I’m choosing between 2 colleges. I got into OSU honors IBE program but for UMD I only got into scholars international relations. I heard scholars was basically useless, but I’m not sure how true that is. I got into both for engineering, but recently I’ve been having an identity crisis about maybe not wanting to do engineering for most of my life. I’m not sure if it’s just senioritis or me seriously not wanting to do engineering. If I switch majors, it’ll probably be to journalism, architecture, or international relations (I’d like to join the foreign service). UMD is in-state, but with scholarships, OSU is the same financially.
I like OSU more. I think overall I’ll do better (mentally, emotionally, and academically—I plan to go to grad school) but UMD has the advantage of proximity to DC. However, UMD apparently doesn’t have an international relations major and I’ve heard that their humanities programs are much more lacking than STEM. My parents also want me to choose UMD because they’re slightly paranoid about COVID-19 and think that if anything happens I’ll be pretty close to home. I don’t think this should really be a consideration because schools probably won’t open until things are mostly safe and OSU is only a 6 hour drive away (also, they literally have a hospital on campus). Additionally, I’ve always wanted to be as independent as possible once I go to college. I think I can somewhat get around OSU not being near DC by applying to summer opportunities along the coasts/in big cities, but I’m probably just being naive.
What do you think? Do you have any reasons why I should choose one over the other? Does anyone have any arguments I could use to back up OSU to my parents? I understand why they’re worried about COVID-19, but I don’t want to make an important decision like this just based on a relatively temporary disaster.