GED Acceptance Questions

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi there!</p>

<p>I am a current high school junior enrolled in five AP classes on top of honours courses, standard courses, arts courses, and such the like. Fundamentally, I am a general overachiever, and I love it, honestly. I love learning, I love the thrill of education, it is a breeze for me to be taking so many courses (not to sound arrogant) and I have been looking forward to going off to college since I was four years old. Now, it's just around the corner, and I am seriously considering dropping out and earning my GED. I have chronic depression and bipolar disorder, as well as countless social phobias that cause me to stay home far more often than I should.</p>

<p>Because I am absent so often, my grades are not as outstanding as they should be, only As and Bs in everything besides AP chem (the bane of my existence), bearing in mind that we have no weighted grading system. While I am absent a lot, probably sixteen days a year, I always make up my work and put in a lot of extra effort. I am currently in the top 30 or so -- we don't have class ranks, per se, this is an assumption -- in my graduating class despite the fact that I screwed up and was a total C student freshman year. That shows how much I work; I am glad to take seven or eight hours of homework a night, and I balance this on top of marching band, youth orchestra, writing, and DCI tours next summer. Needless to say, I am fine under pressure. In fact, I welcome it!</p>

<p>However, due to the aforementioned depression/bipolar/social phobias, I wish to drop out and earn my GED instead. Please don't bash the idea; I am miserable, absolutely miserable, and I don't want to get into all of the problems involved, just that I have, you know, huge issues and I can't get through a month without missing school because I am so unnerved, not because I didn't do my homework. You can call me a baby, but when you don't want to get out of bed in the morning and find yourself throwing up before class, it is a slight indication that things may be growing out of hand. This is a last resort, please realize such.</p>

<p>Mind you, on top of a near-perfect-to-perfect score on the GED, I also plan on taking the SAT multiple times (I scored very highly on the PSATs, and 840 on the old SAT back in the seventh grade), the ACT, and all of the AP tests that I possibly can. On top of that, I will have job experience -- if I don't go to high school, I have to support myself and feel worthwhile somehow. So with excellent scores on nationwide tests, job experience, and the grades that I have now combined with a GED, will I still have acceptable chances of getting into the colleges of my choice (i.e., an out-of-state candidate for Penn State, Skidmore (my long shot), CUNY schools)?</p>

<p>For what it matters, I plan on majoring in music performance (hence the music references) and zoology (AP bio) and minoring in Spanish (AP Spanish).</p>

<p>Thank you. Any assistance would be appreciated, I don't want to jump into this before understanding my chances, and my Google results are not terrifically clear. :)</p>

2

<p>Why don’t you schedule a phone appt with the schools you’re interested in? Perhaps they can advise you whether a GED provides a greater hurdle for you than a standard diploma. Why take CC posters’ opinions when you can go direct to the sources? Best of luck to you</p>

3

<p>Ah, see, that idea had lingered on my mind but unfortunately, my family lacks a home phone. Once my mum tops up her cell, I could try that – but for the time being, I had figured this would be a good source of ideas. Thank you, though!</p>

4

<p>Maybe go to your guidance counselor and ask to use his/her telephone</p>

5

<p>I may end up doing that tomorrow. Thank you. :)</p>

6

<p>In the meantime, does anybody else have any ideas?</p>

7

<p>HELICASE - you will find that many schools will not accept a GED for admissions - and you should be able to locate that info on many college websites. You seem to have some good goals regarding what you want to do educationally - tho you feel that there are walls in your way at this point due to your peraonal situation. Where you may not have a phone available - you could certainly e-mail schools for answers to your questions.</p>

<p>Have you by chance spoken to your advisor about all of this to see what may come of that - and for support as well. You sound like a bright and intelligent person - and maybe there are alternatives that are available for you rather then dropping out for the GED.</p>

8

<p>It is possible that you are overburdened by so much course work and 8 hours of nomework a night. As a bipolar person you know that you will have large emotional swings and perhaps you are experiencing one now from feeling capable of handling so much, to the feeling of being overwhelmed. I would speak to the doctor to be sure that your medications are stabilized and to your counselor at school about your ideas for your education. There are many possible courses one can take into the future, and many timetables that have been ignoredin our society’s focus on the "Good college"race.</p>

<p>You are unique and bright and talented, so use what resources you can get to find the BEST path for yourself, and not just the only other option you see at the moment.</p>

9

<p>Jeep:
No, I haven’t talked to my counselors about this yet. I have absolutely no free time whatsoever in my schedule (classes start at 7.25, no blank periods, math tutoring or academic team after school) and besides, they are usually pretty busy advising the Key Club or talking to students whose situation they find more important than mine. And I will admit that it is by no means dire, since I am one of the top students in the class even with the grades that could be better, and moreover the idea only just came to me today. Perhaps homeschooling would be a better alternative, and you were absolutely right in saying that I feel walled in by a lot of things. I tend to jump to conclusions when speculating. Thank you for the compliments, though, I appreciate them. :]</p>

<p>Tomato:
That’s the thing, I am truly not overburdened by a high workload. I welcome the pressure, and it gives me something to do when not sleeping (insomniatic nighttime personality and other such jargon). Work prevents me from having to socialise with people, and the less talking I have to do, the more mentally stable I typically am. The “good college” race is pretty much out, anyway; I did some tallying and came up that on my school’s nine-classes-per-quarter system, I have had 12 C’s thus far because of an awful freshman year. Because there was so much pressure to make up for my situation last year, I grew used to it and now I go nuts if I don’t have homework to do! It’s crazy. :] As for the mood swings, well…I am not currently on medication, which is probably part of my problem. My parents and I both agree that sixteen is a bit young to be putting chemicals in the brain, especially since I’m adverse even to Tylenol, and the minimum age for lithium and its alternatives is usually eighteen. That is probably why I was and am considering the GED…maybe I can try night school, instead, a high school about an hour from here has evening classes as an alternative to daytime ones.</p>