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" First of all, my college counselor, Mrs. K, was the best. She, like all other good advisors, knew all of the statistics, figures, and facts about almost every school in the country. There are things, however, that even the almost-perfect &amp;quot;K&amp;quot; (as I call her) couldn&amp;#039;t tell me, simply because she&amp;#039;s not a freshman in college. So here it is, the behind-the-scenes, straight-up truth that even the best guidance counselor isn&amp;#039;t going to tell you: Going to school without any of your friends from high school is really, really hard. I&amp;#039;d heard about homesickness and I figured that I might be lonely once in awhile, but I don&amp;#039;t think anyone ever fully prepared me for how weird it is to have to completely prove yourself, explain yourself, and be yourself in front of every single new person you meet. I don&amp;#039;t necessarily advise anyone to apply to all of the same schools as their best friends (in fact, I think that can be a big problem), but I do think guidance counselors should do a better job preparing their seniors for the emotional transition. It&amp;#039;s fun to meet so many new people, but it&amp;#039;s hard to lose all sense of familiarity and security. Mrs. K always asks seniors &amp;quot;Do you want to go to a city school?&amp;quot; but I don&amp;#039;t think she completely communicated the implications of actually GOING to a city school. It&amp;#039;s drastically different than the &amp;quot;traditional&amp;quot; college experience; forget images of frat parties, sprawling quads, and Frisbee in the grass and think subways, skyscrapers, coffee shops, and expenses. I LOVE living in the city, but it&amp;#039;s just not the college experience you see in teen movies.  Finally, my guidance counselor never told me to stop thinking about college after I applied. I think that so much of senior year is devoted to college-applying, getting in, choosing one-that it&amp;#039;s easy to wish away senior year! Even if you don&amp;#039;t love high school, there is SOMETHING you can take advantage of: your friends, your family, your favorite teachers, or just sleeping in your bed. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/school/advice/a2798/rachel-advice-1022/>