In Which I Talk a Lot and Hope That Someone Eventually Benefits From It
I don’t write very often about Asperger’s Syndrome (in fact, I don’t think I ever previously have), but I had a very unique experience in my first semester of graduate school – having been the first and only autistic student at the College – and I thought that I might offer a few observations in the hopes that it may help other students who are considering, or just starting out in, graduate school. Not much information is readily available on this particular situation, it seems, or perhaps it is just that I have not been able to find it.
True, I have not been a graduate student for very long, and am in no way an expert. However, I expect that the people who are most likely to look for this type of information are those who are in the position I very recently occupied; namely, those who are at the beginning of their graduate experience. And so I pontificate.
* * *
1. Consider your school.
Every graduate school is different. Some offer only one type of degree, while others offer many; some offer programs that may take one to three years, while others may take five to eight years. Some schools have thousands of students and keep graduate and undergraduate students in the same areas; others may house graduate classes in separate buildings or even on separate campuses. Some schools will fund you completely; others may offer partial scholarships or none at all. Some will require you to teach or assist in order to maintain funding; some will not. Think over what may be relevant to your needs both as a student and in terms of gaining future experience for your career (for instance, if you hope to become a professor one day, it may be advantageous to act as a teaching assistant during your graduate studies), and make sure that you apply to schools that meet the criteria you judge as most important to you.
Also consider factors that may make your day-to-day life easier or harder. Perhaps you still receive a lot of assistance from your family, and wish to remain close to them or even continue living at home. Perhaps you feel that you will be more successful in the familiar environment of your undergraduate school than if you were to tackle the challenges of a new university. Or perhaps you want to make a clean break and start anew in a completely different place where you can be free of the challenges of your old school. These factors can be extremely important for someone with Asperger’s Syndrome; the choice may not be as easy as simply asking yourself which school offers more funding or has a higher-rated program.
2. Consider your interests.
Your special interest(s) may not seem likely to lead to a graduate degree, or even to a career of any sort. Look more closely, though; you may be surprised. You may be able to turn a more generic field into something that specifically appeals to you by choosing to study in a certain program, work with a certain researcher, or take internships that address your interests while remaining relevant to your studies. As a dedicated biologist with very little interest in chemistry, I found it difficult at first to cope with graduate studies in biochemistry. However, I soon learned that by working with researchers who shared my interests in genetics, oncology and immunology, and by drawing links between what I learned in class and what I learned for interest’s sake, I could find a way to stay fascinated by my studies even when they were not always ideal.
3. Consider your field.
Don’t go to graduate school just because it’s what you were trained to do in undergraduate, or because it’s what you used to be interested in, or because it’s what’s expected of you. You won’t enjoy it. It will become increasingly difficult to tolerate the idea of “wasting your time” on something in which you have no interest. Eventually, one of your special interests will take over and you won’t be spending time on your studies anymore (or perhaps no special interest will take over, but it will become so difficult to focus on uninteresting work that you will retreat from your studies). Why do something you dislike?
So, in short, consider your special interest(s) when considering graduate school. Make sure that you are attending because you really want to be studying there.
At the same time, though, it is important to consider where your educational field will lead. What kinds of careers are available? Will you be able to deal with the environment? If possible, investigate the careers held by people with graduate degrees in your area. If a lot of them involve dealing with other people, or working in noisy and crowded environments, you may wish to research other options with the possibility of more appealing working conditions. It helps to know in advance that your years of hard work will lead to a job that you can enjoy both for its content and for its environment.
4. Get organized.
Your Asperger’s style may be neat and categorical, with “To-Do” lists, calendars, and neatly sorted school supplies. In that case, you’re probably set. On the other hand, your Asperger’s style may be to barely even notice your surroundings as you struggle to cope with the aspects of your life that seem so simple to neurotypical people – things like keeping track of when fees must be paid, when your car needs inspection, or why you need to wash your dishes when you still have a few clean ones left (or heck, maybe you can just re-use some of the less dirty ones).
The lifestyle changes that come with graduate school, especially if you are moving far from home or living alone or off-campus, are overwhelming. The paperwork piles up, the appointments and meetings increase in number until you can barely remember when you are supposed to present at that Structural Biology Working Group conference, and the details take over. But you don’t need to be dragged under – organization can make a complex life seem neat, clean, and most importantly, doable.
