My high school class and I moved like a school of fish: we graduates were capable of going off on our own, in whatever direction we chose, but something demanded we all swim as one, curving, cutting, sashaying together, wiggling our way to college. Except for a few miscreants, we all ended up in college.

In high school, if someone asked me what my “plans” were, I’d click into brainwashed robot mode: my body would become rigid, my pupils would dilate, and in a monotone, I’d recite, “I-will-go-to-the-best-college-I-can-get-into. No-matter-the-cost.” At some point, I’d convinced myself that going to college was what I really wanted to do. So I went to Alfred University, a pricey private college in southern New York. My first year at Alfred would cost me $18,450. Later, I would transfer to a cheaper state school, and my total price tag for higher education: $32,000.

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I have read your column religiously for the last two or three years and want to truly thank you for sharing  your insight. I'm not sure even where to start about my situation. In truth, I lied, and not a little white lie but a big compounding nine-year lie. I have never told anyone about this lie because it seems so psychotic.

For starters, I'm an orphan and grew up in the state foster-care system. I was adopted mid-childhood by a woman who adopts and fosters children as her only source of income. This being said she was never a parent but a paid caregiver to an ever-changing array of children. I lived in a town that was small enough that everyone I came into contact with knew my story. I was "The Orphan." This fact defined my life for 18 years.

I dreamed of moving away and going to college from an early age. In my mind college was the place where I could start over and no one would know that I was "The Orphan," no one would have their parents around, and I would just be a normal person. Turns out that was anything but the truth.

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In addition to the whites-only restriction of the award, the Lydia C. Roberts Graduate Fellowship can only be given to a person from Iowa, who may not study law or certain other fields, and must return to the state for two years after graduation.

As the New York Daily News reports, the fellowship has not been awarded since 1997, but Columbia administrators would still like to see the terms of the award opened up to other students:

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Do you believe there is such a thing as a "quarter-life crisis"? I'm turning 25 next week, but I am so sick of waiting for my life to begin.

OK, background story: I decided very early in high school I wanted to be a nurse. I loved the idea of traveling and thought that nursing could translate across borders. So the life plan was simple: graduate from nursing school with a BSN, work two years as a staff nurse on a general medicine floor to get experience, then work abroad for Doctors Without Borders, return home and go to graduate school for my nurse practitioner degree, get married ... (you get the trend).

Well, Phases 1 and 2 have been accomplished. I'm currently working as a staff nurse at a busy city hospital and in September 2013 I'll have been working there for exactly two years. So September is the big month, time for me to move on, do something or go somewhere new.

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So here's a look at events from the past week to reaffirm your hope in human nature (or at least get you through another day).

1). It’s been a good week for LGBT rights. The Boy Scouts removed their ban on gay members (if not gay scoutmasters), and New Zealand passed gay marriage. National Party MP Maurice Williamson gave an epic speech in favor of marriage equality:

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The hearing and subsequent vote on the measure at A&M was an emotionally charged event, as reported by the Dallas Voice:

Less than 24 hours before the vote, the name of the bill was changed from the “GLBT Funding Opt Out Bill” to the “The Religious Funding Exemption Bill,” and specific references to the GLBT Resource Center were removed. However, opponents of the bill who packed a Student Senate meeting before the vote Wednesday said the name change did not alter the bill’s discriminatory, anti-gay intent.

With the crowd spilling into the hallways, an overflow viewing room was set up, and the Senate meeting had to be stopped several times so administrators could clear fire exits, according to a report in The Eagle of Bryan-College Station. Emotions ran high, with senators cursing and the woman assigned to tally their votes bursting into tears.

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I just read your column advising Lost in the Fog, and I couldn't help relating his/her feeling of imprisonment to my own. I'm a freshman in college and I'm extremely unhappy. I don't know exactly how to express this state of discontentment because I've never felt it before. In high school, I self-medicated a lot with pot, taking the pressure off myself. Now I'm at college and it's way harder so I had to stop smoking, but I'm miserable.

