School Achievements

[GingerRose]

[Blue eyes white dragon]

I completed high school with the HiSet, which is like the GED but with minor differences like bigger time limits and cheaper to retake if needed. I was homeschooled until my senior year, but I ended up dropping out due to the toxic environment and having to take classes I didn't need. I'm almost done with my Associate's degree but apparently they didn't offer the class needed to finish it this semester. I am part of Phi Theta Kappa and get usually a 4.0 GPA (one semester I did get a 4.1 GPA tho)

[Raindrops]

I finished high school and college and made it one year into uni before dropping out. 🤠

[RoseGoesToYale]

I've got a high school diploma and B.A. in sociology, and I belong to the International Honor Society of Sociology AKD.

[Sam Spade]

I have a high school diploma... that's it. College just isn't for me but I'd go if I absolutely had to.

[Guest]

I have a high school diploma, a BA in Art History, and I've been on the Dean's list.

[Janus the Fox]

2 GCSEs in school, but made up for it going through college gaining a Motor Vehicle Maintenance lv1 certificate, then an ICT BTEC equivalent to 5 A*GCSEs and 3 A-Levels at A Grade.  Finally gaining a foundation degree in Computing with ideas or personal studies involving Business Information Systems to bachelor or Masters level, maybe even a Systems Theory PhD if circumstances.  What I have already is considered exceptional for someone with Moderate Learning Difficulties, despite having no job prospects.

[Gloomy]

I have a high school diploma and a bachelor’s in finance. I think I was on the Dean’s list or something for a little while when I was in community college.

[iff]

I don't think I got a high school diploma (

I do have a bachelor's degree and I am a member of a professional body

[Forest Spirit]

I got our equivalent (I guess) of a high school diploma (Matura/Abitur) and a Bachelors + Masters degree. Done with university for the moment, maybe one day I'll start again.

And I'm proudest of my language certificate because you know... priorities

[Still]

I have a master's degree, but sure as hell never won any awards in school 😀

[Grumpy Alien]

I have a US high school diploma. I never did any education beyond what was mandatory. And that has royally fucked me over now that I live in England.

[Guest]

Nothing here.

[Ceebs]

I was a 'gifted' kid (like, I got put in special classes and shit, for kids who were beyond their grade level in terms of learning) who got straight As until I was about 16, and everyone expected me to do Great Things™... I intended to be a journalism major in uni... and I became a high school dropout thanks to struggles with mental illness, which I have finally learnt at the age of nearly 36 was primarily due to undiagnosed ADHD. 🙃

 

(And I have a fuckload of shame about this.)

[Guest]

Nothing here.

[Ceebs]

11 minutes ago, 154057 said:

You survived though. You’re still here. That is something of which you should be proud. And 36 is not too late to begin working on great things.

Very true, yeah. Thank you for the reminder.  

[Kimmie.]

I don't even know what half of those mean😆 

I have finished the Swedish version of High school and that is it i guess.

[Grumpy Alien]

2 hours ago, CBC said:

I was a 'gifted' kid (like, I got put in special classes and shit, for kids who were beyond their grade level in terms of learning) who got straight As until I was about 16, and everyone expected me to do Great Things™... I intended to be a journalism major in uni... and I became a high school dropout thanks to struggles with mental illness, which I have finally learnt at the age of nearly 36 was primarily due to undiagnosed ADHD. 🙃

 

(And I have a fuckload of shame about this.)

I was a disappointing kid. I excelled in some subjects naturally (I never got anything below a high B/89% in English classes) but really really struggled with maths. Science was kind of a toss up - depended on what we were learning and who was teaching it, really. I somehow really understood high school advanced chemistry?? Which was surprising. But because of my undiagnosed and therefore untreated mental illnesses and abusive home life, I barely graduated high school. My GPA was 2.6 I think? I got Bs and Cs in French and History because I enjoyed them and As in English but anything else was Ds and Fs. I would make sure my average was a low D by the end of the year so I didn’t have to repeat the course. I wanted to drop out because I was so overwhelmed and not being able to keep up with the kids who were clearly idiots made me feel utterly useless. A big part of the problem was how big a role homework plays in American education. I had hours of homework per night and that was a massive chunk of my overall grade. I couldn’t do it because of my severe anxiety and turbulent home life so I didn’t stand a chance. It also meant that whenever the teachers expected us to teach ourselves something at home and discuss it in class the next day, I wasn’t learning because I hadn’t been able to do the initial reading and comprehension.

