<p>I am currently enrolled at my 2nd year at a liberal arts college at an ivy league university. Because it’s sooo expensive, I have been planning to graduate at the end of next year (one year early). Im doing a combined major in women’s studies and history with the ultimate aim to get a PhD in Women’s History and go on to be a professor in that subject.</p>
<p>However, even though my first year here was great, lately I’ve been very unhappy and questioning if I’ve made the right choice. Im also really really good at math and watching Good Will Hunting and the TV show Numb3rs makes me feel all warm and squishy inside. Im beginning to think I should switch to math–after all, as a woman doing math, sooo many doors will open to me. I’d still want to get a PhD and eventually be a professor. However, switching majors now would definitely require staying for the full 4 years and Im not sure I can take that (or afford it). If I switch to math, I’ll return to my home town of Ann Arbor, MI, and transfer to UMich for the Winter 06 semester (I got into the honors college out of high school so Im sure I’ll get back into that). I know it’s a great school, but something about returning home after being so far away seems like giving up. I can’t really transfer anywhere else because of the cost.</p>
<p>I feel like I need validation from random anonymous internet lurkers. Please tell me if Im making the right choice or if Im totally crazy! Thanks!</p>
<p>So, I did what you are considering. I went to Columbia, finished a major in the department I chose in two years and then went home to Chicago to finish school in another subject. I don’t know. Going home isn’t too bad after you’ve been away for a while. Your parents treat you like an adult. Many of your friends will have come home as well. (I had three classmates out of a highschool prep class of 100 in my transfer class at Chicago…) Nobody I met at school thought it was weird that I was living with my grandparents to save money. Granted, Chicago is pretty nerdy but so is the honors college at Michigan, I can’t imagine they will make a big deal out of you being a homebody. On the other hand, leaving one school for another is not the best idea. If I had stayed at Columbia I would have finished with two awesome majors, a beautiful G.P.A. (you only get better at something you have been studying for two or three years), I would have had recommendations based on four years of an academic relationship rather than two, and ultimately I would have looked great to graduate admissions committees. A friend of mine did what you would do if you stayed on at the Ivy: Classics and Math. Graduate admissions committees ate it up! So I would stay if you can possibly stand it. Look around for scholarships. Hope a great uncles dies. Ask someone for money. Sign up for some weird feminist internship-fellowship. As for the snots you go to school with: they will get better with age. People I hated at Columbia turned out to be such lovely people later on! Bottom line: I loved Chicago. I met my husband there. I had the best teacher-mentor I will ever have. Still, part of me regrets giving up on Columbia too soon. Okay, so it’s not affirmation. But it’s honest.</p>
<p>Oh, one more thing: you should really do two years at each place if you want to optimize your chances of getting into graduate school. You need time to forge new relationships. Also, get recommendations on file from your teachers at your original school. You will need them later if you decide math is a bust. Also, don’t transfer if you are going to really, really good Ivy. Michigan is a great school! It certainly looks as good as, say, Dartmouth or Penn on a resume or admissions request. If you’re at Harvard or Yale or Princeton, however, do not leave! You can’t replicate that. They simply have so much more money that they eventually steal all the best faculty…</p>
<p>If I were you, I would explore the financial options of staying put. There are A LOT of scholarship opportunities for women in science, engineering, or math. I’m specifically thinking of the CSEMS scholarship offered by the National Science Foundation. So even if you need to stay an extra year, it might be more affordable than you think. There are also many fellowship oppportunities and grants available at the graduate level. </p>
<p>I too made a dramatic switch after two years (although in the other direction) - Software Engineering to History - I haven’t once regretted the decision. So I would say go for it.</p>