<p>So, I am getting my GED this summer, and willl be applying for colleges in the fall.
I had a 3.7-3.8 weighted GPA (unweighted 3.5) in highschool, have extra-curriculars/volunteer, and took AP/honors classes & have a specific reason for leaving highschool.
I am planning to apply to good schools, (Rutgers, UC-Berkley, Wisconsin-Madison, Boston U)
I also will have good ACT(29-30) & Sat scores, including 3 sat subject scores.
So, does anyone out there have a success story of getting their GED and going onto university without doing CC first?
And at the very least, anyone who did CC for a year? And applied during winter (so no credits have even processed yet..) and got it?</p>
<p>**I initially had this posted in the "what are my chances?" - but another user recommended posting here.
I hope I get some responses! Thanks!</p>
<p>I am curious to hear stories as well. My daughter and I were just talking about this. She did 3 years of high school and got her GED last November. She skipped senior year to dance in a company in a nearby city.</p>
<p>Now, she is considering applying to colleges for fall 2011 and wondering if she needs to do more classes, either at hs or cc. </p>
<p>She plans on asking the actual college admissions offices where she might apply.</p>
<p>My kids were homeschooled (now in college), and although they did not go the GED route, I have known many kids who did. Most of them have done just fine. Typically going to a regional state univ. for a couple years and then transferring to other schools.</p>
<p>I also had a friend whose kids weren’t homeschooled, but they left high school and just took the GED. One went straight to work (has done very well) and the other graduated from college (flagship state u.) and is planning to go to grad school in another year.</p>
<p>My kids didn’t do the GED even though they didn’t graduate from high school, but just applied to colleges with their SAT scores and homeschool transcripts.</p>
<p>I know a young woman with a GED who will attend UMass/Boston in the fall. She was also admitted to Tufts and Boston U, but UMass gave her a great deal so she will go there debt-free. </p>
<p>Note, however, that she had excellent SAT scores along with A’s from a couple of college-level classes she had taken over the past couple years.</p>
<p>For more ideas on the GED - some classes - then transfer route, take a look at the Transfer Forum. Click on “Discussion Home” in the upper-left of this screen, and scroll down to find it.</p>
<p>You asked about students who took the GED and went to a university without community college first. If that is all you mean by a success story, then there are few here.</p>
<p>I think the thing you need to realize is that the GED is not the issue. The issue will be your GPA and your ACT and SAT scores, along with the other elements in your application, combined with the selectivity of the schools to which you apply. The GED itself is nearly irrelevant. It’s an old hangover from a time students left high school for the military or another job, then wanted to go back and “finish” their high school education. As it stands now, a GED is not very meaningful. Some trade apprenticeship programs require it if a student hasn’t finished high school, but colleges really don’t care. In fact, it may even add a slight stigma to an otherwise strong application. That is why my kids never took it.</p>
<p>^ Agree with 'rentof2 about the stigma attached to the GED. Did you take the APs with your AP courses? Colleges will look at those scores along with your SAT and subject test scores more than a GED score.</p>
<p>If you take a year of cc courses, the colleges will also look at your grades from the fall term as the best predictor of how successful you’ll be in college.</p>
<p>I agree you still need to take SAT.
I do know a young man who fairly recently dropped out of high school to take his GED, but started CC courses, then attended U Chicago and is currently in law school.</p>
<p>How does one who is not home-schooled apply to college w/o having graduated hs or w/o the GED? I know that some schools allow early admission, but that’s more the exception than the rule.</p>
<p>I don’t think that it matters on home-schooled vs non-home-schooled. If home-schooled, the parents could just create their own transcript and diploma. Schools have rules but oftentimes, someone in the school has the ability to override the rules if you can make a persuasive case to the person that can bend the rules.</p>
<p>Another approach would be to do a transfer application if you have enough university credits.</p>
<p>A child I know well took the GED a a few months after she was told by her HS that she could not return for senior year because she had missed too much school due to her chronic health problems. She scored 4000 out of 4000 & started the local CC in the fall. After her 1st term there, she applied as a transfer to an out-of-state selective private U & was accepted as a 2nd semester sophomore there. She transferred there & is just completing her 3rd semester there. Nearly all of her courses transferred & she’s doing great at the U she’s attending. Her HS grades were not great (some Ws, some Cs) due to absence penalties but her CC grades were strong, 3.8. She had solid SAT scores as well.</p>
<p>Sorry, her story does involve attending CC, as she didn’t want to stop attending school & she was told too late to apply to any U that she wouldn’t be returning for her senior year of HS.</p>
<p>Foolishpleasure, traditional students apply to colleges before they have a diploma anyway, so it’s not like they’ve finished high school either. A student who has left high school, but who is not taking the GED, would apply to colleges the same way. </p>
