Diagnosis at a university a good idea?

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I recently found out I might be able to be evaluated at a local university. I will ask the questions about if they are trained in adults on the spectrum, but do you guys recommend it? Its a sliding scale from about 400$-800$. But if I'm a Guinea pig for students who only see autism as rain man, I'm not sure if I trust it.
Thoughts?

Do they pay you or do you pay them?
If it's the former, I'd go for it myself as long as I had the time. Can't do much harm as far as I can see.
If it's the latter, I don't know.

I'd be paying them and if it were a paid study, I'd do it for sure. I just don't want to waste money on unprepared evaluators...they have nothing to lose.

I feared as much. I was hoping it may be an inducement for a research study, but that kind of money would have been strangely generous of them.

I doubt the researchers would think of you as Rain Man. Rain Man is the 1988 notion of autism---which most people involved in autism research know is definitely not true today.

If I were you, I would try to find a research study in autism which has you as a subject for free (or they pay you).

$400-$800 is about 1/4 of the cost of a professionally-done autism diagnostic procedure.

I'd go along with it.

The interns must have to be supervised by a qualified evaluator (psychiatrist?). Just ask questions if you have concerns about the evaluation process. Sounds good to me.

True!

Wow, $1600-$3200. Mine was about £250 I think, in the UK in 2009. Was that cheap at the time?

I'm moving to UK! Ha

It was also possible to get a diagnosis free of charge from the NHS, though I wouldn't fancy my chances of getting that in 2022 now that the NHS is so stretched post-COVID. Even in 2009 there were stories of people being refused a referral, though they didn't do that to me. I pursued a NHS diagnosis first, but as I expected a long waiting list and there was something said about the referral being "subject to funding," I looked into getting a private diagnosis. At the time there was increasing pressure from my job to do Aspie-unfriendly things so I was in a hurry to prove to them that I had ASD. As it turned out, the NHS appointment came through a few days after I'd been diagnosed privately, and then they cancelled the appointment as soon as I handed in my diagnosis in to my GP.

I'll look that up. Is so neat reading you guys' experiences!