Buy yourself two calendars. Have a wall calendar on which you mark important dates for meetings, appointments, and other things you want to remember. That way, you will be able to glance up at it and remember that your committee meeting is in two weeks and you had better start preparing. Have an academic planning calendar, too, that you carry around to your classes. This is where you should write the details of assignments, topics to review, and anything that is important on a day-to-day basis. Some students may prefer a computer- or web-based calendar to replace one or both of these tools; these can work, too, but make sure that you are able to make notes in them when assignments are given or thoughts occur to you. A calendar is no good if you forget the dates and assignments before you can write them in.
Have a designated work area. Keep school supplies (paper, pens, highlighters, and so on) close by, and make sure you have access to all of your textbooks. You will want to have your computer and Internet access nearby, too, and a printer is helpful. Make sure that, whatever your studying style, your work area is optimized for it. Keep the rest of life elsewhere.
Keep documents organized. This is not just for school (where you will be filing research papers, assignments, exams, lecture notes, and a hundred other things), but for daily life (where you will be filing bills, receipts, housing documents, insurance information, and a hundred other things) as well.
Set aside some time at least once a week to make sure that your surroundings are clean, your papers are filed, and you have sufficient school supplies and groceries to make it through the next little while. It’s amazing how easy a little thing like needing to eat can be forgotten!
5. Don’t overestimate the social aspect of graduate school – but don’t underestimate it, either.
Chances are that in graduate school, your peers will be academically-oriented, and you will have (for the most part, at least) left behind the party-goers and time-wasters of your undergraduate experience. This may make for a much more comfortable social environment, as your fellow students will share at least some of your interests, and are likely to be a calmer and more mature group of people. Especially with the added freedom conferred by earning one’s own salary and making one’s own life decisions (for instance, you and many of your colleagues may live off-campus, or without roommates), this allows you to determine your own level of comfortable social interaction.
However, you may also find that you enjoy social events more with your graduate colleagues than previously. They share common interests and experiences, have the same goals as you, and you may even find that some of them think just like you! You may not be the only person in your graduate program who has arrived there by means of your Asperger’s special interest…
Whether or not it is easier or more pleasurable than in your undergraduate career, socialization serves a distinct purpose in graduate school. Your fellow students come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and will thus bring a wide variety of skill sets to your class. Where some of you may have a weakness, or insufficient background, others may be experts. Collaboration is helpful, and makes getting through required classes (which may not correspond exactly to your interests) easier! In addition, remember that all of these students will one day be authorities in your field. Making and keeping connections now, however difficult it may be, allows you to have those contacts for the duration of your career.
6. What about accommodations?
If you received academic accommodations as an undergraduate, these may or may not continue in graduate school. The larger the campus, especially if it houses undergraduates, the more likely you are to be able to establish whatever accommodations you need – be sure to make yourself familiar with your school’s disability services department. Not only will you want to ensure that you can receive the services you need, but it is important to establish that you can work comfortably with the personnel in charge of administering those accommodations. If you find it difficult to make your needs heard, you may be hesitant to initiate discussions when needed, and you may find yourself underserved.
Not all accommodations need to be formally established with disability services. You may find it easier to request accommodations only when necessary, and to do so in person with the professor from whom the services are needed. In order to avoid nasty surprises (such as discovering a week before the examination that the professor cannot help you without adequate documentation), mention to your professors at the start of the semester that you have Asperger’s Syndrome and have received accommodations in the past, so that you keep the possibility of further discussion open should it become necessary.
Some students who have never previously received accommodations may find that they become necessary during graduate studies, due to the increased difficulty of the coursework and the added responsibilities of being a mature student leading an “adult” lifestyle complete with paperwork, money, appointments, taxes, and a dozen other stressful items to process in a day. On the other hand, some students who have received accommodations as undergraduates may find that, due to the change from a “teacher-to-student” to a “colleague-to-colleague” environment in graduate school, formal accommodations are no longer necessary.
In short, make sure that – if you feel you may need accommodations at some point – you investigate those options and make yourself comfortable with the system before making a final decision on a school, program or research supervisor.
* * *
I hope that my recent experiences can be of some help to other students in a similar position. If there is anything I have omitted, or if there are unanswered questions about which I might have some small knowledge, please let me know. I will do my best to consider them and come up with some sort of thoughtful answer. Please bear in mind, however, that I speak only for the experiences I have had, and that your mileage may vary considerably. (That is, I am not trying to imply that I am any sort of expert, or even particularly experienced. I’m just trying to fill in a gap that I discovered when I could have used this type of information a semester or two ago and was singularly unable to find it.)
