Any thoughts on a good uni for autistic girl, studying neuroscience please?

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I wondered if anyone had any insight / experience on this. She’s year 11, so a way off, but we’d like to start thinking about this soon because planning is really important for her.
Currently in a mainstream school, achieving very well, but with a toll on her mental health and social life, largely because of the busyness and sensory environment of a very large school.
She struggles in big cities and crowded places.

Does anyone have any pointers please? One idea is Exeter. Thank you.

If you go to open days they have Disability support staff there. I’d look very closely at accommodation, she should be able to stay in halls all 3 years, options like quiet halls. Look at size of intake. Is home living and commuting an option?

Thank you all, this is really very helpful.

At the moment she is keen to stay on campus, rather than commuting, and in any case our nearest uni has a poor /catastrophic reputation for supporting autistic students.

I do want her to aim high academically as she is super capable, but I’m also very aware of the elevated mental health risks so need to absolutely take that into account.

We ruled out a local uni our DD could have travelled to due to her vulnerability alone on public transport.
She attracted lots of unwanted male attention. I’d get messages saying he’s still staring at me/ talking to me etc. I’d be saying have you got your headphones on are you reading etc. Sometimes had to say move carriage.
Older people and those with dogs were her go to for a chat!
When we visited Lancaster we got the warm fuzzy feeling. That was it.
Bit of a balancing act.

I was still getting unwanted attention on trains in my 30s. It's not something that just goes away with age.

I know an autistic young woman who is doing brilliantly studying neuroscience at Exeter. Apparently the university has been fantastically supportive.

It must be difficult to find a good uni (campus and wider context), a good course and good support - my daughter was in a similar situation and chose Lancaster. The support she received there was very poor. So poor she withdrew after year 2 this summer.

I think a lot of unis, especially those looking at cutting costs, are reducing their support infrastructure. But no one is really talking about it

If we were doing this again I would do a lot more research in to actual support experiences of students and ask a lot more questions at the Open Days / Applicant Days

We’ve been visiting Uni’s for DD who is wanting to do Neuroscience next year. So far we’ve been to Exeter, Nottingham and Keele, Warwick is next on the list.
She loved Exeter. Found the campus a great size and everyone was so friendly. Nottingham was ok but certainly not a favourite and Keele was also great as the campus felt a lot ‘calmer’.
She has high hopes for Warwick, so providing she likes it as much as she thinks she will, I think it’ll be between Exeter and Warwick for her.

Agree .My son went to Lancaster and it’s only in recent years that we all now realise that he has ADHD …so many red flags as a child ,teenager but there was less awareness .
He thrived at Lancaster and the college system was perfect.
Beautiful campus,scenery ,social clubs,nightclub in town but not wild nightlife!
Also a brilliant university academically.
Definitely highly recommend.

Keele is great for ND students and is all on campus and safe. I have known a few ex students who have thrived their and their medical/science departments are excellent

I think Warwick or Nottingham or York campus style uni is really good and can be navigated easily - no idea how good they are for the subject tho

Nottingham does have quite a "party" rep and DD tells me it is pretty well deserved. I aam sure there are DC there who are much quieter too but I know some struggle especially in Halls if its rowdy

My DS is doing Neuroscience at Bristol. He’s not officially diagnosed autistic but he is def ND, gets DSA and was having uni-based student support in the first year. His MH is shite. He said there are a lot of ND students on his course - sort of makes sense as they want to study the brain/nervous system.
Anyway, he’s done well, loves the course and has made good friends despite his troubles.
He’s got a supportive personal tutor and DSA mentor (online).
Bristol was originally not ‘good’ for poor MH or ND but we haven’t found that at all.

To add - he (and we) really liked Sussex as well. It was his insurance offer. It had a lovely feel to it and a campus uni.
Nottingham - not keen on it - found the dept uninspiring
Birmingham - more psychology-based course so DS not keen, but I hear good student support

They were the main ones we looked at for neuro.