<p>Of what, exactly?</p>
<p>Reasons it might bother you:
- seems like late in the game to have reservations about the choice of college
- needing reassurance from strangers about what is right for an individual
- pressuring others who made the same choice to defend their decision
- implying that people who made this choice should also be questioning the value of it</p>
<p>Yup. That sounds about right. </p>
<p>I like you</p>
<p>Yup yup flux_capacitor, I WILL see you there.</p>
<p>Never worry about that which you cannot revisit. Look ahead. Doubts are natural but can be conquered by conviction and commitment.</p>
<p>So here’s a good reason to regret one’s choice, I turned down private college full rides based on a faulty financial aid preliminary award from UCSD which they now can’t honor and I am 8K in the hole for the first year alone. Looks like maybe I can get last minute loans for most of it but I would have chosen a free Ivy or LAC over a $32,000 debt when I graduate from UCSD. Damn nice of them to discover their “mistake” three weeks before classes start when literally every other option is closed.</p>
<p>I sincerely apologize if I came off as needy and/or seeking reassurance from the masses, that was not my intention.</p>
<p>I merely wanted to see if the good people on CC felt that my decision wasn’t a good one. Since CC is pretty much my only resource for college-related things (I really don’t know anyone else), I thought it would be a good idea to post this but I guess I was wrong and I regret bothering anyone with it.</p>
<p>Just pretend you are Schrodinger’s cat. Since school has not started yet you can assume that your decision is both fortunate and regrettable. It is only when school begins that you may know whether your choice was the correct one. However, because the cat has no power over its environmental circumstances anyways there’s nothing more you can do (for now anyways) except to concentrate on making your current situation as best for you as possible.</p>
<p>Are you nuts? Which Ivy was it? Most employers love the vintage brand of an Ivy League school on a resume, and the recognition that comes from attending one is a definite boost to any grad or law school application. You passed up attending an Ivy for free for a school like UCSD? UCSD. UCSD, the school that barely counts one of this state’s flagship universities. And to follow up on nautical terms, if UCB and UCLA were California’s flagships, UCSD would be more like brigantine that tags along behind the two. </p>
<p>Even the LAC would have been a better choice. The student to professor ratio generally hovers at 10:1 in a LAC. How about UCSD then? 30-40: 1. OH WAIT, that ONE isn’t even a professor! It’s a TA! Ha ha. </p>
<p>Oh, and I forgot to mention the critical condition of our state’s financial situation. So what does this mean for UCSD? In short, 1. a severe reduction in faculty recruitment 2. loss of academic enrichment programs 3. stress on already implemented programs because of the necessity to adhere to an operating budget. </p>
<p>But let’s head back to the original question.</p>
<p>Did I do the right thing?</p>
<p>I did not.</p>
<p>Fair points, but who gives a damn about student to faculty ratios? We’re not idiots… We don’t need hand holding</p>
<p>Mapthesoul: Everyone’s got their reasons, man. You aren’t really in a position to decide what factors go into someone else’s decision. There are issues other than status or even the student’s “best interests” that go into the choice of a college. Just because we are starting our adult lives with college doesn’t mean that we are totally free of family obligations or good reasons to be near a specific geographic area. It’s not all about you and your reasons don’t necessarily match ours. Sorry you are not happy with your own decision but there’s no point in trying to poison the expereience for the rest of us.</p>
<p>Mapthesoul, am I to believe that the reason you go to college is for prestige? Why don’t you look at the bigger picture and think WHY people choose one college over another? Or better yet, why go to college at all? By your definition, no matter where you go, you will always be unhappy knowing there are other people who are “happier” and have more “prestige”.</p>
<p>props on the well reasoned and dignified responses to mapthesoul</p>
<p>I’m a senior and I still don’t know whether UCSD was the right decision.</p>
<p>The truth is I never will.</p>
<p>And neither will you.</p>
<p>So make the most of it.</p>
<p>@SDTriton
Yeah, class ratio is more personal preference. I happen to like smaller classes. Different dynamics and all.</p>
<p>@Comp Sci Guy
