Graduate School

Basics

Here is a basic survival guide that we recommend you look through for support which was built for neurotypical students.

Getting Into Graduate School

If you have grades which either represent or over-represent what you learned as an undergraduate, most of the advice you have access to already applies. However, many neurominorities do poorly in undergrad because they…

  • Did not have access to appropriate accommodations.
  • Are female with ADHD, and therefore were diagnosed and received medication late.
  • Are not visibly Autistic and therefore were not able to adopt self care strategies which would be most effective for them until it was too late.
  • Socialize differently and therefore struggle to make friends in class.
    • This could provide access to a network of knowledge that their peers would be able to leverage as part of their privilege.
  • Are Autistic, and because of their challenges with interpreting social cues, have less targeted information for what to study for an exam than their peers.
    • This means that they may have studied just as well, but their peers studied a different part which became more emphasized on the exam.
  • Are Autistic and therefore learn through a predictive coding theory paradigm, which implies that they are more comfortable being introduced at the advanced level.
    • The lack of information in simplified versions can lead to numerous alternative interpretations.
    • Numerous alternatives become a barrier to successfully learning each new topic application as it was intended to be understood by each teacher.

Focus On What You Can Control

  1. Build your portfolio so that you can show what you are capable of on your own terms.
  • An advisor who takes you on may be more likely to honour your accommodation requests if they can see what you are able to accomplish when you are able to work on your terms.
  1. Try networking with professors with the specific expertise who would like to take you on.
  2. Focus on what you could contribute as a researcher in their area (not a smart or dumb person).
  3. Consider sharing your demographic risks.
  • If a professor values supporting individuals from marginalized backgrounds, they may be even more lenient with your grades because they will be able to see what you accomplished in spite of what cards you were handed.
  1. Consider a postgraduate fellowship.

Reaching Out to Advisors

Funding Your Research

Many professors take into account whether a student can fund their own research during the graduate school application process. You may be able to do a thesis on your field of research + disability, leading to a dynamic thesis that is funded by sources others would not typically use. This page is a great starting point for building yourself up as a candidate.

Prepare for Graduate School

PhDisabled

Part 1/3: Hack Graduate School

Part 2/3: Advising Neurodiverse Thesis Students

Part 3/3: Resources for Grad Students and Their Advisors

Footnotes

  1. Source: anonymous contributor, pending permission to be formally acknowledged.↩︎

  2. Source: anonymous contributor, pending permission to be formally acknowledged.↩︎

  3. Source: anonymous contributor, pending permission to be formally acknowledged.↩︎

  4. Source: anonymous contributor, pending permission to be formally acknowledged.↩︎