 

I have a lot of shame about my education. It’s horrifically humiliating when all of my friends are practically geniuses. My friends include a linguistic guru who genuinely retains pretty much any information she comes across, a Ravenclaw who is very much a “blonde” in most practical aspects but knows everything about cooking and can answer any pop culture trivia you throw at her, and a NYC based labor and delivery nurse who got a degree in biomedical engineering at Boston University before nursing school at Columbia University. My husband is an electronics engineer and the “least educated” of his friends who all went to good universities right after A levels where he did an apprenticeship before getting his bachelors. Some of his friends are physicians and some went to Oxford University. So I basically constantly feel like a complete idiot. I’ve only recently started to accept that it isn’t my fault that I was ill and didn’t have the help I needed or access to better education. None of that makes me stupid. Though... I still feel extremely stupid. But if someone else told me all that about themselves, I’d tell them to cut their self pity shit and point out how not stupid they are... so I’m a hypocrite but possibly not as idiotic as I feel.

[Badhbh Catha]

Barely passed high school, never really bothered much with school ever mostly due to mental health issues. now I just sorta have no desire whatsoever to continue education not that I really have much of a choice atm with financial situation, I just wanna make enough money to support family with w/e work I can get and don't really care about anything else

[GingerRose]

3 hours ago, Kimmie. said:

I don't even know what half of those mean😆

Yep, the complicated American school system.

[ben8884]

High school, a paralegal diploma and I am currently working on my University degree.

[spooky_moss]

I'm ~2 months away from clicking that magical button of "bachelor's degree", lol. It's not a big thing but lately it has been frustrating on job applications when they ask what the highest level of education I've completed is, and I can only put high school even after 3.5 years of uni. Nothing wrong with those who only did school up to high school, but dammit I need the years of school I've done to at least mean something if it was gonna suck so much sometimes (AKA a lot of the time)!

[cato]

16 hours ago, spooky_moss said:

I'm ~2 months away from clicking that magical button of "bachelor's degree", lol. It's not a big thing but lately it has been frustrating on job applications when they ask what the highest level of education I've completed is, and I can only put high school even after 3.5 years of uni. Nothing wrong with those who only did school up to high school, but dammit I need the years of school I've done to at least mean something if it was gonna suck so much sometimes (AKA a lot of the time)!

This drove me nuts when I was in school.  I always appreciated questions that would allow you to indicate a degree was in progress.

 

I have a bachelor's in psychology with a minor in Hellenistic Studies (effectively, I took a lot of classes on Greece).  Was one of two people in NYU's College of Arts & Studies to get an award senior year for maintaining a perfect 4.0 all the way through.  It wasn't as great as it sounds.  I remember crying and contemplating dropping a class because I might get an A-.  I really wish I had cared less and had more fun.

 

I've contemplating going to graduate school, but going full-time is an opportunity cost where I wouldn't be working and gaining experience or salary.  I don't think a master's degree in computer science would help me much at this point, since experience is infinitely more useful than a degree in software development.  I don't even have an undergrad degree in the field--I taught myself, so you can see how critical a degree is for advancement.   I could do a degree in data science or go to business school if I wanted a career pivot, but meh?

 

More than anything, though, the "grade whoring" was mentally exhausting and not something I ever want to feel again.

[Ceebs]

On 2/26/2021 at 6:38 AM, Kimchi Peanut said:

My husband is an electronics engineer and the “least educated” of his friends who all went to good universities right after A levels where he did an apprenticeship before getting his bachelors. Some of his friends are physicians and some went to Oxford University. So I basically constantly feel like a complete idiot. I’ve only recently started to accept that it isn’t my fault that I was ill and didn’t have the help I needed or access to better education. None of that makes me stupid. Though... I still feel extremely stupid.

