Autistic overwhelm and applying to uni

[TinyBuddhettes]

I am autistic and so is my ds. He wants to do engineering at uni and is likely to get As and A* but doesn't want to apply to Oxford or Cambridge. Could someone please tell me step by step what we're supposed to be doing as we're both overwhelmed by the amount of universities and everything? Thanks

get an app with the school
contact first thing tomorrow
he is a very high achieving student
they will be bending over backwards to help and guide

He'll obviously want to do a certain type of engineering. Find a list of universities that do that course. You are looking for reviews of the course, not the university.

I believe Swansea university is renowned for its engineering degrees for example. Pick about five universities he's interested in. Take on board reputation of the course and how good their access to careers are for example, are they associated with firms?

Look at cost of living, how much is rent etc Then make a decision from there.

Agree completely about making contact with your DS's school.

In the meantime have a look at the league tables for universities - the Times have published one this week, the Guardian published one a couple of weeks ago and see which universities meet your requirements.

My DD is autistic and has ADHD so she has selected 5 universities which are all within 2 hours travelling time from home and with easy transport links, where she will meet the grades and which offer interesting courses in her preferred subject.

Your DS might have different requirements but you can start looking at lists of universities and then looking up the individual courses and seeing which he thinks he would enjoy.

Have a think about how far away from home he is happy to be too. I think it's helpful if it's an easy travelling distance for autistic students in case they need more support and to go home more often.

How old is he? Is he just starting year 12 or 13?

Look at the league tables for his course and pick the universities you like based on that

The way I would do it is:

• brainstorm what he wants from his course
• research types of engineering course, and see what type of course would best fulfil his wishes.
• research which unis do this type of course
• look at reviews those courses and decide what ones look most appealing to him.
• Shortlist those universities
• Brainstorm other stuff that might be important to him (e.g. distance from home; halls of residence; catering; good support for disabled students)
• Go back to your shortlist and check the other factors at the unis he has shortlisted and refine your list based on those factors.
• Once you are down to maybe 10 max that meet all your criteria, start talking to the unis in more detail, maybe visit some, talk to the disabled students' advisors and get a feel for which of this is best.

Is he in year 13 - if so he has about three months to sort this. If year 12 then longer obvs. There months is fine tho.

Agree with others - think about what kind of engineering. Read up on the courses offered at a uni (doesn't really matter which as long as they do a range) - chemical, mechanical, aerospace - they need different A levels and offer a different curriculum. Which appeals?

Then yes, consider league tables but also consider how far from home he is happy being and what sort of uni - small town, big city, campus? Some unis are especially known for a supportive environment so that may be a consideration (I am thinking, anecdotally, of Lancaster, Leicester, Aberystwyth, Bangor - not saying any of these are good or not good for engineering btw! - and there are many others).

Then you may have a shortlist or a long list - have a look at the courses they offer, what appeals, what will he get the grades for. Are there any open days this Sept/Oct he can go to?

Once he has made some choices - ideally one or two aspirational (so asking for A stars and As), two at the right level (AAA) and one back-up (maybe AAB for him or similar) then he needs to fill in the UCAS for - school will help here. Also has he done a personal statement?

Start by looking at some of the headline non Oxbridge ones eg Inperial, UCL, Warwick, perhaps Sheffield, Bath. Browse their sites, look at their course structures and how they approach the subject Then think - does he know what sort of engineering (civil, mechanical, electrical etc etc) or does he want to go somewhere that does a more general course and then specialise later? That will narrow things down.

Then does he have strong feelings about distance from home, city va campus or small town. London yes or no. (And I know decisions are hard for autists - one of my children is one). But some of this is can be gut feel (and it is also ok not really to care about type of location). Some unis still have some open days to happen this term - if a uni he might consider has one on this can help but also might feel overwhelming - have a think. you don’t need to go to one at every place applied to but going to a subject presentation and lab tour at one can focus the mind generally.

Don’t panic - he has until January to get his form in, although I would recommend getting it out of the way this term to reduce time-sinking.

Talk to school - they should have uni application support. You say he is likely to get A stars and A - what have they actually given him as ucas predictions and in which subjects?
Meanwhile, once he knows which sort of engineering he wants (or alongside that) he should be writing his personal statement, explaining why he wants to study engineering and be an engineer and what he has done/ read etc to support that interest. School will have given him info on setting up his ucas account and thus access to the online form.

does that help at all?

