So You Decided to Go to College at the Last Damn Minute, Now What?
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
April Ratchford, Occupational Therapist, Registered/Licensed, is an autistic occupational therapist and the voice behind Adulting with Autism. She supports neurodivergent adults across the world with relatable storytelling, lived wisdom, and empowering strategies for real-life challenges.
It is back-to-school season. Some students planned for months. Others decided at the last possible second that college, community college, or vocational school might actually be the move. If that is you, congratulations, and welcome to the administrative rat race.
Going to school is exciting, but paying for it, choosing classes, understanding financial aid, and learning to advocate for yourself can become overwhelming fast. Here is what autistic and neurodivergent young adults, and the parents or caregivers supporting them, need to know before classes begin.
First things first: How are you paying for this?
College costs money. Shocking, I know. Your first stop should be the FAFSA, which stands for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Not FastFoot. Not FASFA. Not whatever autocorrect decides to call it today.
The FAFSA determines eligibility for federal financial aid, including grants, work-study, and federal student loans. States and schools may also use FAFSA information when determining eligibility for their own aid.
If you are a traditional student coming straight out of high school, there is a good chance you will be considered a dependent student for federal aid purposes. But dependency is not simply determined by whether Mom still buys your groceries. Federal Student Aid has its own rules.
Being 24 or older generally makes you independent for FAFSA purposes, but students younger than 24 can also qualify as independent under certain circumstances, including marriage, military or veteran status, supporting children or other dependents, certain foster care or guardianship histories, homelessness, and other qualifying circumstances.
If you are dependent, parent information will generally be required. If you are independent, FAFSA generally uses your information and your spouse's information when applicable.
Government rules. Do not ask me why they make everything so damn complicated.
You do not have to borrow every dollar they offer you
This needs to be said loudly: You do not have to accept the full amount of student loans you are offered. Take what you actually need.
Federal Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans belong to you. Not your parents. Not your caregiver. Not your grandfather's uncle's roommate's brother. You.
If you graduate, you have to deal with them. If you decide halfway through that college is not your thing, those loans do not disappear because you changed your mind.
For dependent students whose families still have a gap after other financial aid, an eligible parent may be able to apply for a Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS). That loan belongs to the parent, not the student, and the parent is responsible for repayment.
If a parent cannot obtain a PLUS under the applicable rules, the student may qualify for a higher Direct Unsubsidized Loan limit. That is additional borrowing eligibility, not free grant money falling from the sky.
Do not forget scholarships and grants. Check your state. Check your school. Check your academic department. Check community organizations. If you receive vocational rehabilitation services, tell your counselor you are going to school and ask whether educational support is available.
Make people tell you no. Do not eliminate yourself before you ask.
Last-minute students: You may still have options
If you decided in July or August that you suddenly want to start college in the fall, do not automatically assume you missed your chance. But understand this: You are entering the rat race late.
Schools have admissions deadlines, financial aid deadlines, registration deadlines, housing deadlines, and add/drop periods. Those dates are not interchangeable.
Financial aid may still be available, but some state, institutional, campus-based, and scholarship funds are limited. Housing may already be full. The perfect class schedule may be gone.
If you are commuting from home, you have eliminated one enormous problem. If you are expecting campus housing? Baby, start making phone calls.
Getting admitted to college does not magically create an empty dorm room. Off-campus housing can introduce an entirely different set of problems: deposits, leases, transportation, utilities, and potentially needing a guarantor or cosigner when you are 18 years old with approximately twelve minutes of credit history.
Housing deserves its own article, so we will deal with that separately.
Parents: Your college student is an adult now
This transition can be brutal for parents and caregivers.
Your child gets onto that campus and suddenly the systems you have managed for years do not necessarily belong to you anymore. Talk about access before there is an emergency.
Many schools have authorized user or proxy systems that allow students to give another person limited access to things such as billing or other records. Find out what your student's school offers and decide together what makes sense.
In my family, my son and I decided that I would continue helping him keep an eye on some of the administrative and financial pieces because college can be overwhelming.
But let me make something clear: I do not do his schoolwork. I already graduated. I have my degrees. These are his.
There is a difference between supporting an autistic young adult's executive functioning and taking over their adulthood. Parents, learn that difference.
Students: This is where self-advocacy begins
Get to know your academic advisor. Please. Your advisor helps make sure you are not randomly taking courses for shits and giggles that do not actually move you toward graduation.
Your goal is to get the education you need with the least unnecessary debt possible without destroying yourself in the process.
My son decided he wanted to become a video game developer. Great. He has an advisor within his computer science and engineering program who understands that curriculum. Mommy works in healthcare. When I look at some of those requirements, my professional recommendation is: Talk to your advisor. I know where my expertise ends.
You should also know what workload you can realistically handle. Twelve undergraduate credits are generally considered full-time for federal student aid purposes, but individual programs, scholarships, housing arrangements, and schools can have additional requirements. Federal rules generally require a standard term undergraduate program to use at least 12 credit hours as its full-time standard, although schools can set a higher requirement.
