level of education and diagnosis poll

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What is your level of education?

Diagnosed with an ASD and some HS	6%	[ 7 ]
Not professionally diagnosed with an ASD + some HS	2%	[ 2 ]
Diagnosed with an ASD and HS graduate	11%	[ 14 ]
Not professionally diagnosed with an ASD + HS graduate	1%	[ 1 ]
Diagnosed with an ASD and some CC or university	13%	[ 16 ]
Not professionally diagnosed with an ASD + some CC or uni	8%	[ 10 ]
Diagnosed with an ASD and CC graduate	5%	[ 6 ]
Not professionally diagnosed with an ASD + CC graduate	2%	[ 3 ]
Diagnosed with an ASD and have a Bachelor's degree	14%	[ 17 ]
Not professionally diagnosed with an ASD + have a Bachelor's degree	17%	[ 21 ]
Diagnosed with an ASD and have a Master's or PHD	15%	[ 18 ]
Not professionally diagnosed and have a Master's or PHD	5%	[ 6 ]
Other	2%	[ 3 ]

Total votes : 124

auntblabby
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19 Feb 2012, 4:44 pm

dumb question here from an uneducated person, but would it be safe to say that of all of the posters in this thread who possess or are in the process of obtaining advanced degrees in esoteric subjects, would you all be MENSA-class geniuses with tested IQs [WAIS or similar] above 132? just curious :duh:

MrXxx
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19 Feb 2012, 5:15 pm

daydreamer84 wrote:

Congratulations on getting your degree last year.

Thanks, but I haven't actually gotten it yet. I've earned it, but many of the GED credits came from two different schools from the one I actually finished my courses in. I tried three times to have several courses from the other schools applied to my degree, but the idiots at the school kept loosing the paperwork. I'm in New England, and the school is in California. I took all their courses online. After two years of emails, and misplaced mail, and messages not being returned, it all ended up getting lost in the shuffle of other personal things I needed to concentrate on.

I suppose I should get on that at some point soon, but the more time passes and my life moves on, I don't know if it's even worth it. It's a Music Tech degree, and there's basically no good professional studios within a hundred miles of here. I'm able to put the knowledge and skills to work on what I intended anyway. The degree itself would only end up on my own home studio wall, where no one else would ever see it. I would only fight to finally get it for self satisfaction's sake.

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Jtuk
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19 Feb 2012, 5:28 pm

auntblabby wrote:

I have seen it quoted that the average iq of doctorate level students is 125, this is higher than 95% of the population, but this isnt insanely high. There is no reason why anyone with an iq above 90 couldn't complete a bachelors degree.

My Mensa test was 138 (this was the one by post not in a classroom). I couldn't be bothered to travel 2.5 hours for the sit down test, how this equates into a proper WAIS test I have no idea.

I probably do have a pretty high iq (most online tests put me at around 138-140), despite this i Got plenty of Fs in my GCSEs, I just scraped enough good grades in maths, science and IT to avoid re-sits and enroll on a BTEC national diploma in IT. I did very well on the btec, but I pretty much taught myself.

Despite a patchy academic record I enrolled on an online masters course at 29 and sailed through it, A in the dissertation that I still can't believe.. If ever the finances work out I could see myself enrolling on a Doctorate programme at 40.

Aspies can be very good at self-learning and becoming an expert on their interests. Exactly what you need for postgrad level education.

Jason

Sora
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20 Feb 2012, 10:11 am

daydreamer84 wrote:

MrXxx wrote:

You know there's a few really important pieces of information you're not asking here?

Level of education doesn't really reveal much without knowing (1) how old we are, (2) How old we were when we achieved our level of education, and (3) how old we were when diagnosed or first realized we are on the spectrum.

That is a lot to digest, but level of education alone really doesn't suggest a whole lot without the rest of the picture.

I was undiagnosed for 49 years. Graduated High School in 1978, but didn't earn my two year degree until the age of 48.

That tells a very different story from "30 years old, diagnosed at age 6, earned my graduate degree by age 26."

Or, "24, diagnosed at age 14, Bachelor's by age 23."

See what I mean?

Granted, the forum's poll function doesn't allow for enough options to do that, but the poll function isn't a very good tool anyway. Asking the questions in your post would work, plus you can edit it when people find missing options in it. You can't edit the poll function once it's posted.

You're right there are big differences between ppl who fall into the same categories I created....but I was hoping people would answer the poll and then elaborate on their situation underneath. I wanted a quantifiable measure....... even if it's not a great indication of anything....I wanted to compare the number of ppl with ASD's who have degrees vs. the number of ppl without ASD's who do.

Good point.

So, elaborating:

Out of my friends and acquaintances who're the same age as me, I'm the only one who doesn't have, well, even started attending university. They're all done for close to a year now and have their bachelor degrees that took them 4 years. Those who are still in university or collage (? not sure this is the equivalent) had to first finish military services (the guys) and/or changed their field of study mid-level and therefore had to start over.

That's to say, I'm an exception not to have degree by age 22/23 and not to have worked in a well paid-job related to the degree for at least a year at the age of 23/24. So far, I merely finished school and worked part-time with special needs students including autistic children and teens (and their special needs at school).

Makes people of a similar financial/social background to the people around me react with surprise and disdain and when they learn of my ASD they carefully attempt to tell me to consider forgetting about getting a degree at all and be satisfied with simpler profession that I'll learn to like at some point. Not going to happen.

