What is the difference between a GED and a high school diploma?
A high school diploma is the award given to a high school student upon successful completion of a high school program. When you graduate from high school, that’s what you get. The GED, or General Educational Development, is a set of tests designed to determine whether the test-taker has a high-school graduate’s level of knowledge. “Getting your GED” refers to passing these tests. Theoretically, a person who holds a high school diploma and a person who passes the GED Tests have equivalent proofs of their knowledge. There is sometimes a negative stigma associated with the GED, since it is taken only by students who have dropped out of high school. This is not always an indicator of failure, though. Some bright students take the GED because they believe they could pass it now, and they don’t want to go through the rest of high school. Usually they do this to enter college earlier. Sometimes students leave school for economic or family reasons, and they take the GED after studying in the o
