80% of aspies fail out/unemployed after 4+years of college

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[quote="hannahcamille"]Hi Everyone,
I'm glad you're going to an Ahttp://www.wrongplanet.net/mods/bbcode ... /bold.gifS group, but it sounds like it may be really depressing to be there.



[b]I agree. I was just thinking the same thing while reading this. If the group is not helping you to MOVE FORWARD towards employment, don't waste time in it. You need to be around people who are doing WELL, who are WORKING and keeping a job! if you expect to get a job. Commiserating doesn't really get you anywhere. Change and awareness does. I was in a support group (non asp. related) for seven yrs! Every week was full of mostly the same people not thriving, still with the same problems, and a few that were successful. I chose to contact the successful ones.

To be more specific, the problems I had in college with professors: One professor ridiculed me in front of a laughing class because she said I was staring at the wall. I turned head to look at white wall due to the brightlights and sensory overload in class. Understanding instructions which are very long or poorly worded. Professors CHANGE DIRECTIONS MID STREAM ON ASSIGNMENTS. We don' t like this, because when we get a syllabus, we take it verbatim. We don't like wasted time wasted effort, wasted work. I would rush to get an assignment done on the designated date, only to have a prof. change it because 'the majority of the class' couldn't keep up and wanted a later date. This is very irritating.

I have heard this reasoning for TWENTY YEARS! I k id you not. And the economy was thriving in the 90's. There are always always ALWAYS jobs in the government (usajobs.gov) for college graduates. Having that degree makes the difference between $5.00 an hour and $50,000. I kid you not., I worked in the govt. and I know. They didn't care how many skills I had or how many years I had worked, I still started at lower GS pay rate because I did not have that degree. The degree opened all the doors to all the positions you could possibly want. in the government. or at least the ability to apply for those positions, with in the govt. You get automatic pay raises every year. The work is often routine, which can be good for some spectrum people. Our office employed many disabled people.. that is another benefit. Also be sure to take the time and long effort to apply to your city, county and local govt. Also worked for them, and was permitted to work alone in a room when I told them it was for my concentration.

So we have to try to succeed in college right?

I'm starting my first year of college this fall. I'm always afraid that I won't be able to handle it due to the social aspects. Academically, I do very well. I need a lot of support to transition to living on my own. With aspergers, it seems like climbing a mountain. I look like I'm still a freshman in high school, so I tend to be treated different by older folks. Thankfully, it gives me a little layway to make mistakes and test the waters.

Job wise, there are employment opportunities. I'm really good with programming languages. This year, I was offered two IT positions in my local area. I declined since I had to concentrate on my senior year though. Plus, I had no way of driving to my job; no car or license. I chose Computer Science since its something I enjoy, and it has good job prospects. I can get overwhelmed easily though. The job market is different than it was in the past.

I hope I'm the other twenty percent. I need to be productive to feel happy.

Believe in yourself, and when I go to college three years later I will have more confidence that I can survive!! !

Who cares about the 80% thingy anyway? Just do our best and never give up... and if we meet any problems, there's always WrongPlanet! Yeah!

Agree since I am quite capable of finding employment with my degree that I will be receiving in 2010.

What's more in Special Ed right?

Wonderful! You'll be our role model...

Actually I am a Social Science for Education degree but I am planning to do Graduate School in Special Education.

Social Science in Education!! !

Woohoo, hmm, great!

No pressures, but I think you will help everyone in WrongPlanet through your research... When can we read your thesis?

80% sounds like b.s. I have several part-time jobs, attend graduate school, live on my own. I know 2 other auties my age: both are employed and on track for graduation. Same with the bipolar folk I know. And I have reason to believe that some of my profs are aspie / autie. Most of you guys are psyching yourself out. I used to do that, until I just got out of my apartment and did actual things.

NTs are way more likely to "fail at life" than Aspies, IMO. No skills, full of beer and frat nonsense, more likely to smoke crack and get knocked up.

I worked part-time in college, all the way through. I attended 2 years at a college that didn't require freshmen to live on campus, and I think that saved me. living in the dorms would have driven me away the first year. then I traded up to a private college and was able to live off campus. I got zero help from parents, and it took me many years to pay my loans, but I got them paid. now I'm paying more off from my failed attempt to go to grad school a few years ago, right before my divorce.

I found the social experience at college to be much better than high school. it was easier to find my own kind, and there was more natural segregation between people with different interests so it was easier to avoid people who were really annoying. I never went to any parties, but I wasn't interested in parties, I was interested in classes.

What that blurb doesn't tell you is that Einstein was unemployable in academia after graduating because his head professor hated his guts - Einstein kept on skipping his classes for what he found more interesting like philosophy and hence refused to give him a job (common practice at the time) or a good recommendation. Einstein managed to graduate despite skipping classes because he had a good friend who kept meticulous notes.

Einstein eventually got his job in the patent office through I believe the same friend.

Also in reference to him going to college early, he was only able to do that because his family paid for him despite the fact that their financial situation wasn't too great and his father wanted him to do engineering not physics. In fact I think his family supported him quite substantially in his early years. One of the reasons why he took the patent office job was because his guilt over his father getting ill and his feeling he was a burden on the family so he was determined to get a job, any job even if it didn't involve his beloved physics.

I mean Einstein was a genius but he didn't do everything on his own. He had substantial support from his family and friends who helped him and supported him.

I went to college for four years. I'm not sure if I will be able to parlay my degree into something I want (or can be good at).

I won't be unemployed though. I'll just take the roughest jobs out there and no NT's are willing to do. If you have high standards and want a meaningful job and a great life outside of work, then you are probably f****d.

I have started on Job Seekers Allowance recently. Hopefully, I will find work within a few months.

My problem has never been dropping out of school. (I've never flunked a grade though technically there were a few years where I should've.) My biggest issue has always been the fact that I accomplished all the things that I've been pressured, bullied, and forced by society to do. I get through high school, get through college only to find that none of it did anything for me. Not one thing.

It's one thing to fail...it's another to suceed and find it makes no difference.

When I was in high school, we had these Hall Sweeps where people were being severly punished for being tardy. I felt that being in class on time would be my only accomplishment. In fact I freaked out and started lashing at my mom one time because she didn't get me to school on time one day. So yeah, I was too blind to realize that schools dont award that kind of s**t. They dont award you for suceeding...they only punish you for not suceeding. I find that kind of approach to be very horrible...especially when people like me have to endure much more in order to accomplish what seems easy to everyone else.

So it was very unpleasant for me to get this bachelor's degree and find that it has no value. Perhaps I was making mistakes left and right in college by not preparing for the job market or by hanging on to my silly expectations that my dream of being a tv/film producer would happen in stride.

I'm pretty convinced that America right now is being set up to get as many people under poverty level as possible. That's why it's so easy these days for so many fully trained, experienced, well educated, degree holders to be out of a job.