College!

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Hi everybody!
I'm Simbah, and I'm HFA. I would like to hear your personal stories about leaving high school and entering college. I'm genuinely interested in what other autistic people have to say about the change and I would like some advice if it wouldn't be too much trouble.

I like your cat avatar aka catatar.

My #1 advice for new college student is to take charge of your own education.
I found that I needed to look after my own academic progress like seeking help from TAs if I don't understand some class topics or ask for due date extension if I really needed it.
Also I needed to look for additional opportunities myself, like joining a lab to do a research project long-term.
And I needed to communicate a lot for myself, like emailing people and asking administrative/housing/financial things or asking to do research in a professor's lab.
I found that it was up to me not anyone else to make the most of college for me.

Not pleasant for me at all. A whole new atmosphere in which I had to make new friends, also I was paired up with a complete NT jock type douchebag as a dorm roommate. The classes were a breeze, the social aspects of it were hell. Just thinking of it makes me want to go to therapy.

Oh jeeze, the dorm thing sounds terrible.
I'm at least lucky I'm not using on campus residences... I hate room mates. I'd probably end up in some sort of argument about something stupid.

You have noooo idea. Like all autistics I have a pretty set routine, including going to bed at precisely 11 o'clock every night. Douche roommate decided to keep watching TV loudly until like 2 in the morning and completely messed up my sleeping pattern. I complained to the RA and I got in trouble because him and my roommate were friends, it sucked bad. At my college all freshman had to be in the dorms, no off campus living unless you were from the town the college was in, so I was forced into it. I left that college after one semester, my sleep deprivation made me a zombie.

Good for you...living in a dorm was awful for me. I felt like I had no privacy.

I'd say, try to plan ahead as much as you can for how your routine is going to go...think about things like when/where you are going to eat, where you are going to park if you drive, or what bus routes you need to take. Find out places where you can have some downtime between classes if you need to. The biggest difference between high school and college is, at high school your routine is all laid out for you. At college you are own your own more and you have more choices.

I don't know what to expect. I might be a social wreck and wing a few required classes to minimally pass them, but it means escaping the misunderstand hole of my parents. I also worry about other friends and siblings and being able to see them.

For me, it was pretty much just like high school, except much less unpleasent. I went to a small private college and lived with my parents. Fewer classes at a time, fewer days per week, fewer hours per week, less homework, smaller school, usually fewer classmates, a more consistant group of classmates, classmates who actually wanted to be there, almost no useless crap classes, classes that were useless were easy, most classes in general were easier than high school, etc.

Too bad about how I'm stupidly in debt and have no job skills.

I went to a commuter school vs. one with a big campus. For the most part, people were there to work hard and learn. It was an intense program of 130.5 credits in two years, so there wasn't time for much of a social life for anyone - so not being all that social didn't matter one iota. I tend to get along with older people better than my same age peers, so going to school with a bunch of grown adults was a pretty positive experience. It WAS very very stressful, though, especially in the first half of year two.. very very challenging - but - nothing worth doing is easy & I have no regrets about pushing myself to complete it.

I went to one for a week and a half, in halls (equivalent of dorms here) though most rooms of singles. I had a single with ensuite but still hated it, it felt like you were living in a bunkhouse/hostel type thing. I left and came home and go to one about 15 minutes away. It's much better as I can drive there. It is much more structured too, the one I went to first had like 3-4 one hour classes a week, now there are 2 and a half days over the week and it's so much better. I think the first was just too different, I didn't mind being on my own but I hated that I had to go somewhere to do laundry, that I couldn't just nip to the shops, that everyone pretty much just went out every night and that there was no comfy telly room, if you weren't in your room there was always someone there.