I'm not sure where exactly this fits in, but when I was in high school I wanted to take some classes at the local vocational technical school. Later in high school I had extra space in my schedule which I wanted to use learning some metal fab. I had every intention on moving right on into a bachelors program after high school, but with some free time, why not learn some hands on stuff I wanted to know.
I was strongly, strongly advised against this by everyone. High school guidance counselors, college admission folks, family, etc. all said I should not do that. The reason being that it would look bad to admissions folks; it would look like I was not committed to a path of higher education.
I found this frustrating. It felt like social expectations dictated that learning hands on skills was beneath someone who was pursuing a professional position. Later on in life after graduating and getting a professional job, I went back to night school at a local community college to improve my hands on skills in topics that interest me.