I can't seem to escape my ego. I fear constantly that I won't succeed in life -- and for some reason my definition of success is achieving some sort of artistic greatness that will result in fame. I realize this is a totally superficial and selfish goal, but I literally can't stop thinking about it. I tell myself to just be patient, to get through college so that I can explore different forms of art, but I can't find my niche and it's torturous. I feel like I'm a 35-year-old trapped in an 18-year-old's body.

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"What is consistently missing from the national discussion is the LGBT voice as well as formal research about the systemic issues faced by LGBT young adult athletes today," Windmeyer said. "In order to address homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in sports, we need to take action based on research which informs us about the LGBTQ athletes experience in the locker room and on the field."

Windmyer said recent videos of support from sports teams are good steps forward, but they are not enough to combat systemic problems.

Among the key findings of the study:

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A group of students who attend the Texas Christian University have created an atheist organization, and they now want official recognition from their school. TheChristian News Network reports that the group is called the “Freethinking Frogs,” a reference to the school mascot.

The group was formed by 32-year-old transfer student Alexis Lohse. She told the Christian news outlet that the organization is for people who are agnostic and secular. She also told The Fort News Weekly that she wanted to form a group to support students who thought outside the Christian box.

University officials say that they have received the application for official recognition, and that a decision will be made soon.

Lohse’s group has about 30 members.

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A student at Coastal Carolina University has died after a shooting near the campus in Conway.

Coastal Carolina University spokeswoman Martha Hunn said early Wednesday that 19-year-old Anthony Darnell Liddell of Bennettsville died after the shooting at University Place residence hall.

The search continued Wednesday for the shooter.

A statement from the school said that university police chief David Roper said there is no apparent threat to students, faculty or staff.

Residence halls remained on lockdown through the night.

Classes were to be held as scheduled Wednesday. The school said counseling services will be available for students.

Hunn says the shooting happened shortly before 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Another resident at University Place said she heard four or five shots. Kaitlin Eriksen said she saw a man fall against a car.

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It was a conversation about guns that sparked Beckel to travel the road of absurd logic. He started off well enough, addressing the "carry laws around a lot of states" and the issue of guns on college campuses. "If you do that," he said, "it seems to me the chances of people getting killed …" After his colleagues jumped into the fray on the subject of women and self-defense, Beckel lobbed back, "When was the last time you heard about a rape on campus?" His remark earned a hearty round of "WHAAAAAA?" from the panel, and pleas that campus rape is "rampant." Beckel took his mighty rhetorical shovel and dug himself in deeper. "Rampant?" he sniffed, incredulously. "Date rape, yeah, that's one thing," he said, "but are you going to take a gun out and shoot your date?"

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Greg Gutfield throws down the gauntlet thusly: "It's the rapist who should be crapping -- not victim. And that means being armed."

Then, pondering the crapping of rapists, Dana Perino says (I'm paraphrasing here): Uh, I don't know. Maybe but I don't know! What do I know? I don't know anything!

Next, Bob Beckel wakes up from his grandpa sleep and things get really lively.

He mumbles, "When was the last time you heard about a rape on campus?

The hosts share a rare moment of united lucidity, informing Beckel that sexual assault on college campuses is rampant, using date rape to make their point.

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These activities and more are organized by the Illini Secular Student Alliance (ISSA), one of 394 student groups that are affiliated with the national Secular Student Alliance (SSA). “We brand ourselves as a safe place and community for students who are not religious,” says Derek Miller, a junior at Illini and president of the ISSA.

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In a statement on their website, Westboro warned "students,  faculty, and alumni that the satanic policies of this nation, especially those of the colleges and universities, are causing God to pour His wrath out upon this nation. Doomed American academics fancy themselves to be smarter than God. They promote the fag agenda with all their might and mock the word of God and His messengers at every turn.”

Well, Vassar might not be smarter than God, but they're definitely smarter than Westboro. Here's how the college prepared for their visit from the hate group: By rallying the school's network of alums and other supporters to raise $100 to go towards an LGBTQ rights organization for every minute the group planned to protest.

And people say liberal arts degrees are useless!

The fundraiser for the Trevor Project, a national organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ young people, exceeded expectations, bringing in $41,529 as of this posting. (Keep an eye on the growing total here.)

