The focus of this article is to analyze the Swedish upper secondary schools mission “one school for all” and to place this in relation to student’s adaption and resistance. An ethnographic study conducted at one municipal upper secondary school is the basis for the article. The study took place over the course of three school years, three upper secondary school programs were included and five groups of pupils were followed. The concluding result indicates that depending on which program the students were attending they were faced with different demands and expectations. During their education most pupils strive towards adapting to what the school, at a general level, asks for. However, they also show varying degrees of resistance and a pattern of this is evident in relation to the different programs. The results are discussed in relation to the newupper secondary school reform (Gy 2011) and recent debate.