What is The Most Practical Major for an Autistic?

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Here is how it is barbaric today.

a. Parents today try to mainstream their HFA children.

b. HFA symptoms sometimes is treated as a discipline issue instead of a disability sometimes by both parents and the school systems.

c. We also have ABA which seeks to make those with ASDs indistinguishable from their peers. In other words forcing conformity upon those to which they can't conform.

d. Expected to go to college and then muddle through the whole workplace and conforming to its social standards whether they can do it or not while at the same time being told to be themselves. Be yourself is not what you think it is.

e. Forced to endure all kinds of orwellian doublespeak. Be yourself really means to be your best self. This best self is defined by differing social situations. It is others who define whether consciously or unconsciously what these social standards and the correct responses are. In other words, we don't get to define who we are as the self. It is others who define it for us.

f. If we do something wrong socially we're punished and our autism (especially HFA) is no get out of jail free card like it is for other disabilities like mental retardation.

In other words, we gave up one barbaric practice for another.

g. Some on the spectrum are homeless. At least if one was sent away or kept in the attic one was given three hots and a cot, well hopefully.

h. Being made fun of and bullied in school.

i. Depression all the time.

j. Expectations we can't fulfill yet we're expected to cause we're grown men or women.

Fnord, you're a rare breed. You were and are higher functioning enough to make it through the military including basic training and all the drills and marches you had to do. You were able to succeed with employers and rise through their ranks to management.

So, what did deinstitutionalization accomplish?

k. Now, instead of institutionalizing the mentally ill now we as a society have decided to put them in prison. Isn't that what our society did before institutions? How has it worked out for those who were severely mentally ill?

l. And, now these people are expected to care for themselves and pay for their own drugs out of their own pocket. And, some can't and why is that? That's due to their mental illness. You're saying that sending them away or keeping them up in the attic was barbaric. Well it seems like the way we handle our mentally ill is more barbaric.

Fnord, you and Dan are full of s**t!

Zoology, pre-veterinary

Like anyone else, there is no "one size fits all" when it comes to majors for people on the Autism Spectrum. Some people are more into the sciences and technologically oriented fields. Others are more into the liberal arts. I once was a Physics major. But, I changed to English because the Math requirement became too intense for me.

I'm currently earning my core credits in the community college. When I transfer to Purdue, I want to major in Ecological Engineering. I want a well-rounded program oriented toward saving the planet, so that's why I chose this one. I also find small groups or one on one are better for me than large groups. Large groups just exhaust me.

It's definitely wise of you to know what kind of work environment you desire. I find that a lot of jobs these days require needing to work in a 'team-oriented' environment..even in my field of IT/cybersecurity. However, Programming and Accounting/Finance might be your best bet. Both seem rather marketable, entails 'independent work', and frequently being in front of a computer.

I'm only speaking from personal experience- but, I've seen several people of Library Science backgrounds typically needing to go back to school for a Masters in order to be marketable. People also tend to praise Computer Science. But, I wouldn't vouch for it if you are in a sh***y dead-end rural location like myself (US Deep South to be exact). If you're American, kids in the East Coast, West Coast, or large metro areas tend to have better luck getting a job with such a degree. Location certainly does matter for certain lines of work.

If I could go back, I would have majored in Electrical Engineering- a broad field and typically accepted for various types of tech jobs. My original objective was Aerospace Engineering- but that got called off since my crappy state didn't have any schools with that major.