<p>So I am currently a freshman at the university of pennsylvania. I have really not been enjoying my experience here. I am miserable and just not enjoying myself at all, the exact opposite of the fun college experience I was hoping for. I have a girlfriend who goes to george mason back home in virginia, and recently ive been thinking about the possibility of transferring there. Obviously, this would be a step down in terms of academic quality, but I truly believe that I am going to spend the rest of my life with this girl and I am tired of being so bored and miserable where I am. Looking through other threads about transfering for a girlfriend everyone says that it is a bad idea, that if you break up your going to regret it and so forth. I very much understand that side, but I feel like I have nothing to regret leaving this school because im just not enjoying it at all. The one thing holding me back is that I know i would probably be throwing away a lot of future opputunity just because of the large step down in terms of the academic quality of the two schools. So i guess what im asking is if it is worth giving up an ivy league education for george mason just because Im miserable here and my girlfriend is there? Any advice would really help me out, Ive been driving myself crazy thinking about this for a while.</p>
<p>What jobs are you interested in? Aside from Austrian (extreme libertarian) Economics, I can’t think of any areas where George Mason will give you opportunities (IHS aka the Kochtopus is centered there). On the other hand, you should have lots of opportunities in any field coming out of Penn. </p>
<p>Normally, I would say that a person shouldn’t prefer a prestigious school if they don’t intend to enter a prestigious career track, but you might have trouble finding a job or getting into graduate school coming out of George Mason.</p>
<p>So I guess I should have included this, but I have zero idea of what I want to do careerwise or even major wise. I know i dint want to be in hard sciences, or be like a doctor or lawyer, but besides that i really just dont know</p>
<p>@ mpenn1992: I PMed you giving you my perspective on your situation as I revealed some personal info that I don’t want the whole world wide web to see. Hope it helps, and feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>It is a bad idea, mpenn. It is a bad idea. I know you don’t want to hear this. And I am a parent, so my advice is doubly “clueless.” ")</p>
<p>Here’s what you need to do:
- Get involved at UPenn. Join things. Heck, find other people with gfs and bfs elsewhere and hang with them! Doesn’t matter what you get involved in; get involved.
- After you have done that and given it a few months (ie, February/March 2011), see how you feel.</p>
<p>Then and only then, make a decision.</p>
<p>The odds that you will be with this girl your whole life are… what? Close to zero. If she is the right one for you, you will spend your whole lives together after college. And you will be the stronger for having faced this challenge of whether to value education over time with a girlfriend and handled iwtwith the right priorities. </p>
<p>You are close enough to each other to visit on holidays, long weekends and a few special occasions. You can have a girlfriend who lives at a distance and the quality education you are poised for - both. Do not set up a choice situation.</p>
<p>So I understand that its not a good idea to leave my school just for my girlfriend, even if I am going to be with her for the long run. The thing is that I just don’t think I really belong here. Im just not an Ivy League person. I am going to be here till at least the end of the year, but I dont want to spend four years at a place I hate just because it offers a better education, I guess because I dont really care that much about getting an elite education.</p>
<p>I think you should consider applying to UVA and Virginia Tech. It is about the same academically, may be considered by some to be a small step down, but you will get out of the school that you don’t enjoy and also be in the same state as your GF. </p>
<p>I am not sure about UVA, but VT is about a 4-5 hour drive from George Mason. Stressful but doable for the girl you love. 
If you truly think you have a future with this girlfriend, then do what makes you happy.</p>
<p>Consider transferring to a school in the Maryland-Virginia-DC area that will still give you decent oppertunities: Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA or VTech/UMD if you want to do engineering. </p>
<p>I really wouldn’t recommend going to George Mason unless you want to become a libertarian economist. For that purpose, it’s actually a pretty strong program.</p>