GED vs High School Diploma: What To Do When You (Or Your Teen) Don’t Know Which To Choose
The crumpled intake sheet from the alternative education office slid across our kitchen table Sunday night, half-covered by a grease stain from leftover pepperoni pizza. My 17-year-old Javi pushed it toward me, staring at the scuff on his work boot, and said, “I still don’t know if I should do my GED or stick out the high school diploma program.”
It’s not a new question for us. After Javi had a bad panic attack in the school cafeteria last fall, he missed 18 days of first semester, falling too far behind in chemistry and U.S. history to graduate with his class in June. His traditional high school couldn’t hold his spot past the end of the school year, so the counselor sent him home with two options: enroll in the county’s alternative high school diploma program, or do GED prep through the same community center. I’ve heard this question from other parents in our homeschool and special ed co-op too, more often than you’d think. Plenty of teens don’t fit the traditional high school timeline, and just as many parents don’t know what to advise beyond the default “just finish high school.”
I grew up with examples of both paths, so I didn’t jump in with an answer right away. My best friend Lila dropped out at 16 to care for her sick mom, got her GED a year later, and now she’s a pediatric nurse. My older brother took two extra years to finish his alternative high school diploma, and now he runs his own carpentry business. Both choices worked for them, but neither was the “right” path for everyone. That’s the first thing I’ve learned: the answer isn’t one-size-fits-all.
That night at the table, the first thing I did was pull up my phone and pull up the website for the automotive tech program Javi wants to start. I typed in admissions requirements, and we read it together: “Must have high school diploma or GED equivalent.” No fine print, no preference for one over the other. When Javi asked if it would matter if he later transferred to a four-year college for business, we checked the state university’s page too: GED is accepted for all students over 18 who’ve completed community college credits, which is Javi’s plan anyway. That’s the first concrete step any parent or teen can take: don’t rely on general rules you heard from a friend or relative. Look up the actual requirements for whatever you want to do next, right then. Most of the time, both options are acceptable.
A few days later, we stopped by the community center after Javi got off work at the auto parts store to sit in on a session of each program. The alternative diploma program requires 12 remaining credits to graduate, each credit taking 8 weeks of weekly classes and structured homework. At Javi’s current work schedule of 16 hours a week, he’d finish 18 months from now. The GED prep program is self-paced: two 2-hour classes a week, homework on your own time, and you take the four subject tests when you feel ready. Most people finish in 3 to 6 months. Javi already struggles with piled-up, late homework from missed classes, so the slower, higher-structure route sounded more draining to him than the faster self-paced option. Visiting in person, just sitting in for 20 minutes to see the environment and the pace, made the difference a lot clearer than any paper brochure could.
The counselor at the center gave us another tip that I’ve passed along to other parents: have your teen take the free official GED practice test before you decide. It’s available online through the GED website, takes a couple hours, and gives you an exact score that tells you how close you are to passing. If you’re already within 50 points of passing on most sections, GED is a fast, doable option that lets you move on to what you care about sooner. If you’re scoring far below passing, the diploma program lets you build up credit slowly, without the pressure of passing one big set of tests at the end. There’s a common myth that GED is always easier, but it’s not. It’s just a different structure, and that practice test takes the guesswork out.
Javi still worries about stigma. Last week he told me one of his friends said GED is for people who quit. I didn’t brush that off – I told him about my cousin, who got his GED at 17 after dropping out to help his dad run a roofing business. He got his electrical license a few years later, now he owns his own company, and no one has asked to see his high school diploma in 20 years. If he’d stuck out the diploma program back then, he would have lost the chance to buy into his first business partner’s contract. The timing worked better for him to get his GED, and that was that.
Right now, Javi’s scheduled to take his official practice GED this Saturday at the prep center. He’s leaning towards GED, because finishing 14 months earlier means he can start his auto tech apprenticeship at the local dealership that much sooner, which is what he actually cares about. He still worries what his grandma will say, and I’ve told him I’ll handle that conversation. I don’t know for sure if this is the right choice, and it’s still up to him. There’s no neat ending here, no perfect outcome guaranteed. But for any teen or parent stuck on this question, that’s okay. You don’t have to pick the path that looks best to other people. You just have to pick the one that fits your life right now.
Please indicate: Thinking In Educating » GED vs High School Diploma: What To Do When You (Or Your Teen) Don’t Know Which To Choose