Mr. DANIELS: You know, the music that you go to high school and college with becomes the music of your life.

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Meanwhile, the life expectancy of African-American women without high-school diplomas has surpassed that of similar white women.

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She described starting at the city's Edgbaston High School for Girls as "the most important day" of her life.

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Computer viruses, once the mischievous work of get-a-life geeks and high school kids looking for a little recognition, suddenly are a profit engine for the criminal underground.

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Other things constant, (1) kids with a better quality high school education are more likely to be prepared for the rigors of college life, and (2) kids that come from a more stable household and neighborhood environment as a youth are more likely equipped in terms of maturation to succeed academically in college.

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The steepest declines were for white women without a high school diploma, who lost five years of life between 1990 and 2008, said S. Jay Olshansky, a public health professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the lead investigator on the study, published last month in Health Affairs.

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Are we the land of opportunity or are recent high school and college graduates condemned to the underclass for their working life?

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