The new season of Heroes finds Claire going to college. In real life, acting commands all of Hayden Panettiere's young adult attention, but she tells reports that she has not ruled out higher education.

"I do very much believe in education," Panettiere said. "My thought of college has always been that it's not only continuing your education, but it's also a social experience. It's your first time on your own. It's your first time not having someone sit there and go, 'You need to go to bed at this time, you need to do your homework, you need to get up at this time to go to class.' You're on your own terms. That social experience, because I've been on my own, because I know so clearly, hopefully what I am going to do for the rest of my life, I wouldn't get that social aspect the same."

Acting and leading a hit series has taught Panettiere the same lessons, perhaps even better than Universities are doing today. "Most of what I saw from my friends that came back from their freshman year, they're all hanging from their fingernails, going, 'I almost just failed out of school. I almost just flunked,' because there's they have to juggle these new responsibilities that they didn't have before and you generally learn the hard way. You learn from mistakes and doing it over and over again."

Panettiere still has that experience too, when the press documents every little mistake she makes. "Not to mention it is a really big thing that you want to go and you want to have the social experience, and you want go out to the bars like the other kids are going to. Everyone does that, they do, whether you like it or not, and you have to deal with the fear of somebody taking a picture of you with a drink in your hand, a fear of going and getting placed all over the place."

Hollywood has also afforded her educational opportunities more unique than the traditional four year institutions provide. "I've had the opportunity to travel all over the world and see beautiful countries, I've talked to incredibly intelligent well educated people, I've been involved with politics, I've been involved with environmental studies and work and have gotten a great education on the things that I'm curious and passionate about whether it be the ocean. I'm really well educated on the ocean just from spending time with really smart, smart people and this is their field and this is what they know and you learn so much from them. I'm very interested in history and I have a bunch of history books at home and I sit there all day and I watch the history channel for 12 hours straight about Christopher Columbus and the ocean blue, and the layers of the ozone. Science has always been a big thing and I've really been educated having not gone to college. Would I have liked to? Yeah, but it didn't quite pan out that way."


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Image © Janet Mayer / PR Photos

Story/Interview by Fred Topel

Starpulse contributing writer

(Starpulse in Hollywood): Every week, Hollywood's biggest stars are meeting in the hot spots and Starpulse is there.