What is the Difference: High School Diploma vs. GED?

There has been a great deal of controversy between the earning of a high school diploma vs. a GED. Statistics will show that high school graduates have far greater success in life than those that earn a GED, an examples would be that 65% of high school students go on to college rather than only 15% of GED recipients. However, when you take a look at other factors, such as life circumstances, you will find that there is a huge disparity between the tow classes. This disparity is more than likely the real cause of the differences when comparing a high school diploma to a GED.

To be truthful, recipients of GED’s often had huge obstacles to overcome during their high school years, and something had to give. Unfortunately, it was education. There are many reasons why people drop out of high school such as teen pregnancy, drugs or alcohol, loss of a parent and having to take on further family responsibilities, lack of support from parents, even boredom. These have all been cited as the most popular reasons why people dropped out of high school. Recently, though, as high school become more stringent with their behavior codes, there has been an increase in students dropping out for behavioral problems such as fighting in school.

The main reason that most GED recipients do not go on to be successful in their lives, unlike their high school graduate counterparts, is mainly because for whatever reason they dropped out in the first place, it is too difficult to overcome and they are simply unable to.

When taken at face value, a high school diploma vs. GED is a little better. The GED recipient will have to attend higher education at a community college before traditional university for the most part in order to prove that they have the diligence and discipline to carry on and achieve their goals.

If you have the choice, getting a high school diploma vs. a GED is definitely the way to go, but mostly only for the sole reason of higher education. Colleges prefer to accept high school graduates because they have proven themselves willing to do what is necessary to stay in school and complete their degrees.