@ArizOna: Have you ever seen the Jack Nicholson movie " As Good As It Gets" ?
Or, more importantly, have your parents seen it ? If not, have your parents watch it.
@ArizOna: You have the right to be happy. You know what you want. You tried their way and it is not for you. Seems like the happiest people whom I know are all graduates of their state flagship school.
Statistics & Data Science is a great major for employment opportunities.
Most people search their whole lives to find the level of happiness that you have found in the University of Arizona. Do your parents want you to be happy ? Life is too short–especially when the alternative is far less costly & offers a very promising professional future.
P.S. I speculate that you would have been much happier at UCLA than at WashUStL.
Addressing your parents line of thought: WashUStL is not Harvard, Stanford, Princeton or MIT–schools which in reality can have a huge impact on one’s professional life.
Yes, your parents are disappointed and will be disappointed for a while. It’s difficult for some of us to veer from the positions we have taken. I was disappointed and still a bit disappointed that my son started at a top 25 school, and graduated from a local college. But, it’s just one of the “good” disappointments of life. You can’t control how you feel and prefer but you can certainly acknowledge that things have worked out fine.
I personally know a remarkable young woman whose family were all Cornell alums and, so off she went to Ithaca. She hated it there. Did well academically, but it just wasn’t where she wanted to be. She took a year off from there, taking classes at a local school that barely if ever gets mentioned on these boards, and decided to the horror of her parents and shock of everyone else, to transfer there.
Well, a few years ago I went an event there where she was honored as a Rhodes scholar, the first from that school. She’s as successful or more so than her Cornell peers, happy and flourishing in her alma mater community, making a huge impact. She doubts, and I agree that she would not have gotten opportunities and acclaim, attention and support from Cornell But, most important thing of all she was happy and stress free her years there. Her family and friends, (other than closest friends) had no clue that she was not only unhappy at Cornell but felt like she was on the brink of some mental health crisis. Sometimes a change of pace can help things.
So, do understand that you will not always be able to please your parents, your friends, your kids(!) , society, as a whole. As long as you are doing no harm, there are things that are your choice in life. Do be grateful to your parents; I’ve known some who cannot let go and refuse to pay for college for choices that are not that important. That puts a tremendous hurt and makes this sort of choice a whole other story.
Good luck, and I hope it goes well.
From another viewpoint: The University of Arizona has low standards for admission, accepts about 85% of all applicants, does not require any standardized test for admission, basically just requires a high school degree for admission, and about 20% of enrolled freshmen do not return for their sophomore year. Low admissions standards & high attrition rate are legitimate concerns.
On the other hand, as a junior & senior, you will not be dealing with the large classes & academically weak students who have left the university.
As an alternative course of action, will WashUStL allow you to be take a year at another university as a visiting student ? If so, then that satisfies all parties while leaving all options open.
The OP is unlikely to be a high risk of flunking out, assuming that s/he is doing reasonably well in college now.
If you are happier and more comfortable you will do better both in school and personally. Seems like you have reasoned/researched things well and transferring would be the way to go. Full disclosure, U of A alum here and had a great experience there. If you do transfer, I suggest that in addition to doing well in your classes you immediately start talking to professors and Career Services Office about your options for getting an internship or coop with businesses. Any experience you can get in a work setting during your last 2 years in college will set you apart from a graduate from any college who has no work experience when applying for jobs. Have you already checked into that at your current school? If there are some really strong opportunities for internships, etc. it might be worth sticking out those last two years there.
@ucbalumnus : You misunderstand my post. Never suggested that OP was in any danger of flunking out of Arizona.
@ucbalumnus 
You misunderstand my post. Never suggested that OP was in any danger of flunking out of Arizona.
Just noting that University of Arizona accepts almost all applicants & that many flunk out or leave during their first two years. U of Arizona has a very different academic environment than does WashUStL, but it gets better during one’s junior & senior years as many leave or fail out during their first two years.
OP, I would stick with your school for two more years. You’re not miserable…you just believe that you’d like Arizona more for a variety of reasons.Your parents have paid for two years at an expensive university and are likely approaching the $150,000 mark…even if people are well-off, that’s a lot of money. Now with your transfer, that means that your degree will be from Arizona and not from this highly-ranked school that you and your parents financially invested in. I believe that your current college will open more doors for you
Oh Ariz0na…
As a parent, I advise you just get used to disappointing them - you kids (you and my own wonderful boy) are going to do that plenty as you form your own lives. Give them time. They will come around.
I would recommend going on leave from Wash U and not withdrawing. Always nice to be able to regroup.
^ Agree with that. Go on leave from WashU for a year. Life is long and a year is nothing. Given medical advances, you probably have 80 years ahead of you.
As for not being happy at WashU, I seriously would advise living in Tuscon and maybe auditing classes for a while. The grass may look greener on the other side but not always is. While I am not against the idea of transferring, you definitely do not want to transfer to Zona and then regret it.
When you were applying to colleges, people have strong thoughts about where you should go. But once you make a decision, then they will accept it.
Since the University of Arizona is OP"s local state school, he should be fine if he transfers to Arizona.
Easy to understand why one from Arizona might be unhappy in St. Louis, Missouri.
As a WashU Parent of a Student who is going to graduate in 7 weeks, I certainly understand where you are coming from. Our student has worked very hard and has met their goals – and had some fun along the way. They confided in us that they seriously thought of transferring at points of their first few years – not out of unhappiness with Wash U but more with the grind that school can be. Over time, they reconciled their long term career goals with their (at the time) college experience. They came to the realization that: a) their career choice was going to require sacrifice and commitment where ever they were; and b) there where steps that they could – and did – take to enhance their enjoyment and reduce some of the stress. They really grew to enjoy St. Louis – getting into the communities and neighborhoods, going to blues clubs, Cards games, etc. Spending two summers in St. Louis really helped them assimilate into the area.
I wish you success in wrestling with these issues – but remember that your health and happiness should come ahead of a perceived “value” of a diploma. As some have mentioned, a temporary change in scenery or a semester abroad may be a nice change in pace.
Good luck!
I feel that most of the posts lauding you for choosing fit over prestige missed this sentence. You’re not going to be doing something you really want to do, so you may very well find yourself pretty much unhappy anyway, sun or no sun. I find myself wondering if you are really looking at the real reason for your discontent. Why aren’t you looking at (properly) changing majors rather than, or in addition to, changing schools?
I have some coworkers from India that began graduate studies at Michigan Tech in January. Not super impressed by the weather argument.
I’ve never thought that prestige in a CS university was worth a used tissue, but I do have a suspicion that Data Science and stats are not as useful for the long haul as CS & math. You can sell yourself in to a data science gig with a CS/math background a lot easier than you can sell yourself into a sw architecture job with a data science degree.
If you’re studying data science and stats, it’s because you don’t want a software architecture job. But there are tons of jobs available to people with data science and stats knowledge.
However, I too am concerned that the OP doesn’t want to study either computer science or its subfield, data science. “I could see myself, if not enjoying, at least succeeding at the classes I have to take at the U of A [for a Data Science degree].” If they don’t like the classes, they’re not going to like the career either. There are plenty of people in the world who have to take jobs they don’t like, but I’m not understanding why the OP has to be one of these people.