Hee. Well if it helps my character Kore is a 17ish person who is working on finishing high school and fully intends on going to college next year.
As she wants to be able to get a normal job and rent a place without relying on whatever loose change she can find at the bottom of wishing wells.
Super heroing is just something she does in her free time. As well.. all the cool heroes are doing it!
[ QUOTE ]
Decided to make her attend Bryn Mawr and study liberal arts. Then I find out that superheroes don't need college educations, just a horrible past experience to make them swear to protect the innocent.
[/ QUOTE ]
Well I'll assume you're being sarcastic. I disagree that a superhero needs a tragic background. The majority of superheros have backgrounds no more tragic then large segments of the population.
My character ElectronBlaster for example has a doctorate in robotics, and works for his father's company (which he'll someday inherit). He superhero's because it's a good way to showcase his companies capabilities, it's the right thing to do (military service is a family tradition), and most importantly... Chicks dig it. 
Yeah, that's a tough one -- you can't pay tuition with "influence", though if you're nice, maybe the Mayor will kick a "scholarship" your way.
One of my characters has something of a chronological dilemma as well. In 1984, at age 16, she was frozen in a block of ice beneath a shopping mall. She's been thawed out in the present. Does that make her 16 (her biological age, since she was technically in suspended animation for 20 years), or does it make her 36? Totally Awesome's been steering clear of drinking and voting until this issue is resolved.
Also, she never finished high school, and has been fighting crime full-time since she was thawed. While she is a technological genius, she doesn't even have a high-school diploma. Not so great for a 36-year-old.
Oh, and T.A. is also from the non-tragic school of origins. She first used her "Wham! Hands" gauntlets to save people from a burning Mall. She was then invited by the government to join a teen crime-fighting group called "The Radical Teen Heroes", until she was frozen. So the whole "fighting crime" thing has just been kind of a hobby.
Leapin' Lizard says: Hey, don't knock the value of a degree! Without all that biology training, I'd never have gotten my cushy scientist gig, and I never would've been able to develop the formula that let me grow my arm back! (Okay, granted ... it also gave me a tail, and scales, and a fondness for crickets on my pizza. But still!)
These days I'm working on staff in the S.E.R.A.P.H. research division. So when I'm not on the streets kicking robots, or basking on sunny rooftops, I put on the ol' white coat and do lab work. You know how you'll finish a mission and bring back a sample of something, and your contact will say "Thanks, we'll have our lab examine this further?" That's the kind of stuff they throw my way. But without my doctorate, none of this would've been possible.
Education: the real superpower!
Wrote the backstory to one of my characters. Decided to make her attend Bryn Mawr and study liberal arts. Then I find out that superheroes don't need college educations, just a horrible past experience to make them swear to protect the innocent.
So now Lady Willow has huge student loans to repay and apparently no use for her degree. Sigh. Apparently her reason to be a superhero is to earn tips.