Only about 25% of my HS class went to college, and 80% of those who did went to the local college. Homecoming queen went to an OOS SEC school in art. One girl was a local TV reporter while in college, then married and has spent most of her adult life doing missionary work around the world. The smart guys went to Georgia Tech and are engineers. One friend became a lawyer (to noone’s surprise; it was the family business). My college BF (we were best buds in HS) was a geologist and struck out three times in the marriage dept. One guy got into West Point. No Ivy or other top private schools. I’ve noticed on FB that many went to college as adults and finished AA and BA/BS degrees in their 30s and 40s.
The biggest surprises (and some of the biggest successes) were folks who were B+ students but had (or developed) A+ social skills. One guy is a C-level executive in senior residential facilities. One is a psychologist, one is a professor in education/social work, and the other, who unfortunately died recently, majored in accounting and had a hugely successful career in a male-dominated field (and in the somewhat rural south, that is HUGE).
Most still live in the area. I was unusual for a) leaving home for college and b) not coming back.
Others have had hard lives as factories closed and the lack of education limits other opportunities. Several have died of drug/alcohol issues.