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OJani
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20 Feb 2012, 11:16 am

auntblabby wrote:

What counts as 'esoteric'? I believe Jason is right, IQ is not everything, you have to be diligent, persistent, open-minded, fitting well into the educational system, have the finances, etc. A full-scale IQ (Wechsler) consists of indexes like verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, processing speed. Kids are usually considered gifted when they score above average / superior on the first two and average on the remaining two.

Interestingly, this is often the case with HFA kids (if they are a bit lucky):

http://www.springerlink.com/content/w889903642j72223/

MagicToenail
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20 Feb 2012, 1:07 pm

Atomsk wrote:

I'm receiving my Bachelor's in May, and after that I'm going to start working on my Master's. Then, everyone will have to call me "Master." :lol:

"Snicker" Are you by any chance a Doctor Who fan?

MagicToenail
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20 Feb 2012, 1:29 pm

auntblabby wrote:

Just took the one in High School and scored 155, which makes me just "a garden variety genius," not a super genius like many people on this forum.

Managed to get a Masters though. IQ is such a poor predictor of intelligence anyway. I'm horrible at math and spelling and go into hyper-spasms when confronted with anything mechanical.

Seashell
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20 Feb 2012, 2:21 pm

I'm professionally diagnosed and have a Masters degree. I was diagnosed aged 25 and didn't get my bachelors til I was 26 and my masters til I was 30, so quite a bit later than the average person.

auntblabby wrote:

I took an online IQ test and got 116. I don't think you need a particularly high IQ to do a masters. I'm hoping you don't for a Phd either.

outofphase
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20 Feb 2012, 3:07 pm

Did poorly at school due to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), although not diagnosed until about 6 years ago. Returned to education in my 30s initially doing evening classes before going full time. Got a first class degree, a masters degree and have my phd pending. All I need now is the confidence to resubmit it after some major rewriting. After I initially finished my phd I was diagnosed with CFS. Last year I was also diagnosed with Aspergers.

Catman
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20 Feb 2012, 4:54 pm

MagicToenail wrote:

Just took the one in High School and scored 155, which makes me just "a garden variety genius," not a super genius like many people on this forum.

Managed to get a Masters though. IQ is such a poor predictor of intelligence anyway. I'm horrible at math and spelling and go into hyper-spasms when confronted with anything mechanical.

I can empathize. It bothers me some that I'm a stupid genius. Which is why I don't really consider myself one.

MagicToenail
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20 Feb 2012, 4:56 pm

Seashell wrote:

I'm professionally diagnosed and have a Masters degree. I was diagnosed aged 25 and didn't get my bachelors til I was 26 and my masters til I was 30, so quite a bit later than the average person.

auntblabby wrote:

I took an online IQ test and got 116. I don't think you need a particularly high IQ to do a masters. I'm hoping you don't for a Phd either.

116 on an online test isn't bad. Online tests are less reliable because they have fewer questions. Your IQ in a professionally administered test would probably be higher. And again, I repeat IQ tests arn't a great predictor of intelligence.

Eloa
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20 Feb 2012, 7:36 pm

DXed age 36 with ASD and some HS.

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auntblabby
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20 Feb 2012, 10:14 pm

Jtuk wrote:

ok, do you mean somebody with AS with an iq90? in any case, if an iq90 could do it, than just what is it that the successful aspies [in this respect] have that the unsuccessful aspies lack? i was totally lost in school, and nobody seemed to be able to show me the way. the guidance counselors were worthless to me. in turn, my failure in the academic realm is the #1 thing that made me feel like a worthless defective, and which failure carried over into lack of professional success. what i wish this thread really was about, is whether or not the aspies who scored high on iq tests were globally successful in their lives. army shrink lewis terman tested/interviewed gifted people over decades [described in his book "The Gifted"], and found that iq test results early in life, were directly correlated with the quality of the test subjects' lives in subsequent decades, with those that scored highly earning more money, better overall physical health, and having more social/professional status, and having more fulfilling lives in general, compared with low scorers. maybe there needs to be a test that more specifically measures psychosocial/cognitive addlement, which in my mind would be a more reliable predictor of life success.

Jtuk wrote:

My Mensa test was 138 (this was the one by post not in a classroom). I couldn't be bothered to travel 2.5 hours for the sit down test, how this equates into a proper WAIS test I have no idea.

IMHO, the mensa test was considerably tougher than WAIS.

Jtuk wrote:

Aspies can be very good at self-learning and becoming an expert on their interests. Exactly what you need for postgrad level education.

i guess that would be describing aspies with no cognitive addlements.

auntblabby
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20 Feb 2012, 10:16 pm

MagicToenail wrote:

IQ tests arn't a great predictor of intelligence.

but they are a useful MEASURE of intelligence at the time of testing. what i want to know, is if they also are a good PREDICTOR of life success?

daydreamer84
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21 Feb 2012, 1:53 am

MrXxx wrote:

daydreamer84 wrote:

Congratulations on getting your degree last year.

Wow........major failure on the part of your college's administration. My school is known for the same....hopefully I won't have any trouble getting my degree.

daydreamer84
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21 Feb 2012, 2:08 am

Sora wrote:

Out of my friends and acquaintances who're the same age as me, I'm the only one who doesn't have, well, even started attending university. They're all done for close to a year now and have their bachelor degrees that took them 4 years. Those who are still in university or collage (? not sure this is the equivalent) had to first finish military services (the guys) and/or changed their field of study mid-level and therefore had to start over.

I'm the last of all my friends to graduate from uni. with a .B.A.......at 27. My mom has an .M.A. and my dad has a PHD. Most of the adults in my family have advanced degrees. In short.............I understand what it's like to be behind..............

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