In College and Think You’re Autistic? Five Suspicious Signs

By Lorra Garrick | Last updated 02/25

Are you a college student wondering if you’re autistic? Here are five signs.

I lived four years on a college campus having no idea I was autistic.

Only years later would I get a clinical diagnosis of ASD.

I now look back at my days living in a college dormitory and, in hindsight, see the signs of my autism!

Dormitory living, in particular, is where Autism Spectrum Disorder would be quite relevant to someone who has this neurotype.

How do I do eye contact passing someone in a hall?

Hah! A big tipoff that I was on the Spectrum (even though, once again, I had NO idea during college that I was), was hating to have to figure out eye contact as I was walking toward someone down the hall who was coming my way.

Eye contact issues run the gamut in autistic individuals.

What’s interesting in my case is that I had no problem just simply holding eye contact while someone was telling me a story. It was mostly a conscious act — but not uncomfortable.

But, it was a whole new schematic when I was walking towards a “floor mate.”

If I had never spoken to that student before (all female floor), I simply kept my eyes straight ahead as I passed and didn’t even say “Hi.” I just pretended she wasn’t there.

If she, by chance, greeted me, then to be polite, I greeted her back with brief eye contact as we passed each other.

Sounds simple enough, right? However, the real problem was when I already knew the student on some level, based on past interaction.

The past interaction could’ve been that of previously waiting for the elevator together (seventh floor).

Maybe the woman coming towards me was a friend of my roommate’s.

Maybe we had briefly chit-chatted at a “floor meeting.”

Who knows? All I knew was that if there had already been some established interaction with that person, I hated having to figure out how the heck to navigate eye contact as we approached each other.

When do I start looking at them? Twenty feet away? Ten feet?
How long do I do that for?
Do I keep looking until they pass?
Do I break eye contact before we’re close, then return it right as we pass each other?

Concurrent with that issue was who should say “Hi” first.

Do you have this problem too? You could be on the Autism Spectrum, because a neurotypical person would not have these problems!

The issue was present even with floor mates whom I was on chit-chat terms with.

Having to figure out eye contact dynamics was so bothersome that there were times that I took the stairs (again, seventh floor!) to eliminate any possibility of running into someone.

My room was at the end of the long corridor right by the stairwell.

I’d just slip out, unseen, and feel really good about this solution, and in fact, relied on this quite often to get out of having to greet someone in the hall.

But there were also times when I didn’t feel like taking the stairs, so I’d first pop my head out to see if anyone was in the hall.

If the coast was clear, I’d shoot out of my room and briskly walk towards the elevators, hoping that nobody would suddenly come out of their room between me and the elevator and start heading my way.

There were times, though, when this happened, and internally, I was unnerved, even though externally, I didn’t show this.

If you live in a dormitory, does this behavior resonate with you? If so, you could be autistic.

It never dawned on me that I might be autistic despite having to combat this infuriating problem through four years of dormitory living.

This wasn’t social anxiety. I could be quite the contributor to a group conversation inside my room (with roommate’s friends) or in a student lounge.

I also wasn’t afraid to walk one end of the campus to the other alone late at night.

So again, it wasn’t social anxiety; it was my autism. At the time, I had chalked it up to my “dislike of people.”

Sitting Alone in the Cafeteria

This is a good one! Though not all students, who prefer to eat alone in a cafeteria, are likely autistic, this situation should also be put into context if you have other traits suspicious for autism.

I usually ate lunch in cafeterias of other dormitories, because I was near them between classes. I didn’t know anyone; nobody knew me; all was dandy.

But in my own dorm, I’d eat breakfast there, and often dinner, due to the timing.

This was a BIG 12-story dorm at a major university; packed with residents.

Yet I was never able to find a group to fit in with during meals.

Now, there were times I did indeed eat with a group, but this was only on an occasional basis.

It didn’t feel natural for me to make an effort to eat with any particular group more than occasionally.

For a while, there were a few students whom I ate with one-on-one, when we both just happened to know we were going down to the cafeteria at the same time. But these women were at my dorm for only one year.

Bottom line: I often ate alone. And I have to admit, I was perfectly okay with this.

I just was never able to find a group that I loved eating with.

Perhaps not all autistic college students will usually eat by themselves, but again – it’s context that matters.

If you normally eat by yourself, as yourself why.

Do you prefer this?
Or perhaps you’ve repeatedly tried to find a group but have not succeeded?
These are important questions to ask if you believe you might be on the Spectrum.