Yeah I know that one. My partners (past/present) have neuroscience, philosophy, law, and journalism (and something else I forget) degrees. I feel like a moron if I compare educational achievements, despite the fact that I'm probably a little brighter than one of them in an overall IQ sorta way and very similar to the other two. And then there's my cousin with his linguistics PhD. As kids we were both known for doing really well academically and I was always sort of jealous of him. As adults, he's the one teaching in universities now and I'm uhhh... existing...

[Guest]

High school diplomas aren't a thing here, and I have no idea what a GED is... but I didn't finish high school anyway. I dropped out in my AS year and then did a National Diploma (vocational equivalent of A levels) a year later.  I have a BSc, MSc, and PhD, and am a member of the professional body related to my field. 

[Knight of Cydonia]

I've got a BSc and PhD but not a Master's.

[daveb]

20 hours ago, Knight of Cydonia said:

I've got a BSc and PhD but not a Master's.

I didn't know it was possible to get a PhD without getting a Master's.

 

20 hours ago, theV0ID said:

GED

It's basically the equivalent of a high school diploma for people who didn't graduate high school in the traditional system, like adults who later completed high school level education.

 

I hesitate to post for fear of bragging. I know a good number of very intelligent and/or very educated (in a self-taught or non-traditional) way, so, while I am proud of my own achievements I know others have trod their own paths and are very knowledgeable and/or accomplished.

[Knight of Cydonia]

9 minutes ago, daveb said:

I didn't know it was possible to get a PhD without getting a Master's.

 

In the US I think it's actually pretty typical; most people don't do a Master's degree, and it's not a requirement for admission into a PhD program.

 

In Canada and most European countries the culture is different, and a Master's is usually required if you want to do a PhD. However, the time to finish a PhD is shorter, so overall a Master's + PhD in Canada/Europe takes about the same as the time for a PhD in the US (6-8 years).

 

In my case in Canada, my university had a direct transfer/fast track program: you start out in a Master's program, and if you take a certain number of courses and do well in them, have a willing supervisor, and get the approval of the department, you can transfer your Master's into a PhD. It's not generally recommended because the Master's is a good "trial run" to see if you are a good fit for graduate-level research without needing to commit to a longer and more intensive degree, but I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted to do so it made sense!

[spooky_moss]

8 hours ago, cato said:

This drove me nuts when I was in school.  I always appreciated questions that would allow you to indicate a degree was in progress.

 

I have a bachelor's in psychology with a minor in Hellenistic Studies (effectively, I took a lot of classes on Greece).  Was one of two people in NYU's College of Arts & Studies to get an award senior year for maintaining a perfect 4.0 all the way through.  It wasn't as great as it sounds.  I remember crying and contemplating dropping a class because I might get an A-.  I really wish I had cared less and had more fun.

 

I've contemplating going to graduate school, but going full-time is an opportunity cost where I wouldn't be working and gaining experience or salary.  I don't think a master's degree in computer science would help me much at this point, since experience is infinitely more useful than a degree in software development.  I don't even have an undergrad degree in the field--I taught myself, so you can see how critical a degree is for advancement.   I could do a degree in data science or go to business school if I wanted a career pivot, but meh?

 

More than anything, though, the "grade whoring" was mentally exhausting and not something I ever want to feel again.

I totally get that. The school I'm at has an excellent scholarship you can get each year if your previous year's average was above a certain grade. I spent a lot of time each year despairing over whether I'd make the cut-off. The thing is, I wasn't even desperate for the money. I could have gotten by just fine with a reduced scholarship or no scholarship and instead paying with summer job money and extra loans. This year my grades aren't going towards any scholarship (since I'm graduating this year) and I've been trying to try less hard on my schoolwork, but it's tough to go against that perfectionist nature that so often makes me life more difficult for no reason.

 

It sucks that you would need a degree to advance even though you know what you're doing when it comes to computer science! I wish jobs placed more values on experience and skills.

[Skycaptain]

University dropout