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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]R1, humanities field, with strong undergrads programs (think Brown, Gtown, Tufts). Fire away.
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My DD is autistic. She’s Level I, very gifted and quite social, but also very rigid and anxious. Until very recently, she wanted to major in STEM. There seem to be more people on the spectrum in STEM and we suspect she’ll have a less difficult time with accommodations and finding her tribe among hard science majors. However, she’s fallen in love with the humanities and social sciences recently. I worry that there’s less acceptance of autistic traits in those fields. Moreover, there’s a lot of figurative language and academic double speak in the humanities that I think she might not grasp. What do you think?[/quote]

(OP here): I really don't have enough grasp of autism and how it impacts cognitive and analytical abilities (and assume it's very person-variable), so I can't really speak to this. That said, I end up with a lot of STEM students who want to explore more than just the hard sciences, and many report it helps them love all inquiry more, including in their chosen (science) major. "Acceptance" and accommodations are really dependent on the faculty member--I have humanities colleagues who are terribly hard-nosed ("your grandma died at the hands of your mother last night, in front of you, but you turned the paper in late? Tough. It's late and you fail.") Again, the culture of accommodation is more local to the prof, maybe the school type will lend itself to some leniency.

My one suggestion: encourage her to explore. Don't pressure too much. See how she does in a class or two. A humanities class that lights her imagination and mind on fire may very well carry over into embracing all the other work. 
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