I was recently accepted to Georgetown as a transfer and I’m having some trouble deciding whether to transfer or to continue in UCSB’s Honors Program. Georgetown has some obvious pluses, being a private school with a “better reputation” and a strong government program. But since attending UCSB and meeting plenty of very intelligent people and fantastic professors, I’ve realized that its “poor” reputation is very baseless and its only real fault lies in its suburban location and occasionally larger class sizes.
I plan on probably attending law school, and I know for a fact my GPA at UCSB would be significantly higher than if I transferred to Georgetown (I currently have a 4.0 at UCSB and am feeling sufficiently challenged- I just work very hard). Since law school is largely a numbers game, and there have been plenty of UCSB alumni who attend USC/Columbia/Berkeley/even Harvard Law, I feel like my prospects of attending a great law school aren’t at all marred by staying here. I’m definitely comfortable, and while I don’t feel incredibly challenged by my peers, I have met tons of people whose intelligence far surpasses mine and the professors here really are top-knotch in almost every department.
Georgetown is, of course, more impressive to the average person, and I’m sure provides a fantastic educational experience in order to have gained that prestige. But I’m not sure if I can rationalize transferring and paying about $10-15k more a year if I want to go to law school in the end. I’m just so surprised and flattered to have gotten in that I feel like I can’t just disregard my acceptance and stay at UCSB that easily. I want to give it a lot of thought and I’m visiting for the first time next month.
I like Georgetown’s gov program, obviously, but I also feel very satisfied with UCSB’s Global Studies program. All my professors have come from Harvard or Columbia, are very open during office hours, and we’ve had countless guest speakers from the UN, former ambassadors, and grassroots leaders. I plan on studying abroad for a year at either LSE or UCL anyway, so I’m not sure if transferring is really necessary to gain that international experience. Clearly, I’m leaning towards UCSB but it’s hard to simply ignore an acceptance from one of the country’s most prestigious universities.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated, so long as it doesn’t bring in UCSB’s reputation as a reason to go to Georgetown. Among the academic and graduate school world, it means nothing. And I can defend UCSB night and day, so know that the reputation means very little to me.
Thanks in advance