Getting my GED as a Junior? Help please?

I'm going to have to deem it a bad idea; though academically, not for the sentimental aspects of Senior year.

Graduating early is really only beneficial for a student who begins high school at an accelerated level, with that objective in mind, and is able to take as strong of a course load as they would have had they have stayed for the final year. A GED is not technically the equivalent of a diploma. A diploma is accompanied with a full length transcript, which is used for college admissions and scholarship appointment. Assuming this college would even accept a GED as enough for admissions (As most students with only GEDs attend community college first), you would still have little to no chance of winning scholarships against students with solid transcriptions and college prep work.

Then we can move on to actually being in college. I don't doubt that you are intelligent, but the final years before college are the most vital and enlightening years of a student's education. I never felt challenged throughout high school and actually would have preferred a much more challenging course load in my last year(s) there; however, I was far from the student I was in the years before. Not only intellectually, but within my work ethic as well. I don't doubt that I could have graduated early and made it through college after roughing through the learning curve, but I doubt I'd be acing tests with ease anymore. I doubt that I would still be maintaining a 4.0 after all these years.

Stick with high school to the end. It will be more beneficial to be a bright student among your peers consistently, rather than skiping crucial years and find yourself pulling moderately average grades with lackluster funding and academic options. Your boyfriend will still be there when you arrive.

 

So, you're saying that everyone who has a GED, even those who didn't have any say in the matter (i.e. family troubles, homeschooling, etc), are basically fucked?

 

No, not at all. I would encourage anyone who chooses not to get a diploma to get a GED. It's just that for the OP's wishes of going directly to a university right after it would be unnecessarily difficult. Not only for admissions and funding, but for the learning curve as well.

You can definitely pave your own way with a GED. It just won't be as smooth as with a diploma.

 

Did I "choose" shitty parents who don't give a rat's ass about my education? Did I "choose" to live in the ghetto where I can't even walk outside by myself without fear of being mugged/murdered/raped? Did I "choose" to teach myself everything after 6-7th grade? Did I "choose" to have no records or GPA? Did I "choose" to be nothing more than living, breathing example of the "dykes are dumbasses" stereotype? I think not. I'm not talking about people who have a say in whether or not they get a real diploma.

Nowadays, a GED is HARDER to earn than a high school diploma. Do you think I'd "choose" to work harder than a high school "graduate" and still be seen as an inferior dropout by society?

I'm not going to sit here and let someone who has had their K-12 education handed to them tell me that I'm "choosing" to get a GED.

 

It's a matter of degrees (no pun intended). FWIW, I have only a GED (for the same reason that Belle does) and I have never had any issue receiving scholarships. I wouldn't be able to afford to attend the expensive art school I do now were it not for them. Of course, I had a high SAT score and got my other goodies (recommendations, portfolio, admission letter, etc.) well in order prior to application.

 

I apologize if this is a sensitive topic for you, but you cannot even begin to claim that my post warranted this response because of a single verb usage. You haven't the slightest clue about my academic or personal history, nor what it has taken for me to get where I am today, so you can leave your assumptions about having a privileged path in life of it. I am offering advice to this individual on their specific situation at hand. I am not here to debate your personal struggles or experiences, nor would I ever be so presumptuous to speak on them as that would be a topic I would be quite ignorant of, not having known you.

I would never speak down on someone who receives a GED rather than a diploma, nor do I see where it could have been inferred from my previous posts that I did; however, there is no need for the OP to take that route given the circumstances current position. That is all I have said. The hostility was not needed.

The difference is that you and Belle pursued GEDs for reasons that admissions officers and companies running scholarships deem understandable. Life can throw a plethora of difficult and unfortunate things at us and officials are sympathetic to that. The OPs circumstances, however, do not fall into the same category. While I can completely relate to the idea of not feeling challenged and being tired of secondary school, he doesn't have a real reasons why he was forced to pursue a GED over a diploma.

Colleges and funding venues go out of their way to give home schooled and GED students a fighting chance because they know that a variety of circumstances could have gone into the student having to have taken that path, but the same would not be said for a high school student "who wanted to get out early". If GEDs alone were enough for a student to be competitive, than there would be no reasons to waste time working towards a diploma. Students with GEDs have to have those added factors(As you have) to support the fact that they are solid students, who had to deal with rougher than average circumstances. You and Belle wouldn't be hindered much by having taken that path, the OP is another story.