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As reported by the Columbia Spectator:

According to the complaint, Ungerleider became angry after Spanish professor Ruth Borgman gave him an unfairly low grade on a final project and called her a bitch in front of his class during the final exam. He emailed Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Hazel May to say he was sorry and explain that he was being unfairly graded, but she told him to see a psychologist, it says.

The complaint says that May directed Stephanie Nixon, then the director of residential programs, to visit Ungerleider’s Wien dorm room. She did so at 12:30 in the morning, accompanied by campus security officers, who unlocked the door. When Ungerleider resisted, Nixon called the New York Police Department, and three officers handcuffed Ungerleider and escorted him to the hospital... Malekshahi and other doctors medicated him against his will and kept him in containment, it says.

Ungerleider eventually requested a court date to challenge his hospitalization, but the appearance did not result in his release. Instead, he remained at St. Luke’s until doctors released him on Jan. 21, 2011, the complaint says.

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Course Description 
In this class, we will analyze some of World Literature’s greatest short novels in an attempt to interrogate the essence of plot and character while reading as few words as possible. Each class session will begin with a student presentation of 15 to 20 minutes, so we’re looking at an effective class time of about an hour. I’d love to give you a five-minute break halfway through the period, with the tacit understanding that we actually blow 15, but then I’d have to pretend I didn’t notice when 36% of you didn’t bother to come back. Or I’d have to pass around the attendance sheet again, which is a major pain in the ass.

After the student presentation, which should cover structure and theme but will seldom rise above rote plot summary, I will provide whatever historical and biographical context is both critical to our understanding of the book and available on Wikipedia. But I will sound so authoritative and well-versed that you’d never know this, even if you had the book’s Wikipedia page open on the laptop you’re pretending to take notes on, rather than your Facebook newsfeed.

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I never planned to pledge a sorority. I went to Emerson to be around nerdy artistic kids in an urban setting, but I arrived to find the small liberal arts school lacking in a party atmosphere of any kind. Where we had mocktails and screenings of Charlie Kaufman films, I wanted red plastic cups and basement make-outs. In that first week, I was lonely and tired of sitting by myself in the dining hall. I missed my friends from back home. So when a girl from my dorm asked me to go to a sorority rush event, and I found myself in a roomful of girls who talked about parties and boys and looked so comfortable together, I desperately wanted to belong. I attended more rush week events, hoping to meet a few girls I could call my friends. I never thought I’d meet the girl I’m going to marry.

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The results can be bewildering. That's why so few parents -- especially lower income families -- are using them.

As reported by the Times:

Just answering the most important basic question — how much a family earns — can be baffling. Some calculators want all wages included, others exclude money set aside for 401(k) or I.R.A. plans, and others ask for adjusted gross income...

Many colleges insist on a specific income figure, but some — mostly state colleges — ask for ranges, making the results less precise. For example, the University of Michigan’s calculator produces a net price range, which can be more than $10,000 wide.

When a calculator presents a financial aid figure, it can be labeled a grant, a gift or a scholarship, depending on the college. For low- or moderate-income students, some colleges specify that the aid includes government grants, while others do not, implying that all of the aid would come from the college. Some calculators also muddy the distinction between a grant, a loan the student must repay and money a student must earn at a work-study job.

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Greetings after my holiday vacation, which I spent straightening up the house. How glorious not to be thinking or writing! And yet, after only a few days, I began to miss your letters and the daily practice of responding.

Hey, listen, if you are in the Bay Area, I will be participating in an unusual reading on Thursday night in Sausalito called "Pairings," where prose writers and poets read each other's work aloud. I love reading other people's work aloud! And ever since elementary school, I have been very good at "reading aloud."

As I write I note with sadness yet another tragic shooting in America. I have not commented on the terrible events of the last few months partly out of mute shock and partly because they seem to arise from a derangement more the province of therapists and theologists than commentators. I acknowledge them, however, with a heavy heart and an outraged mind. Like the following letter writer, a budding poet trapped in engineering school, I just don't know where to begin.

Hey there, Cary. I don't know where to begin.

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