Do not sign yourself up for 18 credits because somebody tells you that is what ambitious students do when you know 12 or 13 is what you can successfully manage.
Finishing faster is not cheaper if you burn out, fail three classes, withdraw from two more, and then have to pay to take the damn classes again.
You do not have to know what you want to be yet
Parents, I am talking to you again. You may already know exactly what career you think your child would be fantastic at. Shut up for a minute. Let them figure it out.
Students change majors. Students enter college undecided. Students discover careers they did not even know existed when they were 18. That is normal.
An advisor can help them explore options while making sure they are still taking courses that make sense.
Your job as a parent is not to manufacture the life you think fits your child. Your job is increasingly to step back, get prepared, and be available while they learn how to build their own. Yes, sometimes that means watching them create a little chaos.
Welcome to parenting adults.
Know your add/drop and withdrawal dates
This is especially important for my Last Second Sallys and Sams who missed orientation. Find your school's academic calendar. Today.
You need to know the deadlines for adding classes, dropping classes, withdrawing from classes, withdrawing from the university, tuition refunds, and financial aid. Please do not assume those are all the same deadline.
If you get into a course and realize you are drowning, talk to your advisor and financial aid office before making changes.
A withdrawal commonly appears as a W rather than an F and generally does not affect Grade Point Average (GPA) in the same way an F does. But that does not mean withdrawals have no consequences.
Financial aid also depends on Satisfactory Academic Progress, or SAP. Schools evaluate academic progress using standards that include grades and how successfully you are progressing through attempted coursework. Falling below your school's SAP standards can jeopardize financial aid eligibility. Federal Student Aid guidance specifically recognizes that withdrawals can count toward attempted coursework when a school evaluates a student's pace of completion.
Translation: A W may sometimes be better than an F, but Ws are not Pokémon. You do not need to collect them all.
Before withdrawing, ask: What happens to my GPA? What happens to my completion rate? What happens to my financial aid? Will I owe money back? What happens to my housing or other benefits if my enrollment changes?
Know the consequences before clicking the button.
One bad semester does not mean you do not belong in college
I know this personally.
My son's freshman year at his current university was rough. He started with a heavy course load while simultaneously dealing with housing problems, safety issues, a move right around the beginning of classes, executive functioning challenges, and plain old overwhelm.
On paper? It looked awful. There were withdrawals. There was an F. His GPA took a hit. But a transcript does not always tell you everything a student learned.
When he had to advocate for himself, he could explain that although his grades were poor, he had made progress in other ways. He learned to navigate public transportation. He made friends. He asked professors for help. He arranged tutoring. He learned where his organization had fallen apart.
Most importantly, he learned to advocate for himself. Then he had to demonstrate that he could recover academically. That failed English class? He retook it. B. His university GPA climbed. His overall academic standing improved.
That is progress. Not the pretty, straight line version people put on graduation brochures. Real progress.
Your goal is not perfect college, it is learning how to do college
Autistic and neurodivergent young adults sometimes enter college having spent years with adults organizing much of life around them.
Then suddenly everyone says: Congratulations! You are an adult! Figure it out! No wonder some students struggle. College is not merely about learning biology, computer science, English, or welding.
You are learning how to manage deadlines. Read ridiculous amounts of email. Ask for help. Recover from mistakes. Decide when you are overloaded. Talk to professors. Work with advisors. Manage money. Protect your financial aid. Choose your own direction.
Parents? You are learning too. You are learning when to help. You are learning when to remind. You are learning when to shut the hell up. You are learning that sometimes your young adult has to create their own chaos before they figure out how to clean it up.
That is adulting. Nobody said it was going to be pretty.
Ready for the next part?
College enrollment is only the beginning. In the next part, I will break down housing, accommodations, disability services, transportation, roommates, meal plans, and what actually happens once your autistic or neurodivergent young adult gets onto campus. For more conversations about autistic adulthood, independence, college, careers, relationships, and everything nobody prepared us for, visit Adulting with Autism.
Helpful resources
For current federal financial aid rules and FAFSA guidance, visit Federal Student Aid. Students should also check their own college's academic calendar, financial aid office, housing policies, and Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements because school-specific deadlines and policies vary.
Read more from April Michelle Ratchford
April Michelle Ratchford, Occupational Therapist, Podcast Host
April Ratchford, Occupational Therapist, Registered/Licensed, is an autistic occupational therapist, writer, and global advocate for neurodivergent adults. As the creator and host of Adulting with Autism, an internationally ranked podcast with over two million downloads, she blends clinical expertise with real-life lived experience. April specializes in supporting autistic young adults as they transition into independence, higher education, and adult identity. She is known for her clear, empowering approach that makes complex neurodivergent challenges accessible and manageable. April is currently advancing her studies in neuroscience through King’s College London to further elevate her work in autistic well-being and adult development.
