What happens if you quit school when you are 16 in the state of New Jersey?

A life of poverty and despair.

Currently, a Masters degree is not enough to guarantee a job, much less a High School Diploma.

I graduated H.S when I was 18 (circa 1966). I had little to desire to go to college. I was married, 18 and living in New York City. Why would I ever need college.

Eventually, Dec. 1967, I was hired by IBM as a shipping and receiving clerk in White Plains, NY.

By that time I had realized my stupidity at not going to college. However, even though there were all manner of tuition refund plans, I still didn't want to go to school.

Eventually, I moved to a computer room job on the graveyard shift and started teaching myself how to program. Then the IBM schools started coming. Now here was the pickle, IBM expected you to use what they taught you. So if you took a course in programming, then you better start using what you were taught even if you were not a programmer. If you did not, you got the opportunity to leave the company.

It got even worse when I went into IBM Field Repair. Schools came faster and more intense, plus you now had to deal with customers.

When I left the field for IBM I went into the IBM lab at Boca Raton as a tech support rep. Even more schools.

All told I spent 39 years of my life working. 24 with IBM and 15 with Lexmark.

I've taught "EE" graduates in the theory and practice of Centronics Interfaces, various Printer Control languages, various communication protocol and now I'm retired.

Here's the kicker, retirement stinks, I've been trying to find a job for 5 years now.

I keep getting turned down because I have no formal college education and no Master's degree.

Yes I have plenty of industry education behind me, but that allows potential employers to tell me I am over qualified and undereducated.

Do your life a favor, stay in school and at least get an undergraduates degree.

It will go a long way to helping you enjoy the kind of life style you want.