Will asperger condition affect University admission?

[millan]

I am abit concerned cos he has aimed on which faculty he wants to go but I am afraid he is being rejected even if he do well in his academic.

[mathtuition88]

I don’t think it will affect, as long as his grades meet the requirement. I do see some "special needs" students in NUS, probably with ADHD, and they can get extra time for examinations.


Also, by right, there are anti-discriminatory policies that forbid discrimination against people with disabilities, mental or physical.

[sharonkhoo]

Besides extra time, would NUS be prepared to adjust the assignments, eg. less group work, for someone with Asperger’s (who are weaker in social skills)? What about other universities and the polys? Any idea?

[mathtuition88]

slmkhoo:

Besides extra time, would NUS be prepared to adjust the assignments, eg. less group work, for someone with Asperger's (who are weaker in social skills)? What about other universities and the polys? Any idea?

From my experience in NUS, I have only seen special arrangement for extra time. I suppose the only way to find out is to ask the departments.

There are certain majors that have much less group work as compared to say, Business / Arts and Social Sciences. Personally I studied mathematics, and I can say that there is no need for group work in over 90% of the modules. I took some Physics modules as well, only the laboratory modules have group work in the form of \"pair-work\" where two people cooperate to conduct a single experiment.

Hence, if one chooses a major with little group work, it is very possible that throughout the entire duration at NUS, one can totally avoid or minimise group work.

What faculty is your son interested in?

[sharonkhoo]

mathtuition88:

slmkhoo:

Besides extra time, would NUS be prepared to adjust the assignments, eg. less group work, for someone with Asperger's (who are weaker in social skills)? What about other universities and the polys? Any idea?

From my experience in NUS, I have only seen special arrangement for extra time. I suppose the only way to find out is to ask the departments.

There are certain majors that have much less group work as compared to say, Business / Arts and Social Sciences. Personally I studied mathematics, and I can say that there is no need for group work in over 90% of the modules. I took some Physics modules as well, only the laboratory modules have group work in the form of \"pair-work\" where two people cooperate to conduct a single experiment.

Hence, if one chooses a major with little group work, it is very possible that throughout the entire duration at NUS, one can totally avoid or minimise group work.

What faculty is your son interested in?

Mine is, unusually, a girl. And she's more arts-inclined, though we don't think she is ready for university yet (and probably won't get the grades to get in anyway). We are thinking of a poly course for her, probably. Yes, it would be easier for her if she was interested in doing pure Maths!

[havok_ex]

slmkhoo:

Mine is, unusually, a girl. And she's more arts-inclined, though we don't think she is ready for university yet (and probably won't get the grades to get in anyway). We are thinking of a poly course for her, probably. Yes, it would be easier for her if she was interested in doing pure Maths!

The university would probably take him in if she meets the requirements. But there is only so much that the faculty can do to help. If she chooses to go to a course that has more presentations and more groupwork, then the faculty cant change the curriculum.

Business for example has high weightage for presentations. Without presentations, its not really a biz course anymore. Courses like sciences and engineering can do without groupwork.

The humanities/social sciences are another matter. Some humanities courses can be purely assessment driven, like Philosophy and political theory. While others like soci and psych have more presentations/groupwork IMO.

But she will definitely still lose out even if it is 100% essay/exam based. I've been in humanities courses whereby its 100% essay based. But the class is still highly discursive because we learn by bouncing ideas off each other and refuting one another. So she will learn less if her ideas/opinions are not voiced out and are not made stronger with criticism.

Furthermore for humanities modules at level 4000, the class is mostly student-led. Level 4000 modules are usually based on very new areas of research. So the student is just as much an expert as the professor is. The student becomes \"on-par\" with the professor and much of the class is discussions based on the text. The professor is no longer even teaching; just guiding the discussion. Its not even possible for the prof to \"teach\" the content anymore since the particular area is so new. So if she cant discuss her ideas, she would learn less. Even if there is no grade assigned towards discussion and presentations, there is no doubt that the arguments reflected in her essays would be less robust.

[zbear]

mathtuition88:

From my experience in NUS, I have only seen special arrangement for extra time. I suppose the only way to find out is to ask the departments.

There are certain majors that have much less group work as compared to say, Business / Arts and Social Sciences. Personally I studied mathematics, and I can say that there is no need for group work in over 90% of the modules. I took some Physics modules as well, only the laboratory modules have group work in the form of \"pair-work\" where two people cooperate to conduct a single experiment.

Hence, if one chooses a major with little group work, it is very possible that throughout the entire duration at NUS, one can totally avoid or minimise group work.

Pls share - which courses n faculty has the least amount of group work.

Thanks.

[sharonkhoo]

havok_ex:

But she will definitely still lose out even if it is 100% essay/exam based. I've been in humanities courses whereby its 100% essay based. But the class is still highly discursive because we learn by bouncing ideas off each other and refuting one another. So she will learn less if her ideas/opinions are not voiced out and are not made stronger with criticism.


Furthermore for humanities modules at level 4000, the class is mostly student-led. Level 4000 modules are usually based on very new areas of research. So the student is just as much an expert as the professor is. The student becomes \"on-par\" with the professor and much of the class is discussions based on the text. The professor is no longer even teaching; just guiding the discussion. Its not even possible for the prof to \"teach\" the content anymore since the particular area is so new. So if she cant discuss her ideas, she would learn less. Even if there is no grade assigned towards discussion and presentations, there is no doubt that the arguments reflected in her essays would be less robust.

She also has some auditory processing issues, and does not do well in discussions where she has to listen (especially if people all speak at once!) and respond. In fact, she usually just tunes out to prevent overload. That's also why I think university may not be the best place for her.

[mathtuition88]

zbear:

mathtuition88:

From my experience in NUS, I have only seen special arrangement for extra time. I suppose the only way to find out is to ask the departments.

There are certain majors that have much less group work as compared to say, Business / Arts and Social Sciences. Personally I studied mathematics, and I can say that there is no need for group work in over 90% of the modules. I took some Physics modules as well, only the laboratory modules have group work in the form of \"pair-work\" where two people cooperate to conduct a single experiment.

Hence, if one chooses a major with little group work, it is very possible that throughout the entire duration at NUS, one can totally avoid or minimise group work.

Pls share - which courses n faculty has the least amount of group work.

Thanks.

Least amount of group work should be the Hard Sciences, eg. Math/Applied Math/Statistics/Physics/Chemistry. The only instances of compulsory group work are during laboratory sessions where sharing of equipment may be unavoidable due to lack of equipment for everyone to use individually. Even in that case, it should be pair work and the group should not be too large. To avoid group work, one can choose theoretical modules where the assessment is mostly exams. The standard assessment for science modules is something like 70% final exam, 20% midterm, 10% tutorial attendance.

That being said, there are some advantages of finding a study group to cooperate on homework/ discuss/ share study material.

I know someone with Aspergers who successfully completed NUS studies in sciences. I think as long as can cope with Pes E army clerk work (I believe Aspergers cases should be able to get downgrade to Pes E), should have no problem surviving in university (with a suitable choice of major).