Work/Employment

Some students choose to enter the workforce directly after high school graduation for a variety of reasons.  Other students choose to work for a year or two and then attend college so they may not have to take as many student loans in college.  Some students do not know what they want to do for a career and intend to work for a couple years to determine what path they want to take and then find a job in that field or attend college at that time.

Things to be aware of if you are choosing this route:

• Students who take a year or 2 off and then plan to attend college, rarely do go to college.

• An alternate option may be to attend college part-time.  This would allow a student an opportunity to still work and earn money to pay for college and not be completely out of school as well as still working towards a degree.

• Becker High School study shows that only 3% of those not attending college right after high school later on do attend college.

• Studies have shown that the lifetime earnings of people with a high school diploma versus a post-secondary education are significantly less.

  • • Studies show that a person with a high school diploma will earn approximately 1.2 million dollars in lifetime earnings whereas someone with a Bachelor’s degree will earn approximately 2.1 million dollars in lifetime earnings.  This is a difference of almost 1 million dollars.