<p>That student would be well advised to submit an essay explaining why they are not continuing as a traditional student and what other wonderful, challenging and self-directed pursuits they are dedicating themselves to instead, along with any kind of documentation of those pursuits they might have (a letter of rec from a mentor or something like that?). And they’d submit their SAT/ACT scores and whatever transcripts they do have from their former school, from a college or cc where they might have taken classes, and/or a transcript of their own devising of their self-study since leaving high school.</p>
<p>In the GED student we know, we don’t believe she was hindered by her GED vs. a traditional HS diploma. Because of health issues, not sure how much longer it would have required her to remain in HS to try to meet the requirements & obtain a HS diploma, that she really did not feel the need to work at. It saved the student a great deal by going on to CC instead of struggling to meet PE & other requirements for a traditional HS diploma & she was so well prepared she has never required any remedial courses. She has done extremely well in CC as well as the competitive private U she transferred into.</p>
<p>Most colleges accept GED’s but state it should not be a substitute for high school learning.</p>
<p>At some schools, GED’s are not stigmatized at all. Juilliard, for instance, sees such a path as showing commitment to the art the student is passionate about.</p>
<p>HImom, that story about the girl with chronic health issues is absolutely outrageous. They had no right to tell her she could not come to schooo, and should have been sued. I have a kid with chronic health issues, and we made da-- sure the school accommodated them.</p>
<p>Her family should have hired a lawyer. She should have been exempt from PE, should have had a tutor provided at home, and should have had other accommodations such as extensions, tests at home, class materials and assignments brought home to her, etc.</p>
<p>But, things worked out. It’s just that every time a school gets away with this behavior, discrimination continues.</p>
<p>I see alot of people are not really reading my first post… I did state I have taken the ACT and will be taking SAT & SAT subject tests. Also, LIKE I SAID, I had a high/decent GPA in high school.
I don’t have a chronic health problem, but again, like I stated, I do have a specific reason.
I know the stigma that is attached, what I wanted to know if there was anyone who knew anyone that has gone this route (with good scores) and has gotten into good colleges (like the ones I stated in the first post)…</p>
<p>You guys have been helpful, but I was hoping to get some advice more specific to my situation…</p>
<p>What advice are you looking for? Just whether it’s ever happened? You can assume the answer is ‘yes’. Will it work out that way for you? There’s no way to answer that. You just need to apply and see how it works out. Is there something specific you need to know in terms of how you should apply? Truthfully, at selective schools it will probably put you at a disadvantage. It doesn’t mean it’s impossible. </p>
<p>If you’re making a choice that is likely to put you at a disadvantage in admissions, you need to make doubly sure you have an acceptable back-up plan – a college that you know you’d be accepted to, can afford to attend, and would feel positive toward.</p>
<p>Compmom.
Private schools have their own rules and aren’t required to follow IDEA. They can & do end up penalizing kids based on attendance/absence. Universities also vary based on how much they will accommodate (or not) absences, but we got that clarified up front so hopefully there will be no surprises. Lawsuits really don’t resolve a whole lot, especially for kids & education and particularly private schools.</p>
<p>Chronically ill kids and their families really have a lot of work to do to be sure kids get what they need.</p>
<p>**Lexis, I think you will have a hard time getting people to respond to your SPECIFIC situation, since you’re so vague and reluctant to set out what it is. All we can do is set out what GED situations we’re aware of & how that played out. **</p>
<p>Many of us are not familiar with many kids who have voluntarily chosen GEDs to go on to college. I know of one other kid who attended an uber competitive private that she was bored with, so she self-studied APs & passed her GED & started college, but don’t have a lot of details about her. Many kids take the GED for many reasons, primarily because for one reason or another HS didn’t work out for them.</p>
<p>Whether or not the GED will hurt you depends on why you left high school. I knew a student at an Ivy who had left HS to pursue a career as a professional musician. Though she didn’t receive traditional home schooling, she continued studying on her own and took a number of SAT IIs in addition to the SAT to prove her skills. In fact, I don’t think this student even got a GED - she mentioned to me that while the elite privates wanted her, she couldn’t rely on safeties because state schools wouldn’t waive the diploma or GED requirement!</p>
<p>I would imagine admissions would also be sympathetic to someone who left HS to care for an ailing parent or sibling or to get a job while the family was in dire financial straits, assuming this was really necessary and not just an excuse to leave school.</p>
<p>I think colleges would be more suspicious of someone who simply didn’t feel well served in a traditional high school or who was rebelling against banal requirements or petty administrators. Leaving high school is an extreme step, and so colleges will expect the reason that warranted it to be a very good one.</p>