[Confusion]

If you've raised your 17 y/o in a way that has imbued him with the principles behind your realizations, there's no need to give him any specific advice about college. Passing on that knowledge is not about specific advice: it's about the way you raise your children; about the way you counteract what 'society' teaches them it expects and freeing them to make choices that will make them happier instead of what makes others happier.

[sheena]

Heh, I was talking about my 17-year-old self, not my 17-year-old child (a terrifying thought). My point was more that a lot of advice has a catch-22-ish quality in that only experience makes its truth sink in, by which time it's often too late.