Maeve can't wait to get into college. The classes have to be more interesting than most of what's offered in secondary school, the professors have to be at least slightly less obnoxious, and she has a feeling, too, that whatever reputation she's carried for the past four years won't follow her there.

But she knows it isn't for everyone.

"You should only go if you want to," she says. "Not because your boyfriend wants you to. But I figure you know that."