More than 1.3 million students drop out of high school every year in the US, making them ineligible for 90% of jobs in America, according to DoSomething.org.
But while it's by no means considered the path to success — Tumblr founder David Karp dropped out of high school at the age of 15 and told Forbes he doesn't recommend it to others since he missed out on so much — some people made the most of their time outside the hallowed halls of high school.
Here is the special breed of super successful people that overcame their "high-school dropout" status and turned the world on its head.
Vivian Giang contributed to an earlier version of this article.
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Richard Branson dropped out at 15.
The Virgin Group founder is an international powerhouse currently worth about $4.9 billion, according to Forbes.
Branson founded his first business, Student magazine, after dropping out of high school at 15 and has spoken out against the university system on his blog.
Nearly 50 years after dropping out, he has overseen approximately 500 companies, with his brand currently on somewhere between 200 and 300 of them.
David Karp dropped out at 15.
At the age of 15, Karp dropped out of an elite Bronx High School of Science and developed Tumblr, the blog-hosting and social network company, in 2007 in the "back bedroom of his mother's modest Manhattan apartment."
He sold the blog-hosting company to Yahoo for $1.1 billion in 2013, when his net worth reportedly exceeded $200 million, and he remains as the company's CEO.
Aretha Franklin dropped out at 15.
Regarded as a child prodigy, Franklin recorded her first tracks at age 14 and performed with her father's traveling Gospel revival show, according to Bio. She dropped out of high school at 15 to care for her first child.
Franklin has since received numerous honorary degrees from universities like Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and the Berklee College of Music.
In 1987, Franklin became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She has sung at the inauguration of three US presidents, including Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Franklin has 18 Grammys under her belt, and in 1994 was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
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