a couple months ago, I was faced with the decision to transfer to uchicago or penn. I chose penn. As time has gone on I feel increasingly uncertain about where I want to go, and at this point, I’m tempted to email uchicago to see if there’s any chance I could come back. Has anyone done this before and is it even remotely possible? They are on the quarter system and having spoken with some friends, they’ve told me that most of the action items (housing, class reg, etc) haven’t finished yet.
You had two great options. IMO Penn was a fantastic decision (for full disclosure I’m an alum). Stop second guessing your choice. Time to put UChicago in your rear view mirror and focus on looking ahead.
Lots and lots of people have felt this- so many that there’s actually a name for it:
(from our friends at Wikipedia):
Buyer’s remorse is the sense of regret after having made a purchase. It is frequently associated with the purchase of an expensive item such as a vehicle or real estate.
Buyer’s remorse is thought to stem from cognitive dissonance, specifically post-decision dissonance, that arises when a person must make a difficult decision, such as a heavily invested purchase between two similarly appealing alternatives
Right now you have two theoreticals. In just a few weeks you will have reality. As @happy1, it is time to trust yourself, put UChic in your rear-view mirror and get ready for your new adventure.
You’ve been on the transfer roller coaster so long that you’re having trouble appreciating where you’ve landed. It’s easy to get bogged down in the minutia and to play the “what if” game. Both schools are outstanding and will provide you a wealth of resources, opportunities, challenges and experiences. You made your decision….trust your choice!
You’re starting Penn in a week or so. Embrace it! Enjoy it!
We live in Chicago and the saying here is that UChicago is where fun goes to die. It’s a beautiful campus but surrounded by very dangerous areas (and some very sad stuff has happened to students over the past couple of years). I bet you will enjoy UPenn. All that being said, you have nothing to lose by contacting Chicago. Let us know what happens. My son is in a similar situation. He’s transferring (long, complicated story) and is not very excited about the new school.
Has anything changed from your previous +/- thread? You didn’t want to grind HW at Chicago till 3 AM and Penn has the better CS/Computational Bio offerings.
And your worry about Penn was fitting in socially.
Having read most of UChicago threads here on CC and getting a feel for the people that post on the UChicago forum, I’d think you would know exactly whether UChicago (and its core) would be a better fit for you. And when I say that, the UChicago “people” speak in an intellectual language way above my pay grade. The Penn people do not.
I went back and read your earlier thread about U.Penn versus U.Chicago.
In choosing to attend U.Penn, you have chosen an excellent university that has a strong program in your intended major. You can and will get an excellent education at U.Penn. Based on what I read from your previous thread, and based upon what I know about both schools, I think that you have made the correct decision.
You just needed to choose from among multiple excellent programs. This was indeed a tough choice. Most students would be thrilled to have only one acceptance among all of the excellent programs that you were choosing from. You picked one, and the one that you picked is indeed excellent. Turning down the others is tough, but should be made easier by the excellence of where you are headed.
I would not be concerned about fitting in. There is going to be a very wide range of students at any top university. One thing that you will all have in common is that you are all very smart (although there will be a range from “very smart” to “exceptional” to an occasional “wow!” – some of the quiet students will be among the latter two groups). Another thing that most of you will have in common is that you have suddenly become average and need to work hard to keep up with your classes. There will be quite a few students who are like you in many other ways (probably more than you have ever seen in one place). There will be some students who are annoying. This is just part of attending any top ranked university (I have experience at two different highly ranked universities).
You are going to start at a very, very strong and academically demanding university in a few weeks. Given the number of acceptances that you got to really top schools, you obviously are academically capable of handling this. My recommendation is that you go into U.Penn expecting to work hard and excited about the many opportunities that are going to be available to you there.
And yes, getting “cold feet” is normal. We all go through this at some point. We push on and do our best.
Full disclosure - I’m prejudiced in favor of Penn, too. But I cannot understand why anyone would not be thrilled to be going to Penn. Time to let go of the buyer’s remorse. I don’t know anyone who was unhappy at Penn, ever, unless they had such serious personal issues that they would not have been able to attend any school.
