Is It College Yet?

Is It College Yet? is the second Daria TV movie. Subsequent airing and its DVD release only provided it in an edited form. The movie shows the characters of Daria Morgendorffer's class as they approach their high-school graduation and look toward college.

Summary
This episode, roughly equivalent to three "normal length" episodes, concerns the characters attempting to make the life-altering decision of where to go to college. Jane wants to go to Boston Fine Arts College (BFAC), but the pressure of doing an art portfolio for them makes it too difficult to produce any good art. Daria is between Bromwell (where Tom Sloane will be going pursuant to the family tradition), and Raft College. Trent doesn't want Jane to go to college at all. The social class rift between Tom and Daria becomes increasingly obvious. Jodie attempts to convince her parents that, rather than going to Crestmore (a prestigious, if somewhat racially homogeneous, university her parents believe is her best option), she would be better suited to attend Turner (her father's alma mater with a more diverse student population), while Mack finds out he needs to win a scholarship to get into Vance University. Quinn takes a job at Governors Park and meeting Lindy, a college student with a drinking problem. Stacy makes a wish that comes true, to the chagrin of Sandi, and she attempts to reverse the wish with amusing results. Kevin gets some bad news about his future, and worries how it will affect his relationship with Brittany. Mr. O'Neill's attempts to calm down Ms. Barch on the fifth anniversary of her divorce makes Ms. Barch believe he's asking to marry her. Mr. DeMartino attempts to clear up the situation, with mixed results.

Daria and Tom Sloane break up for good at the movie's end. Daria gets into Raft College instead of Bromwell, and convinces Jane to apply to BFAC, where Jane is accepted. Both girls plan to continue their friendship as time and schoolwork allow, and the movie ends on a high note with their toast to the future.

Trivia
In case it isn't obvious, this is it, the last-ever episode of Daria, bringing to an end the official canon.

The various colleges the characters talk about being interested in have obvious parallels with real-life schools. Raft College, for example, is likely Tufts, a prestigious school on the outskirts of Boston, while Bromwell is probably Yale, given its distance from Boston and location of New Town (New Haven). Crestmore (described by Mack as "the dream of dreams") may be Harvard or a school of comparable quality in another part of the country, such as Stanford.

We also learn, indirectly, that Lawndale High seems to have a tradition of "Academic Achievement in the Face of Almost Total Misanthropy," as evidenced by the presentation of the Dian Fossey Award. Then again, it is quite possible that Ms. Li invented it, modified an existing award, or ad libbed the reference to "misanthropy" as a backhanded recognition of Daria.

In Daria's speech at the end if this episode, we learn a little bit about her guiding philosophy, a loosely connected set of ideas that has kept her grounded, kept her Daria, in spite of her changing personality and changing circumstances.

The "Future Egos"


In place of the usual Alter Ego images, the credits show tongue-in-cheek versions of the character's futures. Some of these seem plausible, while others are very silly indeed - they were created as jokes and are not meant to be the 'real' futures, though a number of fanfics have taken them literally.

They include:


 * Mystik Spiral (bar Trent) as a church choir


 * Andrea as a swimsuit model (and thinner)


 * Quinn as a business executive


 * Tom as an aging shut-in in a nursing home (this is a disturbingly grim ego!)


 * Jodie as owner of Landon Towers Casino & Resort


 * Sandi as a madam running Griffin Escorts


 * Jake and Helen retired at a mountain cabin, both hooked out to a valium drip


 * Mack and Kevin as the owners and mascots for the Bro & QB ice-cream company


 * Lindy and Alison as a couple, raising adopted children at a farm


 * Tiffany as a psychic


 * DeMartino as a very happy mailman


 * Brittany as an actress in slasher films


 * Barch running a shotgun wedding chapel


 * The Three J's as reporters for JLR (a spin on MTV's TLR)


 * Trent as a bald, pudgy US Senator in the year 2041, involved in a Family Opportunity Act


 * O'Neill playing Peter Pan in a theatre


 * Stacy as a NASCAR racer


 * Ms Li as a psychotic cat lady holed up in her house (this one isn't included in the DVD version)


 * Upchuck as a rich fashion designer


 * Daria and Jane as the hosts for a breakfast show, Good Mornings With Daria and Jane

On Is It College Yet?
Transcript of Is It College Yet? at Outpost Daria (includes sections removed in later showings and on the commercial DVD)

Alternate Universe Versions of Is It College Yet?
In Kara Wild's Driven Wild Universe episode 22, Tomorrow Never Knows, Tom and Jane never broke up, so it is Jane, rather than Daria, who accompanies Tom and his mother on the trip to Bromwell. Jane declares that it is "[t]o support Tom, who would otherwise be stuck discussing charity fundraisers every minute he and his mother were alone. Plus, Kay Sloane hates me." The trip is, predictably, a disaster, with Jane suggesting to Professor Woods that the Freshman Sobriety Center could be set on fire "as a controlled, dramatic art piece." Ultimately, Jane and Tom do break up, deciding that they get along better as friends.