<p>hey everybody,
i'm currently a sophomore at penn deciding whether to transfer to harvard. i've been accepted for the spring 2007 term, and as such, the time for decision is upon me. i made a trip up to harvard last week and stayed for 3 days and 2 nights with another student who transferred from penn to get a sense of the atmosphere. being a 2nd semester transfer, adjustment will inherently be difficult as the rest of campus is in full swing, and apparently harvard does far less to integrate the 2nd semester transfer students.
i'm looking for advice and insight on a few specific topics, and if you can help on ANY of them, i'd truly appreciate it.</p>
<p>1) firstly, i'm an economics major at penn, but am currently tossing around the idea of being premed. considering that harvard students take only 4 courses/semester and the requirements for a concentration are higher (15 credits vs 12), would i still be able to finish on time? is econ at harvard REALLY better than at penn (keeping in mind i am not in wharton). how about premed at penn versus at harvard?
2) another important thing i want to consider is that i really want to spend a term abroad, regardless of the school i am at. harvard's abroad program seems tremendously better than penn's from what i have researched, but would it even be possible for me to go abroad with requirements coupled with limited number of courses taken per term?
3) i suppose the other aspects concern the social side of things. a harvard faculty member who advises freshman spoke with my mom at a dinner some time ago, and strongly discouraged a transfer to harvard once my mom mentioned it. she felt that harvard students are "exclusive" and form groups that are wary of letting others join. obviously, my housing would be a matter of luck, but since students form blocking groups after their freshman year, would there be a good chance i put into a group that doesn't really let me into their "circle"?
4) would you consider most harvard students to be "down to earth" or "intense?" while visiting, i observed two types. the one's i stayed with were very genuine, laid back, and easy to get along with. however, i spent time with some other people too, who proceeded to tell me it was "stupid" to even think about staying at penn, and it was like "ripping up a winning lottery ticket." these examples of arrogance kind of bothered me, but it was hard to tell whether that was the rule or the exception. i'm all for school pride but it seemed kind of ridiculous. they were strong supporters of going to harvard for the "brand name," which, i realize, is just a fact. but to have no sympathy for the fact that its really not that easy..or at least not in my eyes. i think other things have to be considered when choosing a school.
5) do students who dont know each other end up sitting together at dining tables? the way it was set up, it looked like it encouraged interaction among different students. but if went down for dinner shortly after arriving, would people accept me sitting down and chatting with them, or feel uncomfortable?
6) finally, one thing i noticed while at harvard was that the students seemed always to be busy, which is a good thing to some extent. however, it seemed like they had little to no "hang out" time, to just relax and watch movies or anything like that. i dont know if that was a product of their being upperclassmen or something else, and i've read that the crunch mostly happens around midterms and finals, but do people find the time to just hang out? from what i've seen/learned, everyone is involved in a million different things, running from one to the next. it almost reminded me of high school.</p>
<p>well, thanks a ton for any feedback. after visiting, i could really see myself having been happy there had i been there from the start. it's a beautiful school with amazing people and plenty of resouces. i sat in on some classes with great professors. however, i'm concerned that it is a little trickier coming into the thick of things halfway through the year. i'm actually really enjoying myself at penn this year, something that wasn't the case one year ago when i applied to transfer. if the situation were still what it was, then i would have no doubts about transferring; it would have to be better. however, things as they are, i'm not sure of the risk to leave a definite good situation for a possible not-so-good one.</p>
<p>oh, and perhaps my original desire to leave. penn just overwhelmed me. it was really large (which i realize harvard is, but not so much). also, it just never really clicked with me. i was looking for a more intellectual environment, somewhere people engaged in interesting discussions (though i have since heard that harvard students might not have as interesting discussions as i once thought..apparently they are quite apolitical, and more likely you'll find yourself talking about finals clubs than anything else. don't know how true that is.)</p>