in deep enough, but were interesting enough.

So no... no university for me. Besides, the obligation and structure would annoy the heck out of me.
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have the same issues but the chicks are hott an I want a degree in something, make me feel like I'd done something. I'd probably just flunk out anyhow..
 
I would go right now and get a second degree because my 1st one is kinda dysfunctional. I have bachelors in fashion design. To make that degree truly functional you have to have passion for fashion, and even though I do love good design, but probably not to the level that would make me to go above and beyond right now to make it in the fashion industry. I did work in a clothing company one time, the job was heaven, all i had to do is draw all day and give instructions to drafters, or however you call them. But where am I going to find a job like that here? :) I would get a degree in psychology this time... If I had the money...
 
I agree that it is very difficult to finance oneself thru college and uni. I have been thru that path. It is very tough.Ok, for those aspies still struggling with all these educational financial issues. >> Tap on your aspies power, on it, u will find your way thru somehow. Because Aspies are unlike NT. They are more undaunted by obstacles to their goals. I cannot deny that it is full of hardships but i have never once thought of giving up. I cannot and will not give up what i have started. Many times, i ask myself why m i doing all these, just for a piece of certificate? At that point of time, many sneer at my plight and effort. It is something that i have set out for when i was younger. I have never blame my family for not helping me at all. No, it is not just a piece of paper. It is my life, my destiny is in my own hands. To do or not to do. To do then should perserve regardless etc.... No excuses like those NT.

I think i will do a second degree one day. Coz 1 is not enough.
 
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I am extremely worried about college. I am currently a junior in high school, and I want to be an editor. Like most Aspies in the field of their obsessions, I greatly excel in it. I am planning to go to a community college, but after that is when it gets tricky. I live in Missouri, home to one of the best journalism schools in the country, but I don't know if I could survive such a huge school. I'm also worried that if I do not function well in college due to the sensory overload, I may not get an editing job, despite having a marvelous talent for it. I don't know what to do...
 
I went to a community college and then a state university. Things were fine in undergrad, because my classmates changed every term. But in vet school things got hellish, because I was with the same people all the time and I started to get bullied--nasty rumors mostly, occasionally a snotty email.

I'm not very good at blending in with NT's. I swear they seem to be able to smell that I am different, and then they all want a piece of me
 
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I missed my opportunity to be an urban planner. I could be some New Urbanist developing new New Urbanist-style suburbs. But now, unemployment is 3 months away. Plus, my degree classification sucks. I may most likely get a 2:1, there goes a First to get to LSE's Master's programs...

Not to worry.

I am looking forward to my next degree.

I will explore every option that brings out my potentials, be it in earnings or in academic credentials. Most likely I will do a second degree, too, though I am not sure of which field to do.

Oh, every option, literally. Except medicine, haha. I cannot figure a way to enter, say, Harvard Medical School. If I am not sure of the roadmap I will go, why will I walk there?
 
As younger I never cared whether I'd go to university or college as long as I'd be happy with what I'll be doing. First I went into proper university to study mathematics and natural sciences, and it hit me so hard that people there were plain dull unambitious people. Nevertheless, they succeeded better than I did even if they boozed every other night. How predictable. I have twice tried to take part of student life, not my thing. So it should be no surprise that I don't blend in well. After having dropped totally social outcast structure of my major changed, so I lost my interest and decided to switch to engineering university college. Somehow it is more manageable in here as people are just the same, but as my expectations were lower the gap is bearable. I'm not saying I'm here for other people, but it really does matter a lot.
I still feel strong bonding on my previous field of interest of university major subject. Gladly these aren't that far apart.

Though I have to say most of my energies get focused on the quality (and lack of it) of teaching. I volunteered on some working group aiming to improve it and I might concentrate on it more than my studies. But it is great to have possibility to have an impact. And as I'm not taking part of social gatherings I can't feel like being a student in that sense. I just wish that I could manage all these pointless regulations and graduate, because I believe it would be easier in working life where I could just do some rather independent tasks.
I've also thought about dropping out, bt have yet not done that for I feel like needing some level of formal education in order to do what I desire.

I can't give perspective on finance as there're no tuitions here.
 
Looking back, I wished I had treated iTunes U more seriously. Who needs Uni anyway if we 'buy' a degree?

There are so many reputable universities having online courses - maybe save the notable exception of Princeton University, the most exclusive of competitive prestigious universities other than Harvard, but the content in such universities are simply awesome. I don't even need a degree to prove me being knowledgeable, all I need to do is to post a blog reflecting what I learnt, and to do a good day job for a few years, before I go on for a degree program that gives me further skills and accreditation for the skill set I want to develop for my career.
 
When I was younger I wanted to go to uni, wasn't certain what I wanted to do but I wanted to study. I went to college after I finished school, found that really stressful, think I tried to do too much at once, I was studying Psychology, Accounting, Business Studies, Maths & Law (I was also on the waiting list for media studies), each course had problems for me that put me off staying/further education.

Psychology - the class was so full they had to get extra chairs for people, it was awful I stopped going after a while I just couldn't deal with being around so many people in a small room. Accounting - this was a nice small class but the bully 'friend' I had at school had signed up for this along with her boyfriend and the two of them were always distracting me and stuff, in the end I stopped going. Business studies - another small class but the teacher was a complete meanie and was always shouting about something (no idea what the problem was he just seemed to rant about things), Maths I was re-taking because I got such a low score at secondary(high) school I wanted a higher one (that was down to me not going to school for about a year due to the influence/ pressure from aforementioned 'friend'). Finally Law, for some reason they put me straight into A level law when I wanted to study at gcse(high/secondary) school level to see if it was for me, the teacher explained that I might find a few things tricky because they learn the basics in the gcse class but I should try my best to keep up, well I didn't keep up and I was so embarassed and felt like a total idiot so I just stopped going to that class. Then my mum got into financial difficulties (read that as a whole load of debt) and I had to drop out altogether and get a job to help her out.

One job I had the managing director wanted me (and another low level staff) to get qualifications to help the company (they did alot of importing/exporting) so they paid for me to do an NVQ in that area(can't remember if it was specifically import/export or a more general customs thing). That wasn't even my department, I worked in the accounting department so my boss in that dept.(the MD's wife) wanted me to get an official accounting qualification and made me start the AAT course. So there I was doing 9-5.30 mon -fri and then rather then being a carefree 17 year old at the weekends I was studying 2 different courses, well I quickly burntout.

I've taken a few courses with the open university in photography and web development, but had problems with a difference in opinion(long story) in how things were marked. That put me off a lot and now there is nothing that interests me, they stopped all the interesting courses (robotics, game design), I don't think I could cope with going to a real university. Even the local college I have seen several courses I like the sound of but I have no means to get there and again I just don't think I could put myself in a 'school' environment again.
 
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