I went to a trade school after I was in my 40's, so I never did the "going away to college" thing, but I do know one thing: If you do not follow your heart, you with ALWAYS wonder about the option you didn't take... the one your heart told you to go with... and every little thing that goes "wrong" on your new path will always have the question mark of, "Geeze... if I had followed my heart and done the other thing, then would I have avoided this trauma/situation/stress?" Whereas, if you follow your heart and it doesn't work out, then you have learned a valuable lesson about yourself. You thought one thing would be amazing, and it wasn't. Why? Introspection. Self-discovery. Confidence. Lessons learned. Etc. There was one time where I clearly did the "logical, right, and correct thing", and didn't follow my heart. And I still think about her several times a week...