Having No Roommate and Lovin’ It

Thank God that in my last semester freshman year I was finally able to “get a single,” and after that point, always had a single.

I hated having roommates. HATED IT.

It vexed me to no end that, when a floor mate, fellow dorm resident or classmate found out I had a single, she’d invariably respond with, “How can you have a single? Don’t you get lonely?”

“Don’t you get lonely?” I swear, these were the precise words I heard almost every time it came up that I had a single.

I could never understand how anyone could feel lonely having no roommate – living on a floor full of other students!

Furthermore, two rooms were adjoined by a shared bathroom, so those in singles still had “suitemates.” How could anyone get lonely? Like, WTF.

My autism was definitely at the helm with this experience, but keep in mind that I knew “normal” students who also had singles.

Getting Sidetracked by a Special Interest

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My college years were long before the Internet. So all the information on the effect of multiple gee forces on the human body were confined to the university’s library.

I have a vivid memory, that has always stayed with me, of wanting to just sit there reading up on experiments with chickens exposed to high gee forces via centrifugation – when at the same time, I had a final exam to cram for.

I couldn’t pull away from the chicken study and other related information, which had absolutely nothing to do with the exam material.

It was a major struggle for me to force myself to put the book away and make my way back to the dorm to cram for the exam. I had lost precious study time by reading up on “chronic acceleration.”

How could I have been so undisciplined? Oops – it wasn’t lack of self-discipline; it was Autism Spectrum Disorder – taking that deep dive into my hyperfixation to the extent that I sacrificed study time!

Do you find yourself doing this? A common feature of an autistic-grade hyperfixation is that of spending time on it at the expense of time you should be spending on something “more important.”

Response to a Crisis

Not all autistic people are the same. But sometimes, we know when our autism is the driver behind our reactions to crisis situations.

One time very late at night I heard what sounded like an explosion outside. I instinctively knew what it was: a vehicular collision.

I was a junior and living in a smaller dorm (a single, of course) on the second floor.

I shot out my door, but not before the seemingly neurotypical woman, who had the unit right next to mine, fled out her unit in hysterics, beating me to the stairwell. (The rest of the floor must’ve been either asleep or out at a party).

I ran down the stairs behind JaNette, perplexed that she was responding the way she was.

We both were now outside, and she was visibly shaken as we observed the overturned Jeep in the intersection literally a stone’s throw from our building.

I was on friendly terms with JaNette, a really nice girl; we chit-chatted all the time. She had a single, but I never perceived anything odd, unusual, introverted or non-typical about her.

I couldn’t understand why she was so shaken up by a crash involving total strangers. She didn’t stand outside for long and had to go back inside.

Meanwhile I approached the curb and just had to get a good look at the scene.

A man was lying unconscious on the street, amid crumpled metal parts and shattered glass, while a woman was kneeling beside him, saying over and over in a quivering voice, “Gary? Gary? Gary?”

I simply watched, wondering what kind of head injury he had. Would he be in a coma for weeks? Would he ever come out of the coma? Did he have a severed spinal cord? Was he dead?

This was many years before mobile phones.

I was overrun by intrigue and didn’t have a single ounce of whatever it was that JaNette had.

Drivers were slowing down to gawk, and soon, I heard sirens. I also saw Gary begin to move his head – and only his head.

His vehicle was totaled. I don’t recall anything else, other than eventually getting my fill and returning to my room. But I kept wondering if he had a spinal cord injury.

Five Signs a College Student May Be Autistic

So in summary, here they are:

Difficulty or hating navigating eye contact as you approach someone you already know.
Challenges with finding people to eat with in the dormitory cafeteria, and/or preferring solitary eating.
Hating having a roommate – not your specific roommate, but the concept of having.
Response to a crisis is more analytical than emotional.
Special interest or topic of obsession takes away from studying time.

If you suspect you’re autistic, I’m here to tell you that there is nothing wrong with being an Autist.

Autism is NOT a processing error; it’s a different operating system.

Additional Tipoffs that You’re a College Student with Autism

I was never able to “get” other women’s behavior. I was never able to relate to how they carried on and behaved. I felt so different from them.

I thought many of them were childish and immature, even when I was a 17-year-old freshman.

Autistic men will likely feel the same way with their male dorm mates or classmates.

There will also be miscellaneous quirks, such as, in my case, I internally ridiculed the concept of an “Ice Cream Social,” an occasional event that my dorm held to get to meet people. I’d think, “Yeah, right, like I’d ever go to an Ice Cream Social!”