The process for oxbridge with exams, interviews etc can seem overwhelming for many academic students with a lot on their plate already. My DC were happy that interviews are unlikely to be needed for UCL, and IIRC Imperial (not entirely sure on the latter, but they seemed to just give out low offer rates idiosyncratically, so don't rely on good predicted grades)

In addition, go to Open Days and speak to the Disability team. Do they offer any additional transition support, 1:1 visits etc. Do they guarantee a room in halls for first year or all years of study? Research DSA and apply for this with student finance as soon as it opens (roughly March before he starts in the September).

In similar boat here. It is overwhelming but you can narrow down your choices to make it more manageable.
My DD has set a limit of 3 hours travel by train. Ruled out London and Scotland.
Doesn't want a big city university unless it's on an out of town campus.
Not too close to home.
This plus her course preferences has given her about half a dozen options.
We're currently visiting them and it's becoming very clear what the preferred ones are going to be.
There's still plenty of time to research and choose

Loughborough is an excellent Uni for engineering (top 10) and they have a special offer holder day for students with autism to get them familiar with the campus and how their student life will go prior to physically moving there for first year. The students often make friends during this offer holder day and then the Uni housing tries to get them to be kitchen mates/rooms on same hall of residence. This means they aren’t going to Uni not knowing anyone. The engineering degree course instructors are all trained on autism inclusion- ie it’s ok to bring fidget toys and stuffed toys to class. As a result, a high % of students studying engineering at Loughborough have autism. I highly recommend he consider Loughborough.

https://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/student-services/topics/autistic-spectrum-conditions/

Oh my god the kindness here. Thank you so so much. I'm going to spend some time going through everything that's been suggested. I'm very grateful.

The great thing is that he knows what he wants to study, broadly. My autist lost most of the lower 6th form spring term being utterly unable to chose between 2 humanities. I know it can be very wearing to manage/witness/help.

Definitely look at the accommodation available in quite a lot of detail.

For instance some unis like Manchester offer "lifestyle moderated" halls where students who don't want a lot of noise and parties can gather together.

Most unis will also offer studio flats which would give him a guaranteed retreat space - although these will always be the most expensive option.

Lots of great advice and the school should definitely be supporting him and you.

I would carefully consider location so he can get home easily and quickly if necessary. Also maybe a quieter campus style uni would be better than a big city?

Uni websites should have sections on support for students with additional needs explaining what help they can offer. My colleague's son with ASD has just gone to uni and he has a mentor who will be in touch daily to start with amongst other things.

Echo what a previous poster has said about Loughborough. Very highly ranked for engineering.

Loughborough immediately sprang to my mind too. I work with many grads from there who are on the spectrum and all done very well.

Make a spreadsheet. Start with a Times or Guardian league table and work your way through the top 20. Choose different column heads, like rank of university, rank of course, and then other aspects important to you, e.g. graduate employment prospects, distance from home, cost of accommodation, duration of living in, quality of accommodation, links to industry etc. You should find infos on websides. Give points for each category and make a priority weighting (as in which categorues natter more). Then look at the bottom line and which 5 unis score highest. Then go to open day for these to get a gut feel.

@TinyBuddhettes A few unis mentioned will be quite high pressure - eg Imperial. I think a lot of the advice is good but some suggestions are a bit odd, eg Swansea. I think choice comes down to what type of engineering he wants and how far from home and campus or not. The best league table for Engineering is the Complete Unibersity Guide. Do not look at the Guardian. Good city unis for engineering are Bristol, Bath, Sheffield, Manchester and Southampton. Surrey and Loughborough and Warwick are campus and great.

Look at the various professional institutions for info on what they do. Eg www.ice.org.uk
to give info on civil engineering. This is the best way to investigate what engineers do. If he’s doing maths and physics he has nearly all options except chemical engineer - chemistry needed. Further maths helps with all of them. Being interested in engineering helps too so he must develop an interest or he may not find it interesting and it’s long hours!

I agree that the first thing I'd look at is how far he wants to be away from home.

Then see if he wants a course that just focuses on a type of engineering or wants a course that had a broad first year, specialising after.

How far should be assessed on how easy to get home. A 3hr train ride is a lot easier than navigating busses to cover a mere 1hr drive when a Uni student with no car.