In the spring of 1998, all 150 of the Freedom Writers graduated from Wilson High School. In the book's epilogue, Erin Gruwell mentions that many of them went on to attend college. She says that some of them went to local community colleges, while others attended larger universities all over the United States.

We are not told exactly how many of the students went to college, but in a retrospective piece published in the Long Beach Press-Telegram in 2019, it is stated that most of them attended some sort of higher-education institution and that over half of the Freedom Writers obtained a college degree.

Gruwell explains that college was often difficult for her former students. They did not have the same support that they had in her classroom. Many had to work jobs while they were enrolled. Many had to adjust to living away from home and outside of their community for the first time. Gruwell does not go into specifics, but she does mention how some students had an easier time adjusting to college life than others.

The students of Room 203 were not the only ones to go on to college. Erin Gruwell herself left the high school to teach at California State College, Long Beach, where she trained aspiring teachers to follow in her footsteps.