Finishing school

To go to college or not to go— that is the question.

After a youth spent shuttling between soundstages and studio tutors — and making millions in between — the latest crop of aging teen TV stars must decide if it’s time to exchange their hot careers for cold college lecture halls and life in the dorm.

For 19-year-old Kelsey Chow, the star of Disney XD’s new “Pair of Kings,” going to college was never a question.

Enrolled at Columbia University in fall 2009, Chow is now finishing her freshman year after taking a semester off to film the first season of her show. (She plans to study global health, taking a cue from her grandparents, who worked for the World Health Organization, and her physician father, who does humanitarian work.)

“I had definitely planned on going to college,” Chow says on a break from studying for midterms. “It was something I wanted to do . . . You really find out about who you are.”

She understands that for other teen stars it can be a tough decision — “especially when you’re juggling this other life and there’s a lot of amazing opportunities in that world. It does make it a little bit harder to go.”

Working on a new TV show and fulfilling core classes “is tricky to do at the same time,” Chow admits. “This semester seems to be a little bit more of a challenge. [But] it’s really wonderful, it keeps me grounded and I’m really appreciative of my educational experience, the opportunity with Disney and being able to do what I love.”

Some teen stars are told they have no choice. They have to do both.

Nineteen-year-old Allison Scagliotti (“Warehouse 13”), spends hiatus from her Syfy series cramming at New York University, the network says.

Jason Dolley (“Good Luck Charlie”) is a sophomore taking online courses at Moorpark College, says a Disney spokesman.

Pistol-hot twins stars Dylan and Cole Sprouse (“The Suite Life of Zack & Cody”), 18, were accepted to NYU this fall. But they opted to defer admission until next year, according to reports.

For someone like “Wizards of Waverly Place” star Selena Gomez, 18, who graduated high school this year, the choice is not so simple. Gomez has long expressed a desire to attend Northwestern University, famous for its drama school. But as an above-the-title movie star with a burgeoning music career, she is expected to take online classes instead.

It’s the same story for Nick Jonas, 18, of the Jonas Brothers and star of Disney’s “Jonas: LA.” He, too, has said he wants to go to Northwestern, but has had to put his plans on hold.

This is the big year for two of teen TVs biggest stars —Miranda Cosgrove (“iCarly”) and Keke Palmer (“True Jackson, VP”) — both 17 and on the cusp of having to make the career/college decision. Cosgrove is studying now for the SATs. She told The Post recently that she wants to go to NYU — a California girl, she says she’d like to come East for college. But her father is a University of Southern California grad and wants her to go there.

Palmer told The Post her dream is attending Howard University in Washington, DC.

Some teen stars have decided to stay in show biz while the money machine is still in high gear.

For instance, “Hannah Montana” star Miley Cyrus, 17, reportedly has no plans for college — although she’s said she could go later in life, like her grandmother, who went back to school at age 62.

Victoria Justice (“Victorious”), 17, who is trying to establish her new series on Nickelodeon, is foregoing campus life right now, too.

If great acting gigs are rolling in, she told The Post last month, “I don’t think I would halt that just to go to college.”