Can You Pursue Higher Education If You Did Not Attend Traditional School? A Teacher’s Perspective
Last month, I was sitting at my kitchen table after tutoring, grading GED practice tests and picking at leftover chocolate chip cookies my kid had left out, when there was a soft knock on my front door. It was Mia, 19, who’d been coming to me for free math help after her shifts at the Main Street diner. She was still in her navy blue uniform, name tag pinned crookedly, twisting the brim of her baseball cap in one hand and holding a crumpled local community college nursing program brochure in the other. She stepped inside, wiped her shoes on the doormat three times, and asked the question I get at least once a month: “I never finished high school. Never even went through regular school after tenth grade. Can I actually do this? Can I still pursue college?”
I got her a cup of chamomile tea, and she left a faint grease stain on the edge of the brochure from wiping down booths all afternoon. I didn’t give her some big speech right away. I just told her about Javi, the kid I worked with five years back who never set foot in a traditional high school at all. Javi’s parents pulled him out in seventh grade after he started having repeated panic attacks from constant bullying, and he learned at home through unschooling, working with his dad on construction jobs and studying whatever caught his interest – mostly bridges and road design. By the time he turned 20, he wanted a civil engineering degree, and he was convinced his lack of high school transcripts meant he’d never get in.
We sat down at the public library one slow afternoon and pulled up admissions requirements for the three schools he was looking at. It turned out the local state university’s engineering program accepted GEDs just like traditional diplomas, and the community college’s associate program even offered conditional admission for students who hadn’t finished their GED yet, letting them take a couple of introductory classes while they tested. Javi got his GED in three months, started at the community college, transferred to the state program after two years, and now works for the state department of transportation building highways. But it wasn’t some perfect, inspiring fairy tale. His first semester, he had to take two remedial math classes to catch up on concepts he never covered in his self-directed learning, and he studied 10 extra hours a week after his construction shift. He failed his first calculus test, called me crying thinking he’d wasted all his time and money. He stuck with it, but it was hard, messy work the whole way.
That’s the part I try to make clear to parents and kids who ask me this question: it’s absolutely possible to pursue higher education without a traditional high school background, but there are small, concrete steps that make it much easier, and most people don’t know those steps exist. It’s not about being “smart enough” or making up for lost time – it’s about knowing how the system works for non-traditional students.
First, 9 out of 10 accredited colleges and universities in the U.S. accept a GED or HiSET in place of a traditional high school diploma. That’s the first box to check, and it almost always gets checked. If you or your kid hasn’t gotten a GED yet, you don’t have to save up hundreds of dollars for prep classes or test fees. Most local public library systems offer free GED prep, and can help you apply for a fee waiver if you’re low income. That’s a step you can do this week, no commitment required. You don’t even have to decide on a degree yet to get that process started.
Second, if you don’t want to get a GED right away, or you’re unschooled and never did traditional school work, most community colleges have alternative pathways. Many let you take individual classes to test the waters before you apply for a full degree, and use placement tests instead of old transcripts to figure out what level you’re ready for. If you’ve been working or learning independently in a field related to what you want to study, a lot of schools will accept a portfolio of your work instead of test scores. If you want to study early childhood education and you’ve been babysitting or running a neighborhood playgroup for three years, you can bring references, activity plans, and notes from parents to show what you know. That’s often more useful than a 10th grade history transcript anyway.
Third, it’s okay to start small. You don’t have to sign up for a full four-year degree right out the gate. Take one class that interests you, see how it fits with your work and other responsibilities. Most schools let you transfer those credits later if you decide you want to keep going. I’ve seen too many people talk themselves out of applying before they even start because they think they have to have everything figured out right away.
Last week, Mia texted me a screenshot of her GED results: she passed all five sections, two points higher than she needed on the reading section she’d stayed up late studying for. She turned in her nursing program application yesterday. The program is competitive, so we don’t know if she’ll get in this round. If she doesn’t, she’s already planning to take an intro anatomy class this fall and apply again next year. I ran into her at the diner earlier this week, she slipped me a free side of hash browns and said she’s less scared now than she was that night she knocked on my door. There’s still a lot that’s uncertain, but that’s true for any 19-year-old applying to college, traditional diploma or not. For right now, that’s enough.
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