Yeah, there are some people who do that. But I really doubt a lot of them ARE doing so because they want to, but because given multiple factors (family, past hi

Yeah, there are some people who do that. But I really doubt a lot of them ARE doing so because they want to, but because given multiple factors (family, past history, school..life in general, really) that it's very difficult to get a good post-HS education with the budget and resources they have for a career they want. Loans, grants and scholarships are hard to come across especially with the way the economy is now..and like I said, I dropped out of HS to go to a community college. My tuition costs less than my textbooks, and in total as a full time student with a 12 unit courseload now I'm paying less than $1000 for classes+books+materials+parking permits and all that this semester. But some of my classmates are struggling with financial aid and jobs because they can't even afford to pay for the classes alone and they are residents, not students paying insanely high out-of-state rates. For what it's worth, I have considered entering the foodservice industry, but as an owner/operator and not a minimum-wage employee. In the right location with the right food, there's a killing to be made and it could leave me a fair amount of time to work on what I want (code code code ;) ). But again like you point out, it's a different situation. Most high school dropouts wouldn't be considering that. On a related tangent, what's interesting to note is just how much of those units I'm taking now can transfer to the schools I'm applying to. Almost all of my classes transfer to UC (I'm in a california CC), which means for the same as one year's tuition at a UC like UCLA or UC Berkeley, I could spend a couple years at a CC taking the same classes, possibly even pay rent on an apartment and gas for the car, and then transfer. I'm seeing more and more students go this route because they're short on money even to go to a UC. Like I said, mine this semester is under $1000 and I could probably make a fair amount of that back by selling my textbooks, this academic year at UCLA is just under $10,000 for undergrad.