which was easier for you socially: high school or college?

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I voted neither. Every year of school has been horrible, including college. I didn't fit in anywhere, still don't. I somehow survived three years of nursing school with the same cohort of students all three years, but of course none of them are or every were my friends. And now I'm in a distance Master's program, and am seriously considering dropping out of the program because it's such a socially complicated process. I can handle the academics no problem, but the politics and egos are stressing me out so much I can't learn. I've got the disability office on my side, fortunately. I plan to become the poster child of AS for my school, so they can learn what NOT to do regarding distance learning.

Good luck. Figure out what you want to do, and then if you really want to do it, you'll be more likely to put up with it and not give up.

Secondary school pretty much carries you along the way so I found that easier, though my first year of it was rubbish.

My undergrad was very isolating and not conducive to making friendships. My postgrad uni has been a little better so far.

Elementary school was generally miserable. Kids are cruel little monsters.

In High School, I went to a school with 2000 students, so I actually ran into people who shared my narrow interests. I came out of my shell a little and actually had friends who wanted to make 8mm SciFi movies and play D+D. Woo!

After my first year we moved to a small town where it was elementary school all over again.

When college came around I was a bit better equipped socially. I found a group of freaks and hung around them.

Had no friends whatsoever in either. I lived in the same small town for high school and college with the same people, so I didn't get to really experience the diversity aspect people attribute to college. I'm looking to graduate next year, hopefully finishing the 8 worst years of my life.

I think that although I had a couple of friends on and off at high school and have none at university (I doubt I will get any now either, most of the friendships seem to have stemmed from the first couple of weeks and are based around people who live in the same dorms and I live off campus in private dwellings), University has been easier I don't feel as anxious about the situation as I once did. Now, I feel more pragmatic, although I sometimes get upset and wish I had some friends I just try and be rational and hope that I eventually meet some people that I can hang around with for a while.

My second year of college has been rather depressing because of having less social contact than the previous year, having few classes I enjoy, and getting low grades (mostly B's and a few C's). In high school, although there were bullying and bad teachers, I felt happier than I do now. Also, the assignments were straightforward and the schedule for classes was rigid. I liked high school, and so far I'd have to say was better than college to this point. Hopefully, this is something that can change, so that college is for the most part as enjoyable or more enjoyable than high school. I'm almost willing to change my major and making some other changes in my life to achieve this. I've already begun to contact some friends from high school (the geek crowd) and want to get included in some of their stuff. Next semester, I will be living at home instead of the dorms while I attend college, so I will have regular social interaction (if forced) with my family and will be in closer proximity to this geek crowd (group of about four or five people) from high school.

After reading through this thread, I have a feeling college is gonna piss me off a lot more than I thought.

So far for me college has been worse than high school.

My friendships in high school were very superficial, but fun all the same. If I didn't expect anything then I had a good time. I tried to keep in touch with a few people and failed. I was always on a thin line between being in with the popular group and being out so I never really relaxed. College was where I started to act myself and I found my boyfriend. But again I didn't make any lasting friendships. University was quite scary because I had to speak to all these new people. I had a different friend for each of the three years and i keep in contact with one of them. Now I'm a postgrad and it's been even harder trying to fit in.

i think overall, nowhere is ever going to be easy for me to find friends and fit in. I've never met another person with AS and I've never met anyone (apart from my boyfriend) who can really and truly accept and understand the way I am.

I think what you have to do i have relatively low expectations. If you don't go in imagining that you'll find this great group of like minded people then you won't be disappointed. Instead, just try to enjoy the good aspects of people and try not to be disappointed when friendships abruptly end (seems to happen all the time to me).

I'm not sure which to pick. Technically neither, as I basically had no real-life friends in high school OR college. I knew the same people and was fine in nursery school through sixth grade (it got harder in later years, but not 100% overwhelming). Then we moved, and the next three years I sort of fell into at least a few friendships (although stuff at home was getting bad, my dad left, etc.). Then we moved again, and for my last three years of high school I really had no friends, and just couldn't take it.

One year I basically never showed up-just could not handle it. Would have been kicked out if not for an (I think) Equip for Equality lawyer who forced the school to help me catch up, and I was thankfully able to graduate. (Also fun through high school is I had to skip lunches, which I wasn't REALLY allowed to do, so I'd be hiding out in areas of the school for the whole 50 minutes, hoping no one would catch me. I had to do that both because I couldn't deal with not having anyone to sit with, and also I hate being in large groups of people, and hate the smells of people eating.)
(I've never admitted all that stuff to anyone, and here I am babbling all of it!)

Anyway I didn't make any friends in college, and in fact never graduated, because I can't handle a few of the classes like speech, but at least it wasn't as horrible of a situation. People left me alone, didn't make fun of anyone, that sort of thing. Actually...I guess I sort of did have a few friends in college for a while, but I wasn't really sure if they couldn't as real friends or not, and wasn't sure how to continue all that.

I'd really like some real-life friends, although to be honest I really like having time to just recharge by myself after work every day.

(Standard disclaimer-I don't actually know if I have AS, or am just an NT who's a complete freak )

The voting is closed? That was fast.

Both are/were tough.

On a 1 to 10 scale with 10 being the worst:

High School = 9

Undergrad = 5

Graduate = 8

To me it’s like saying which of my arms I would prefer to have hacked off if given a choice. "Easy" doesn't compute.

University, by far. In high school I was bullied and teased almost constantly, by people who thought it was hilarious to mock me for a slight physical abnormality - especially since my common reaction was to scream at them to leave me alone - but in university I at least had a far more tolerant group of people around me.

In both instances, though, I only made a few really good friends - none of whom I'm still in contact with, sadly. But I certainly remember university far more fondly than I remember the hell that was high school...