I don’t write very often about Asperger’s Syndrome (in fact, I don’t think I ever previously have), but I had a very unique experience in my first semester of graduate school – having been the first and only autistic student at the College – and I thought that I might offer a few observations in the hopes that it may help other students who are considering, or just starting out in, graduate school. Not much information is readily available on this particular situation, it seems, or perhaps it is just that I have not been able to find it.
True, I have not been a graduate student for very long, and am in no way an expert. However, I expect that the people who are most likely to look for this type of information are those who are in the position I very recently occupied; namely, those who are at the beginning of their graduate experience. And so I pontificate.
* * *
1. Consider your school.
Every graduate school is different. Some offer only one type of degree, while others offer many; some offer programs that may take one to three years, while others may take five to eight years. Some schools have thousands of students and keep graduate and undergraduate students in the same areas; others may house graduate classes in separate buildings or even on separate campuses. Some schools will fund you completely; others may offer partial scholarships or none at all. Some will require you to teach or assist in order to maintain funding; some will not. Think over what may be relevant to your needs both as a student and in terms of gaining future experience for your career (for instance, if you hope to become a professor one day, it may be advantageous to act as a teaching assistant during your graduate studies), and make sure that you apply to schools that meet the criteria you judge as most important to you.
Also consider factors that may make your day-to-day life easier or harder. Perhaps you still receive a lot of assistance from your family, and wish to remain close to them or even continue living at home. Perhaps you feel that you will be more successful in the familiar environment of your undergraduate school than if you were to tackle the challenges of a new university. Or perhaps you want to make a clean break and start anew in a completely different place where you can be free of the challenges of your old school. These factors can be extremely important for someone with Asperger’s Syndrome; the choice may not be as easy as simply asking yourself which school offers more funding or has a higher-rated program.
2. Consider your interests.
Your special interest(s) may not seem likely to lead to a graduate degree, or even to a career of any sort. Look more closely, though; you may be surprised. You may be able to turn a more generic field into something that specifically appeals to you by choosing to study in a certain program, work with a certain researcher, or take internships that address your interests while remaining relevant to your studies. As a dedicated biologist with very little interest in chemistry, I found it difficult at first to cope with graduate studies in biochemistry. However, I soon learned that by working with researchers who shared my interests in genetics, oncology and immunology, and by drawing links between what I learned in class and what I learned for interest’s sake, I could find a way to stay fascinated by my studies even when they were not always ideal.
3. Consider your field.
Don’t go to graduate school just because it’s what you were trained to do in undergraduate, or because it’s what you used to be interested in, or because it’s what’s expected of you. You won’t enjoy it. It will become increasingly difficult to tolerate the idea of “wasting your time” on something in which you have no interest. Eventually, one of your special interests will take over and you won’t be spending time on your studies anymore (or perhaps no special interest will take over, but it will become so difficult to focus on uninteresting work that you will retreat from your studies). Why do something you dislike?
So, in short, consider your special interest(s) when considering graduate school. Make sure that you are attending because you really want to be studying there.
At the same time, though, it is important to consider where your educational field will lead. What kinds of careers are available? Will you be able to deal with the environment? If possible, investigate the careers held by people with graduate degrees in your area. If a lot of them involve dealing with other people, or working in noisy and crowded environments, you may wish to research other options with the possibility of more appealing working conditions. It helps to know in advance that your years of hard work will lead to a job that you can enjoy both for its content and for its environment.
4. Get organized.
Your Asperger’s style may be neat and categorical, with “To-Do” lists, calendars, and neatly sorted school supplies. In that case, you’re probably set. On the other hand, your Asperger’s style may be to barely even notice your surroundings as you struggle to cope with the aspects of your life that seem so simple to neurotypical people – things like keeping track of when fees must be paid, when your car needs inspection, or why you need to wash your dishes when you still have a few clean ones left (or heck, maybe you can just re-use some of the less dirty ones).
The lifestyle changes that come with graduate school, especially if you are moving far from home or living alone or off-campus, are overwhelming. The paperwork piles up, the appointments and meetings increase in number until you can barely remember when you are supposed to present at that Structural Biology Working Group conference, and the details take over. But you don’t need to be dragged under – organization can make a complex life seem neat, clean, and most importantly, doable.
