A question I have always asked myself to this day, should I have dropped out of school and gotten a GED?
Let me explain..I've already graduated from High School and gotten my deploma. So what's the problem you ask? I was in Special ED (for reasons that's NoYB ) classes and the education you get is laughable, don't expect to be Einstien unless you want to go through collage. The thing that makes my deploma a PHD (Phony Deploma---it's not really I just used that as a medafor) is that I really wanted to be a game designer but you need to be an expert in math and going to a school that's concentrates it's efforts into making the next Pro-Star Football player rather then a sciantist or computer wiz. Killed that dream. Sure I can go collage but it would take to long to get my math skills up to par and my time is dear to me.

So anyway going to a school that loves football players rather then computer wiz. Is it better to just drop out of high school and get a GED or is it better to have a deploma that's rather meaningless?

I don't know what GED is, but it's "diploma" and "metaphor".

That is all.

LOL now you know why I hated my schools .

GED stands for General Educational Development. It's like a lesser diploma.

I know a thing or two about Special Ed, I spent a couple years there myself (I believe it was called ESE then). Some of those students have legitimate issues with education, while others like me, just didn't like school or the work that came with it.

I can't speak for the education system where you live, or the reasons for which you were enrolled in Special Ed, but if it's college you want, then you should spend the extra time and effort in attempting to make your dreams into a reality. If those dreams don't pan out, then you at least can say that you tried your best, but if you don't try, then you will never know what you are capable of.

Whatever it is that you are good at, strive to be the best you can be...If I would've taken my own advice way back then...

If only I knew then what I know now...

It's better to have a diploma. The GED, while comparable to a diploma, is still a red flag to anything that isn't Walmart or a fast food chain.

Get the diploma.

It's in your past, so unless you have a time machine there's nothing you can do.


... In the off-chance you do have a time machine: What say you about giving me a lift in it, eh pal?

Indeed. A diploma always, always, ALWAYS looks better to an employer than a GED.

Game Designer as in.. Creative Director or Programmer or Level Designer.. Or some of the other jobs that don't come to mind?

If you wanted to go into Gaming, what would you want to do? Some of the jobs don't require major math skillz.

Uhh a diploma isn't meaningless. While it won't get you much more than minimum wage jobs WITHOUT a college degree on top of that, colleges do prefer that over GEDs. People usually get GEDs when they can't finish high school as it'd normally be done. It's better than no highschool diploma at all, but isn't better than an actual diploma.

If you don't want to devote your time to it, then that obviously isn't the life path for you.

Well I did manage to do two things since my days in school.
1: Pass the ASVAB. I had to go to collage and learn a little algebra and the end resulted in me passing the military's ASVAB test....then my body's metabolism desighted to take a hike and I started to gain weight. I've been trying to lose it but to little to no success and now I'm to old to enlist since 30 is the max age you can be to enlist. I'd say this dream came to a bitter sweet ending but I REALLY wished I could have continued my enlistment process.

2: Video Editing/Cartooning. I had to self teach myself to do this one and it was journey. Another thing I kinda wanted to do with my life was cartooning (seeing as I like to draw, something that my schools hated. Again the school I went to concentrated more on Athleticism then Academics) and It's going alright I guess but I've also learned to edit videos well but---I live in a state that has little use for video editors.

Move somewhere that needs video editing/has jobs that involve video editing?

I don't have enough money to move to those places, I'm pretty much stuck where I'm at.

Hey now, I got into a non minimum wage job with a GED type diploma. Granted my diploma is the kind of diploma you get for testing out for not having enough credits and then passing the tests, but they didn't call it a GED it was something else. I didn't like school, but I don't regret my choice..I like the person I've become and I wouldn't have become this person without that path..so yeah!

Anyways, you're right for the most part, it's hard to get a good job with just a diploma, even harder with just a GED. Even if it's something trivial.

GED, Diploma, dropout... what do all three have in common?

They are all irrelevant once you have an Associate's Degree from your local community college.

Most community colleges will accept GED's, pursue secondary education in a vocational setting there.
As it is now, you are competing with more educated artists who have the means to access forms of cutting edge technology that you won't.
Either find a new field, or find a school that offers that course of study.


As for the football/sports: Both collegiate and high school:
Sports bring in revenue, from entrance fees, team gear, to concessions, and most schools keep a large percentage of that revenue. Year, after year, after year.
The students also learn to function as team players. This is important, as most companies want individuals who have interpersonal skills.
Academics do not bring in the amounts of revenue for high schools except for those rare occasions when an exceptional student gets a grant, and the school a bonus ,for some project that a donor company finds profitable. It's been my experience that academics in the early collegiate and entire high school years focuses mainly on the individual's accomplishment vs a team. (However, post graduate and graduate research teams garner their universites a good deal of funding from private donors)

Note that I know next to nothing about your education system, nor do I know how a GED is generally regarded in comparison to an actual diploma .

My own thoughts are as follows. High school may be boring but it is also easy. I don't know how people who can't even get themselves to finish that, can handle the much more difficult advlt life that follows after. If anything, having a high school diploma shows potential future employers that you have at least a basic sense of commitment. Not having finished high school... Well I think it's clear now how I feel about that.

TBH, I'd say a GED shows more of a sense of commitment, since you have to actually go back and likely study up on a course you never took back in High School just to get your GED. It's what I had to do.

Maybe, as I said I don't know what a GED really is. As I understood it, it is a sort of rushed high-school education for advlts that didn't finish high school for whatever reasons. If that is the case my opinion is unchanged. Sure, doing the effort to study up again shows some commitment. However the reason one has to do that is because he did could not muster that same commitment when in high school. And not being able to finish something as easy as high school in one go, well..

Of course, for all I know a GED is something completely different and my post is totally irrelevant :shrug:.

Eh, the reasons are never always the same, some lazy, some became parents with no choice but leave, or other unusual circumstances arose preventing them from completing high school. The unusual circumstances one applies to me, and I'm still paying for it today (And the worse bit is none of it was through my own choice)

Well note that I said "much more than minimum wage" so technically, I stated that there are exceptions.


Well not necessarily. I'm not trying to bag you or anything, but I think those who have experienced the hell that can be high school would disagree. But perhaps that's just because I took a lot of tough classes in high school. I overloaded on the APs which basically destroyed my free time and sanity. While that's my fault, it did get me in a better position for college. US colleges care big-time about the classes you took in regard to what you want to major in. It's about the second most thing they look at, next to test scores.

I'd much rather study on a more short-term to take tests to obtain a GED than go through high school again, most definitely.

You should have stayed in school young man.