There were two ways I could answer this thread. I could tell OP he made a good decision. I could tell OP he made a bad decision. I chose the second option. It wasn’t about poisoning his decision, but it is about answering his question.</p>
<p>@subtle_overlord
You missed the point entirely. Did you even read it? Oh well, second time’s the charm (actually it’s the third, but we can go for the second).</p>
<p>And yeah good responses. I could have gotten a lot worse.</p>
<p>Mapthesoul: Except you confused two people, it wasn’t the OP who turned down the free Ivies, it was me, and for very personal reasons. The OP only turned down Chicago and Berkeley, neither of whcih is an Ivy and he didn’t say anything about money. So your answer that he made a bad decision loses credibility because you didn’t consider the correct factors.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Haha, this made me laugh, reminds me of an episode of Big Bang Theory. If I use this interpretation and if my college decision can be modeled as a superposition of quantum states, then I guess it can be |x>…</p>
<p>so the wavefunction over all states of |x> for all infinity, sorry I don’t know where I’m going with this.</p>
<p>BTW, I’m sorry to hear you regret your choice mapthesoul but I have to agree with Comp Sci guy on this. I didn’t have the luxury of turning down an ivy (except for a waitlist on Cornell) so the point is moot.</p>
<p>While it is true that Ivys do brand a resume, but it does not entail greater success. People have different tastes, different needs, and of course different standards.</p>
<p>Ivys may be good for one person, but if the campus climate is too tense or not welcoming, this psychological effect will hinder a student’s success in college.</p>
<p>There are things called office hours, most people do not go to them. That’s when you have your one to one with a professor, plus, not all professors are snobby or intimidating, they are often attentive and will pay close attention to those who come to office hours with problems in the class.</p>
<p>Also, UCSD already has a good reputation has being one of the best public universities. Be aware that UCSD is still young, having only been up for 49 years, and with all the success it has garnered, it shows that it is a good university. </p>
<p>Although I agree with the current financial crisis, there will be larger class size, cuts off of programs, and closed down departments (if it gets that extreme), but the enrichment of an education still stands.</p>
<p>@comp sci :)</p>
<p>And it does suck that you didn’t do the right thing, you might as well transfer and save yourself from more terrible years. But you do provide good points, Ivys vs UCs have a increase discrepancy, but when it comes down to jobs, it all depends on working experience and what school, even though some firms have a biased recruiting system, hard work will pay off at some point in life.</p>
<p>Christian Wu, I am not anticipating “terrible years”. I chose UCSD for very good reasons and I don’t regret my choice now that the financial aid office has worked out that I can take the loans I wasn’t expecting and actually stay enrolled. My point was that there is a difference between regretting your choice because you think you could have gotten more status from a different name on your school letterhead versus regretting your choice because they screw up your financial aid and kick you out just weeks before classes start when you can’t pay a huge bill that you didn’t know you had. </p>
<p>We are supposed to do our research and have sound reasons for where why apply and where we enroll. Regret over status rankings suggest that the person didn’t do enough assessment before they accepted an offer - presuming that the college can honor the offer they made which was not true in my case. Still, I turned down some schools where the students and staff seemed to think a whole lot of themselves based on reputation rather than merit. Not every reputation is well earned and Berkeley is a case in point.</p>
<p>Overall, I mean to convey that I am glad to be going to UCSD and honored to be welcomed there and offered the opportunities that I intend to make the most of. Yes, there is tarnish on the expereinece from the financial snafu but that is just what it is and I won’t be pouting about it for the next four years. Hopefully, they will fix it for next year and I will be in better shape then. As it turns out, the rule that caused the problem just passed on July 1st of this year and all the financial aid office can do about it now is work study and low interest loans but I’ll take it and appreciate it because I’m not so special that some of you guys should have loans and work study but I should not. Life puts you where you should be if you stay open to it and seize the opportunities.</p>
<p>@comp that wasn’t directed at you :(</p>