Hi everyone! I wanted to thank everyone who responded to my comment originally, giving me advice. Since I have had a few people message me for an update / advice, I wanted to write what I ended up choosing and why. But know if you’re considering this, then the work you must have done to get to this place and have to make this decision, you’re going to be great no matter where you go and what you do.
My decision ended up not being as clear cut as Penn versus UVA with Jschol, because the day after I made this post originally, I got into Stanford!! (Very unexpectedly – like my mom made me open the decision because I thought I had absolutely zero chance of getting in.) I ended up choosing Stanford, but it wasn’t a straight forward decision at all, and despite the overwhelming majority of the comments telling me I would be stupid to choose anything other than UVA, my decision really came between Penn and Stanford.
UVA, for me (and I can’t emphasize this enough that it was for me) was not the right fit. This doesn’t mean that is a bad school, and the Jefferson Scholars program is absolutely amazing, with the prestige of any Ivy. But it just wasn’t right for me.
First, I felt like already I was struggling to make friends (mostly due to the online nature of finals week, which I believe was not the case this year.) When I talked to people, I just felt distant and like I was already struggling to make friends. After feeling like that for a lot of high school, I knew college was my chance to undo that, and so in my mind, that was one of the biggest things I was considering. Whereas, I felt when I talked to people even online at Penn and Stanford, people felt so much more welcoming and friendly and willing to talk to me. This isn’t to say that had I gone to UVA, I wouldn’t have made friends – I’m sure I would. And obviously, this isn’t the case for everyone. But I really wanted to go somewhere where I felt like I clicked with the people, and I think that is essential. I also felt kind of frustrated, with the Jefferson Scholars program, because they kept emphasizing how they did not want this to be a centralized group where you only ever talk with JSchols kids. For me, a huge appeal of the JSchols was being able to have these really cool kids to connect with who were just so smart and interesting, and it was a source of frustration when they emphasized how that wasn’t the focus. (Whereas with both Penn and Stanford, every single person I talk to just has something so cool and so nerdy that they love to reveal – to be honest it feels like an entire school of Jefferson Scholars all in one.)
Then I toured UVA. There were some really wonderful students offering personal tours on Facebook for students while the official tours were shut down due to COVID. When I first arrived on campus, I felt this immense feeling of panic, and when I went on the tour, I had to leave halfway through, crying, because I just felt so bad and didn’t like it that much. I think this was the most important thing for me – people emphasize how wonderful these programs are, and that is completely true, but they are not abstractly wonderful. They have to be wonderful for you. It’s not worth it to go to a school that you feel miserable at just because it “looks good” or is prestigious – that is not to say that that is unique to UVA – you might very well feel the same about Penn or any other school that you got into, but only you can figure that out (and which is why I would definitely encourage, if possible, to go tour these schools - if you can’t stand a 2 hour tour, then you shouldn’t go there for 4 years.) But when I toured Penn and Stanford, I felt at home, I felt in awe, I felt like I never wanted to leave these places.
Another big factor for me not choosing UVA was the majors. I have a pretty unique major (Science Technology and Society with a concentration in bioethics). Penn and Stanford offer this, while UVA doesn’t. As I mentioned in the original post, I was planning on majoring in Humbio at UVA, which is (as I’m learning in my major classes now) a far cry from STS, and something I didn’t really like. Also, with UVA, you have to apply to your major your sophomore year, and humbio is very competitive. When I asked JSchols leaders if the Scholarship would make it guaranteed that I would get into the Humbio major, they said no. That was really concerning, because then there was a chance that I wouldn’t even be able to major in my 3rd choice major. Now, looking back with a year of perspective, I can see that while yes, it is really amazing to have your entire education paid for, if you’r working towards a degree you don’t want, and you might end up going back to school anyway later, is it even really worth it?
There were also a lot of little things that I thought about when comparing the three schools. While Stanford had the best research for peanut allergies (a passion of mine), UVA had a very close second, and Penn had none – so that would be something I would have to give up, and something I did consider.
There was also the feeling of party schools and Greek life, something I, in the original post mentioned I did not want. I think both Penn and UVA have a big Greek life / party scene which is something I was wary of. Looking back now, I do wish Stanford had a little bit more of a party scene, but in the grand scheme of things, I would much rather have a school with less partying than excess partying.
Of course, I am incredibly lucky that for me, this was not necessarily a financial decision, but that it something that needs to be considered. People spend a lifetime paying off their college debt, but at the end of the day, when I was at UVA, just wasn’t happy.
I remember making this thread a year ago and crying when everyone told me to go to UVA – not because it was a bad school or anything, but because it felt like an obligation. It looked like the “smarter” choice, the “better” choice or whatever, but for me, that wasn’t it. I was hoping that making this thread, people would tell me to go to Penn, because I wanted to go there over UVA, because I felt more at home there than UVA. And I think that is incredibly important to know where you feel most happy attending and being at. At the end of the day, no amount of money is worth being absolutely miserable, and if you become so miserable that you drop out, the money doesn’t matter either way.
Sorry if this message was a bit heavily skewed against UVA but hopefully it came across that it wasn’t against UVA for everyone, but that UVA just wasn’t the right fit for me.
And if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out!! I’ll try to answer them the best I can
). Very prestigious. You can always do Ivy for grad/professional school.