The stairway to college is made up of steps that will take you to the higher education that's right for you'and (yes) ONLY you!
How high school and college diverge.
The high school experience moves students through the school system in groups. Where do you fit in? How are you viewed? Athlete? Actor? Academic wiz?
To survive and excel in high school, you find that you must meet the expectations for people who are much the same. Yet, in college, and in much of the world after college, the key to excellence, and the route to happiness, is often to carve your own path.
How do you feel when you read this classic poem by Robert Frost?
The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I'I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Selecting a college or university is not about following the path of everyone else, is it? Ivy League? Or not. Big 10 Football? Or not. While college has become more expensive and competitive, the path you choose may surprise all those around you.
Don't let this idea frighten your parents or shock your friends. Here's the core: Trust the voice inside of you. Small classes: do they appeal to you or stifle you? Trust your emotions when visiting this type of school. A sprawling college campus: Does it welcome you or bore you? Trust your intuition over every choice. And when you meet with two diverging paths, feel proud of the decision to take the one less traveled.