Can someone please advise regarding autism in personal statement

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Should my DD say she is autistic in her personal statement.
It could be seen as a positive as she is going to do computer science.
Or better to leave it out?
Any ideas gratefully received

My son mentioned is as it is ‘him’ so no need to hide it.
look in DSA if you haven’t already… it has been very useful… he was given a range of support- some of it he has needed and some he hasn’t but it’s there as a fall back.

I'd mention it but if she thinks it's a positive she needs to spell out why

As an autistic woman I would leave it out, I've learned the hard way to keep my diagnosis hidden from most people.

You don't get a lot of space in a PS so the most important thing is spelling out her interest in the course and evidence for that interest, and any skills that link to it.
If it is relevant to that, then fine.

My phd research is insider research as an autistic person and I'm not even sure I mentioned being autistic in my proposal.
It can be hard in academic contexts to share information about yourself appropriately unless there is scope for a positionality statement.

I’d say no, the personal statement should be about they want to do the course and their interest in it. There’s a section on UCAS to declare disability and also a section in the reference for the school to mention anything relevant relating to mitigating circumstances. If your dc feel’s strongly being autistic is the reason they want to do/ would excel at the course, they can mention it but it’s not something I’d focus on in a personal statement.

Computer Science is a very competitive course, so genuine interest and experiences related to the course would be more relevant.

Oh If there's a space to declare disability I'd just put it there

It should also get a mention in the 'special consideration ' section of the teacher reference. Your daughter should say that she's making great steps learning how to manage her autism whilst keeping abreast of her studies or words to that effect. Always frame it with a positive spin.

My daughter will be mentioning it as her and her sister’s diagnoses (and related challenges) had a huge impact on her life, academic interests, and career plans.

ds2 did briefly mainly to explain why he had far fewer GCSE's than most but as poster above stated put a positive spin on it ... e.g. determination to overcome past problems etc etc. ds1 chose not to because he wanted to be looked at with no preconceived thoughts. Both got offered places. I think a lot depends on how comfortable she is talking about her asc and how it affects her - neither of mine are.

It depends. My son didn’t mention it explicitly but did talk about his “special interest in railways” as it was relevant to a super curricular activity. He had run social skills sessions and mentored younger students at his school so if that has been relevant to his degree choice it would probably have been more implicitly included.

Definitely declare it in the disability section.

I work in Admissions and read personal statements.

In my University at least there would be no benefit mentioning this in a personal statement. Being autistic would not make your dc stand out from the thousands of other applicants applying for computer science. The strongest personal statements focus purely on the course & the interest in it. The reason the want to study it. Wasting space focusing on part time jobs, personal issues and so on means less space convincing the university why you are a better applicant than all the other applicants applying for the course. It would be less important for less competitive courses.
That said our main interest would be in achieved grades at GCSE and predicted grades at A Level, for a course like Computer Science, if these weren’t high enough, the personal statement wouldn’t matter.

Obviously, this may not be the case at all Universities. It would depend where you are applying too.

So helpful. Thank you very much. We will leave it off and mention in the disability section

Former STEM admissions tutor largely agreeing with @MeAgain9327

It is fabulous that your DD is comfortable being open about her autism, and true that on a CS course she will have a decent share of peers with autism. It will be important for her to get the support she is entitled to, to help level the playing field. Starting a written record now by citing this as a Disability is a very good idea.

The admissions tutors don’t care one way or the other. MeAgain is correct that DD should spend every word if the PS making the best case she can for herself. I mostly agree with her priorities. CS is now very competitive!

My only difference with MeAgain is that I do see a brief discussion of employment or other responsibilities including managing time consuming health issues as evidence that an applicant can manage their time, which is important in STEM. This can also speak to motivation.

Best wishes to your DD

Mentioning it in the disability section will also flag it to the disability service of whichever uni she eventually goes to and will mean she is in the system to get support early on. This saves time and energy in the long run, so worth doing.