Diploma or GED? Which is better?

I know this, because it recently happened to a friend of a friend's nephew. He applied to a college and was accepted with no problem.

But when he also applied for federal financial aid - he was turned down by the school's financial aid department because his 'school' (which was home school) was not listed on the colleges approved list of accredited high schools, and they said that therefore, they could not disburse federal financial aid funds to him.

According to Janet, this kids mom, this is not correct and is quite against the law. (something about it's considered discrimination).

Janet told me that the U.S. Department of Education has issued a special bulletin to federal financial aid departments across the nation stating that home school diplomas are valid instruments and should not be excluded from the criteria determining eligibility for Title IV funds.

However, it seems that many financial aid departments have not read this bulletin and if so they are not paying attention to it. A lot of home schoolers are being shut out of financial aid because colleges do not recognize the validity of their diplomas.

There are only two things homeschoolers can do.

1. Fight it. Keep sending letters and phone calls to your school's financial aid dept. until they 'wake up'.

2. Just get a GED. All financial aid departments recognize the GED.

Remember, I'm talking about colleges recognizing home school diploma's for purposes of disbursing financial aid. I haven't heard of any colleges not accepting students for enrollment - as long as they've got cash on the barrel head.

oy