User:Silence/Dropout

This list of secondary school dropouts consists of noteworthy people who left high school, or an equivalent institution, without having graduated. It does not include those who never attended a secondary school to begin with, and so excludes all individuals who lived prior to the first implementations of the concept of secondary education at the end of the 18th century. It does include students who were expelled, rather than dropping out voluntarily, and it also includes those who dropped out but later re-enrolled and graduated, or received an honorary diploma later in life.

As secondary education has become dramatically more common over the years, the number of secondary school dropouts has increased as well. Additionally, failure to graduate has become much more noteworthy and stigmatizing in the eyes of many than it was in the 19th and early 20th centuries, although there are a number of dropouts who nevertheless later went on to become successful in a variety of fields.

Although secondary schools in different countries have a number of significant differences, there are enough similarities for some grouping to be possible. Most secondary schools begin in 7th grade at the earliest, and end in 12th grade at the latest, though there are exceptions. Secondary school is also mandatory until a certain age (usually between 15 and 18) in most countries, unlike higher education institutions, which as a result have fewer attendees and fewer college dropouts. Secondary school dropouts have also become much more common than primary school dropouts, though in the past it was much more common to receive only a few years of formal education at best.

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Billy Joe Armstrong, American songwriter, guitarist and lead singer for the band Green Day; dropped out of Pinole Valley High School in 1990, halfway through his senior year and the day before his eighteenth birthday, to focus on his band.

Michelle Branch, American singer, songwriter and guitarist; dropped out of Red Rock High School in her sophomore year at age fifteen to be home-schooled and pursue her music career.

James H. Clark, American Internet entrepeneur, self-made billionaire, and founder of Netscape, WebMD, and Silicon Graphics; dropped out of high school in 1960 at age sixteen to join the Navy, later attending university and earning Bachelor's and Master's degrees in physics and a PhD in Computer Science.

Diana, Princess of Wales; left the Norfolk West Heath Girls' School in 1977 at age sixteen after failing all of her Ordinary level examinations, briefly attending a finishing school afterwards.

Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame; dropped out of Galileo High School in San Francisco at age sixteen in the spring of 1930, taking jobs such as working at an orange-juice bottling plant, delivering groceries, and working at a cannery while frequently playing baseball, and entering the minor leagues two years later.

George Eastman, American inventor of roll film, self-made millionaire, and founder of the Eastman Kodak company; dropped out of private school in 1868 to get a job to support his family.

Albert Einstein, German theoretical physicist who formulated the theory of relativity; dropped out of the Luitpold Gymnasium in Munich in the spring of 1895 after his family moved to Italy following the failure of his father's business. He had remained behind to finish school, but left after one term without telling his parents, a year and a half before final examinations. He later received his secondary school diploma in September 1896 in Switzerland.

William Faulkner, American Nobel Prize-winning novelist; dropped out of high school in eleventh grade in 1914 to work in his grandfather's bank, then served briefly in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War I, though he saw no action. He then attended the University of Mississippi as a veteran, but dropped out a second time.