That's an interesting question. I went to school in Australia. It was a snobby girls' school. The girls weren't always very nice, and the teachers were very strict. I couldn't choose what I wanted to study.
When I went to university it was so different! It was interesting and challenging. I could choose what I wanted to study, and nobody made me do the work. I had to do it myself. The other students were both older and younger than me. They respected me and each other. Nobody cared how much money you had or what you looked like. University was an adults' world.