Buy yourself two calendars. Have a wall calendar on which you mark important dates for meetings, appointments, and other things you want to remember. That way, you will be able to glance up at it and remember that your committee meeting is in two weeks and you had better start preparing. Have an academic planning calendar, too, that you carry around to your classes. This is where you should write the details of assignments, topics to review, and anything that is important on a day-to-day basis. Some students may prefer a computer- or web-based calendar to replace one or both of these tools; these can work, too, but make sure that you are able to make notes in them when assignments are given or thoughts occur to you. A calendar is no good if you forget the dates and assignments before you can write them in.
Have a designated work area. Keep school supplies (paper, pens, highlighters, and so on) close by, and make sure you have access to all of your textbooks. You will want to have your computer and Internet access nearby, too, and a printer is helpful. Make sure that, whatever your studying style, your work area is optimized for it. Keep the rest of life elsewhere.
Keep documents organized. This is not just for school (where you will be filing research papers, assignments, exams, lecture notes, and a hundred other things), but for daily life (where you will be filing bills, receipts, housing documents, insurance information, and a hundred other things) as well.
Set aside some time at least once a week to make sure that your surroundings are clean, your papers are filed, and you have sufficient school supplies and groceries to make it through the next little while. It’s amazing how easy a little thing like needing to eat can be forgotten!
5. Don’t overestimate the social aspect of graduate school – but don’t underestimate it, either.
Chances are that in graduate school, your peers will be academically-oriented, and you will have (for the most part, at least) left behind the party-goers and time-wasters of your undergraduate experience. This may make for a much more comfortable social environment, as your fellow students will share at least some of your interests, and are likely to be a calmer and more mature group of people. Especially with the added freedom conferred by earning one’s own salary and making one’s own life decisions (for instance, you and many of your colleagues may live off-campus, or without roommates), this allows you to determine your own level of comfortable social interaction.
However, you may also find that you enjoy social events more with your graduate colleagues than previously. They share common interests and experiences, have the same goals as you, and you may even find that some of them think just like you! You may not be the only person in your graduate program who has arrived there by means of your Asperger’s special interest…
Whether or not it is easier or more pleasurable than in your undergraduate career, socialization serves a distinct purpose in graduate school. Your fellow students come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and will thus bring a wide variety of skill sets to your class. Where some of you may have a weakness, or insufficient background, others may be experts. Collaboration is helpful, and makes getting through required classes (which may not correspond exactly to your interests) easier! In addition, remember that all of these students will one day be authorities in your field. Making and keeping connections now, however difficult it may be, allows you to have those contacts for the duration of your career.
6. What about accommodations?
If you received academic accommodations as an undergraduate, these may or may not continue in graduate school. The larger the campus, especially if it houses undergraduates, the more likely you are to be able to establish whatever accommodations you need – be sure to make yourself familiar with your school’s disability services department. Not only will you want to ensure that you can receive the services you need, but it is important to establish that you can work comfortably with the personnel in charge of administering those accommodations. If you find it difficult to make your needs heard, you may be hesitant to initiate discussions when needed, and you may find yourself underserved.
Not all accommodations need to be formally established with disability services. You may find it easier to request accommodations only when necessary, and to do so in person with the professor from whom the services are needed. In order to avoid nasty surprises (such as discovering a week before the examination that the professor cannot help you without adequate documentation), mention to your professors at the start of the semester that you have Asperger’s Syndrome and have received accommodations in the past, so that you keep the possibility of further discussion open should it become necessary.
Some students who have never previously received accommodations may find that they become necessary during graduate studies, due to the increased difficulty of the coursework and the added responsibilities of being a mature student leading an “adult” lifestyle complete with paperwork, money, appointments, taxes, and a dozen other stressful items to process in a day. On the other hand, some students who have received accommodations as undergraduates may find that, due to the change from a “teacher-to-student” to a “colleague-to-colleague” environment in graduate school, formal accommodations are no longer necessary.
In short, make sure that – if you feel you may need accommodations at some point – you investigate those options and make yourself comfortable with the system before making a final decision on a school, program or research supervisor.
* * *
I hope that my recent experiences can be of some help to other students in a similar position. If there is anything I have omitted, or if there are unanswered questions about which I might have some small knowledge, please let me know. I will do my best to consider them and come up with some sort of thoughtful answer. Please bear in mind, however, that I speak only for the experiences I have had, and that your mileage may vary considerably. (That is, I am not trying to imply that I am any sort of expert, or even particularly experienced. I’m just trying to fill in a gap that I discovered when I could have used this type of information a semester or two ago and was singularly unable to find it.)
