Season: FourHow It Went Down: Shootings! Cults! Unplanned pregancies! Alcoholism! The gang from America's most infamous zip code lived through it all when they all attended the fictional California University together, along with series newbie Tiffani Amber-Thiessen, who replaced Shannen Doherty. Grade: B+. Come on, it's Beverly Hills 90210, they kind of set the gold standard for the high school to cllege transition on TV!
Season: FourHow It Went Down: Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Willow (Alyson Hannigan) ended up as roomies at Sunnydale University, where our slayer had a hard time adjusting at first, but it was nothing a new love interest, TA/Initiative agent Riley (Marc Blucas), couldn't solve. Xander (Nicholas Brendon) took on a series of odd jobs as he lived in his mother's basement, while former baddie Spike (James Marsters) slowly became a member of the Scooby gang. Buffy dropped out of college in season five after the death of her mother. Grade: B. Though season four's big bads (The Initiative and Adam) were a bit of a letdown after the Mayor and Faith (Eliza Dushku) in season three, we quite enjoyed seeing our trio grow up (and slightly apart) post-high school/hellmouth years.
Season: FiveHow It Went Down: While Joey (Katie Holmes) went off to Worthington (aka Harvard), where she roomed with Audrey (newbie Busy Philipps) and briefly dates her professor, aspiring filmmaker Dawson (James Van Der Beek) attended USC for a short time before dropping out, and Jen (Michelle Williams) and Jack (Kerr Smith) attended Boston Bay and roomed with...Grams. (Buzzkill!) Oh, and Pacey (Joshua Jackson) becomes a chef, a security guard and a stockbroker...all before the age of 19. Grade: D. This could've received a C, but you know, Chad Michael Murray.
Seasons: Seven and EightHow It Went Down: The TeenNick hit followed focused on a few of its first batch of graduating seniors Marco (Adamo Ruggiero), Paige (Lauren Collins) and Ellie (Stacey Farber), who lived together in a house, but their storylines felt too disjointed with what was going on at Degrassi Community High. The series tried again with original castmembers Emma (Miriam McDonald) and Manny (Cassie Steele) in season eight, this time focusing on their freshman year at Smithdale University, but it once again didn't work, making it the last season that focused on any of the characters as college students. Grade: D. Degrassi just couldn't make it through the transition.
Season: Four How It End Down: Rory (Alexis Bledel) went off to Yale University, along with adversary turned BFF Paris (Liza Weil). The brainy duo, and their lavish dormroom (‘twas huge!) were treated to visits from Lorelei (Lauren Graham) often, and Rory frequently returned to Stars Hollow. Grade: B+. Same old charm, same old Gilmore Girls. Also, we happened to like Logan (Matt Czuchry)! But still: Team Jess 4Eva!
Transition Season: Four How It Went Down: The Fox hit made a bold move splitting time between McKinley High and New York, where Rachel (Lea Michele), Kurt (Chris Colfer) and others headed after graduation. Original castmembers such as Amber Riley and Dianna Agron appeared on a recurring basis as new high schoolers were introduced to join Blaine (Darren Criss) in the choir room. Grade: B-. We would have given Glee a C+, but the introduction of Kate Hudson bumped up the score. Glee really should have left high school behind and devoted its full attention to the New York storylines.
Season: ThreeHow It Went Down: You'd think with the amount of universities located in and around New York City, the CW hit could've found a better way to kick off the college years. Alas, it was kind of a mess. Though Dan (Penn Badgley) and Blair (Leighton Meester) attended Brown together and Nate went to Columbia, they were rarely shown at school (unless they were having threesomes with Hilary Duff) and soon the series seemed to forget the gang was in college. Hilariously, some of them were still in school when the series came to an end. Gossip Girl is the TV show example of the high brainiac who just can't handle the pressure of college.Grade: F. You actually have to attend class to get a grade!
Transition Season: FourHow It Went Down: Well, it basically became a different show after Marissa's (Mischa Barton) death in the season-three finale: Ryan (Ben McKenzie) is cage-fighting his anger away, while Summer (Rachel Bilson) becomes an environmentalist and stops shaving her legs for a hot second at Brown. Seth (Adam Brody) was working at a comic book store waiting to go to RISD for the spring semester after the whole season three Brown debacle. Ryan eventually ends up at UC Berkeley, while Summer goes off to save the world.Grade: C-. The O.C.'s final season was just kind of meh.
Season: FiveHow It Went Down: Um, It didn't. The CW series opted for a five-year time-jump, which found all of the characters modestly famous and wealthy. Seriously.Grade: INC
Season: ThreeHow It Went Down: Veronica (Kristen Bell), Logan (Jason Dohring), Wallace (Percy Daggs III), Mac (Tina Majorino) and Dick (Ryan Hansen) kicked off the WB series' final season at Hearst College and didn't miss a beat of the show's witty banter and noir style. (Bonus points for the stylish new opening credits.) Plus, new characters, such as Piz (Chris Lowell) and Parker (Julie Gonzalo), were pretty seamlessly brought in as new love interests for Veronica and Logan, much to the dismay of "LoVe" fans. (Confession: We loved Piz!)Grade: A. Veronica Mars smartly transitioned a season two mystery into season three. Plus, all of the characters ended up at the same school (even Weevil as a maintenance worker), so it was like Neptune High without the class divide. That take, 09ers!
PHOTOS: Where is the cast of Veronica Mars now?