Absolutely NOT. Take as many AP classes as you can. They are generally college level. You will find it much easier to get into the schools you really want if yo

Absolutely NOT. Take as many AP classes as you can. They are generally college level. You will find it much easier to get into the schools you really want if you actually graduate. Despite what people may say, GED's don't carry the same social weight as diplomas. A high school diploma is itself nothing more than to say that you passed the base level of societal education, but many people consider a GED to mean that you we're not even capable of achieving that low-level rung. Do what you can to graduate early. THAT looks good. If you can finish in 2 or 2.5 years what takes most of us 4 years, and you can do it with a very high GPA, that's just all gold stars right there. The other thing to keep in mind about graduating with a diploma is that of grants and scholarships. College is going to be fucking expensive. I'm assuming you're 15-17 years old. So you might not understand what fucking expensive really means in your bones, beyond "that's a lot of money". Don't take this as an insult or anything. I'm 30 years old and it took until I was like 27 to really, really understand how much "fucking expensive" really is. For me it was moving from South Florida where I was making at most $30k to SF where I've been making 2.5-3x that much as a salary. Anyway, grants and scholarships are free money you don't have to pay back later. And when you're 25 looking to start a career and whatnot, you'll really appreciate not having massive loan payments to pay on a monthly basis. I'm currently in the middle of my 2nd startup, and since you are here on HN I'll put my argument in those terms. Look at high school as your first startup. The only way its going to succeed is based on how much work and sacrifice you're willing to put into it. If you can make it through that, many other things in your life will be much easier.