Should I?

[Raize]

A little backstory here.

I've never liked school. Ever. I only managed to get good grades because my parents told me to, so I assumed I had to. Then I hit 13, and started to question why. Why did I goto this place? What's the point of learning all this? Why do all the teachers try to build up so much homework and stress? The one day, a few years later, I snapped and quit caring.

Now I'm 17, I'm a senior in high school, only 1 year left. I've been barely passing my classes, mainly making D's. I don't see the point in finishing. Another worthless year of nothing but stress.

What I want to do, is to drop out, get my GED, goto the local community college, from there head to an art school or something, and go on in 3D art.

But is that really wise? I question myself, but...the thought of school, it's so stressful and depressing. People say it's just one more year...but...I don't want another year of depression, anger, stress, and I'll have P.E. this year, and a FULL schedule because of assessments (so I'll be retaking classes I shouldn't have to)

Along with this, if I decide to drop out, what's the easiest way? I know the teachers will be hounding me not to, but they normally come up with horrible reasons not to.

[Kaleidoscope Eyes]

Prepare for a long Jessi post...

Well, the options vary a little depending on location and I don't know where you live, could you give me some more information?

You can't just "drop out", as in stop going. You're 17, according to your profile, and as a minor you legally have to be enrolled in school (and attending). If you have too many absences, your parents can face some nasty fines and you can expect a house call from a truancy officer (they work for the police department and can be very scary). You also can't get your GED until you're 18. I'd suggest looking online at what you'll need to know to pass the test and actually get your GED. Would it actually be easier to take that, assuming it will work out, or would it make more sense just to finish out the year?

The thing that concerns me about you, is that you say you don't like school at all and that you haven't even tried or cared for a while now. What would make college different for you? No one will give you Saturday school/detention for missing class or being tardy. Being late may affect your grade however, and after so many absences the teacher usually has the option to just drop you from the class altogether. No one will breathe down your neck to make you go, or to make you study. You pass or fail because of your own motivation and hard work. Keep that in mind if you end up able to leave high school early. It's not going to be a free ride, and you will actually have to focus on getting your work done. The homework load is often considerably less than high school, which can be good, but it also leaves you on your own to make sure you know the material.

I've had similar troubles with school myself, so don't think I'm trying to dismiss you. Not finishing high school can have effects on your ability to get a job and to get into certain colleges however, because a GED is not 100% equal to a high school diploma. If you don't think you can keep up with college, you're better off finishing high school and seeing where to go from there. Otherwise, you're just going to feel worse.

I'd recommend looking into independent study, at least for some of your classes. Maybe you can do half-days; take a few of your classes before lunch, then go home and do the work for other classes on your own schedule. Try to find something that works, but don't give up on high school just yet.

[Mzor203]

I have a couple things to add...

3D modeling is one of those jobs where a full portfolio is often more valuable than what's on your resume. If you have a piece of work that someone thinks looks cool, they're going to buy it whether or not you dropped out of school.

If you are a good artist, you will be hired by someone, as 3D art especially is demand. Especially if you can find some sort of niche.

The only problem here is that it could take a while to find that niche. And you want to have something to tide you over while you are building up the skills and portfolio you need. Finishing school does give you a lot of options for if you change your mind, or have other ideas in the meantime.

Last little bit, is that you can always go to community college and then transfer over to an actual university after a year. Since I myself am not going to have all the prerequisites to go to a full-fledged university, my mom did some research and found out that that can be a very viable solution. Not all universities will take you, but at that point you've shown them that you can handle college.

You have options. Just think them over quite carefully. And I would especially suggest thinking about how you're going to make your money until you've really established yourself in the art industry.

[Raize]

sorry, I left out things.

My birthday is right before school begins, I'll be 18 by the time it starts. I live in Wyoming.

The thing is, I do actually try if the class interests me. But here, there's nothing. The closest class there was, computer art, and it's designing things in Photoshop, I've taken that class already. I know college will still make you take like..science and math and such, but I'd rather challenge myself that get crap thrown in my face every 5 minutes. I don't like wasting my time, so I figured I'd rough it out through the core classes. (and there is no P.E, so no giggling sophomores to make me feel worse)

"Last little bit, is that you can always go to community college and then transfer over to an actual university after a year."
I didn't know that, I thought you had to actually finish. Handy piece of information there.

What I was going to do, was get a job now, use it for college funds and such, get my degrees, then start small. Like, I'm very into video games. So, I'd go for one of those small projects on like...those free MMO"s and such. Then eventually work my way up.

I really want to....but I would hate to go into a decision I'd regret. After all, I'm told all the time I'll be a failure if I go through with it, but on the flip side, I don't want the stress, and I don't want to waste anymore time.

[Mzor203]

Well it sounds like you have a plan, which is good. I'll try to get some more information on transferring up from a community college, I haven't really looked into it yet as I don't plan on going to college at all, but I'll be sure to get a better explanation of how out of my mom.

As for potential regret that could come out of this, there are ways to go back and learn what you've missed. You can take online courses to get credit for certain classes, and I'm sure if you find out that it wasn't a good idea, there would be a way to prove that you have the knowledge needed to officially 'graduate' high school and get acknowledgement for that. It might be a hassle, but it's most likely possible.

I guess now it's best to keep thinking, and wait for more opinions, because I'm sure more points will be brought up for you to think about.

[Raize]

Well it sounds like you have a plan, which is good. I'll try to get some more information on transferring up from a community college, I haven't really looked into it yet as I don't plan on going to college at all, but I'll be sure to get a better explanation of how out of my mom.

As for potential regret that could come out of this, there are ways to go back and learn what you've missed. You can take online courses to get credit for certain classes, and I'm sure if you find out that it wasn't a good idea, there would be a way to prove that you have the knowledge needed to officially 'graduate' high school and get acknowledgement for that. It might be a hassle, but it's most likely possible.

I guess now it's best to keep thinking, and wait for more opinions, because I'm sure more points will be brought up for you to think about.

Can you go back and get a real high school thing even if you already have a GED though?

[INFERNO]

A GED technically is meant to be the equivalent of a high-school diploma. I'm not sure but I would be surprised if you could have a GED and a high-school diploma.

I'll be in 3rd year university in September and I can tell you first year is a year where many people drop out with or without their own accord. If you want computer design, then certain colleges or universities are oriented towards that more. However, you'll find that you'll need to learn the basics before you can do the fancy and the fancy is what you probably like. The basics can be boring and I have to question whether or not you'd care about it since you admit you currently don't for classes that don't interest you. It may not interest you but if you don't have it, then you'll either have to beg to the professor or chair or someone higher up to get into the classes you like or you don't get in.

You can transfer, as mentioned above from a community-college to a university. However, there is one huge catch. The university may not recognize all of your courses regardless of your mark. So you may have to take some of the university's basic courses and that may put you back a bit. You can contact the university and ask the academic advisor for computers or the chair of the department which courses will be recognized so you'll know. They may also want a certain grade on that course, not simply a pass so even if you earned you course at the community-college, if the mark is not high enough for the university, you'll need to take it all over again. The exception to this is if you ask the professor or chair and show them your previous marks. If they're close enough to the requires criteria and you show you have some skill, then you may be able to skip the course and go into the one you may like.

I'm in Canada so I don't know if this applies to your state or not, but if you take a summer course of a previous course you have, then only the higher grade (ideally the summer one) counts. Both will appear on your transcript but only the higher one will have the earned credit.

But if you want to get into the college or university, then try harder at other classes that are less interesting. Yes your portfolio counts a lot but having the higher grades is nicer also as it shows you can do more than one academic area. Also, the college or university have certain minimum overall grades they'd want.