Does anyone here have their GED?

Evan S

Evan S

Veteran
Just a small poll. I have my GED, because of circumstances I wont go into. Although, I am curious if the fact of your GED has ever sacrificed a potential job for you? I don't know where else to go with this question. because I consider your guys advice as good as any. I know what people say though, "95% of employers accept the GED as a diploma."... but what they do is different.. I plan on going to Community College though for an Associates Degree in Applied Sciences (with film making incentive). It's a goal of mine to go.

Is that so bad? to be proud of a GED?

I feel like I should be feeling stupid/ or guilty according to that other 5%
 
Its funny when I hire a crew... I rarely ask them their education background... its either by word of mouth or their credits that gets them the job...

Nothing against college kids but I rather have a guy or gal who's worked on two to three features than someone straight out of college... they've learn or learning the craft on the set...

My advice is improve your skills by working on productions... we all did our freebies... plus go to school at the same time... a degree will help you if go into another field later on in life...

For example where I moved to... a local group wanted a full time video producer... the funny thing is they want someone with a degree... I left USC in the middle of my junior year when my father was dying of cancer... quit to take care of him...

I haven't talked to this group yet... to find out does five feature films as a producer count or does the degree count more... the sad part will be if the degree counts more than working in the industry...

Hope this helps, Gary
 
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Thank you for the response. The idea behind me getting a diploma is to A) get my feet wet and make contact with people like myself and B) use it if I want to go into another field if my career doesn't go over as I'd hoped. I wouldn't know what to do with the degree though, because really.. the only career I want is one in film/video.
 
Well, you could always get an Associates Degree in Business. It'll surely come in handy for you some day.
 
i got a GED...dropped out my junior year because i played too much my freshman year...

since then i've been on the dean's list every year of college...i have a 3.7 gpa and scholarships and grants to pay for school...i will have a bachelors degree in a year and only 15k of debt...highschool doesn't matter - it's what you do after that counts...
 
I was actually home schooled and I don't have a GED or a Diploma, but i'm in college. In essence I'm kinda pissed of because they require me to get a GED before I can technically finish college. I don't see why when if I passed all my classed and meet the credit requirements why do I have to even t get the GED? But in regards to GED vs Diploma it really doesn't matter. Getting a degree is never a bad thing. It always looks good on your resume because it shows that you had the dedication to do something. Of course I don't think anybody in film is going to say "Oh sorry Mr. Tarantino you don't meet the educational requirements" So pretty much makes some kick ass work and nobody will question you.
 
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I work in education, so my opinion might be very different than other peoples.

If you are getting a degree, associates, bachelors, or masters then your highschool education doesn't matter at all. If you are moving forward with your career right out of highschool or GED, then in the professional community there is a certain stigma associated with the GED.

If you are getting your associates then don't worry about it, but right now in the business community (non filmmaking), associates degrees are on par with highschool diplomas and sometimes a bachelor degree is not enough education.

-Jeremy
 
I'm actually working for my GED right now, only got one class and gotta take the GED test.

I dropped out at around 10th grade, after getting into film, at the age of 15-18 I've rented 600 movies from my local video store, yes, 600 movies, 100 of them I'll count as 're-rents' but 500 movies is alot, lol. Shows my love for films.

GED is great, nothing bad, but it can always help.
 
TheYankee said:
I work in education, so my opinion might be very different than other peoples.

If you are getting a degree, associates, bachelors, or masters then your highschool education doesn't matter at all. If you are moving forward with your career right out of highschool or GED, then in the professional community there is a certain stigma associated with the GED.

If you are getting your associates then don't worry about it, but right now in the business community (non filmmaking), associates degrees are on par with highschool diplomas and sometimes a bachelor degree is not enough education.

-Jeremy
Click to expand...

I totally agree.
 
TheYankee said:
I work in education, so my opinion might be very different than other peoples.

If you are getting a degree, associates, bachelors, or masters then your highschool education doesn't matter at all. If you are moving forward with your career right out of highschool or GED, then in the professional community there is a certain stigma associated with the GED.

If you are getting your associates then don't worry about it, but right now in the business community (non filmmaking), associates degrees are on par with highschool diplomas and sometimes a bachelor degree is not enough education.

-Jeremy
Click to expand...

Jeremy, I totally agree with your take on the situation. In the business world, the GED does have a stigma attached and getting an AA which, in today's world is what a high school diploma was in my day, will wipe out the GED. The biggest problem with the GED is that it brands a person as a dropout. Someone who "couldn't close the deal." The biggest advantage I've discovered having my bachelor's degree is that employers see you as a person who can finish something you've started. That is huge with employers. My advice is, if you're concerned about how your GED is affecting you, start a program at your local community college. Take classes as you can and when you graduate, no one is ever going to know whether you finished high school.
 
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In the cooperate world you can "Challenge a coarse" on training. (“I know the material I don’t need the class again, Test me.”
I see a GED as a “Challenge course”

I dropped out around 7th grade, I don’t recommend this bit, at 17 I went to my GED prep coarse, took placement test at 2pm, main test that night and scored in 99 percentile and got a scholarship.
 
I've got a GED...I was homeschooled for the last three years of high school, so I couldn't graduate with the rest of my class. I got into a public ivy college in early admission, and got my BS out of there with a 3.5 GPA. So, NO - I wouldn't hesitate to consider someone with a GED
 
as i see it, if you are motivated to continue school the only advantage to getting a diploma as apposed to a GED (assuming you have ok grades) is the availability of scholarships straight out of highschool (for graduates only)

that being said, it only took me a term and a half to get a 4.0 and then an almost (now completely) full-ride
 
No It's not the same as a high school diploma. It stands for General Education Development. If you graduated high school you wouldn't need a GED
 
I got my GED almost 30 years ago. Yea I was proud of it and the State of Mo paid me $80 a week to go to school. I got a AA in Communications but never talk about it because filmmaking is hands on. I've learned more since I joined this site in Oct. 05 than all of CC school. I never heard of a pepper of fresnel etc. If you know all the stuff taught on this site why would you consider school? If you don't know learn what all these terms mean and in the process make some great art then give youself a Masters.

I would rather learn from this site and buy equipment, in that order, than go to film school, oweing them $100k, unless I'm giving a free full ride. Some of America's best instructor teach here at DVX U.

The topic of all the high school dropouts that are most famous now was discussed somewhere that I can't remember now.
 
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