@arwarw Thank you so much for providing a very helpful input on this. I am not sure I will transfer; I might end up loving Brown to bits! I am just wondering of these things to assist me in my decision. It is often hard to gauge strenght of program by rankings or word of mouth, and I just wanted to make sure that Brown CS is well-regarded in industry. Right now, it seems that I most likely will not transfer. My proposed reasons for transferring were primarily non-academic, as highlighted in post 22, but earlier on I provided a few academic reasons as well (e.g. Wharton for investment banking and finance). Right now, I feel like I do not gel well with Brown. I like structure, and although have varied interests, want them to be funneled in an appropriate, controlled way. I want to be in a big city.
But who knows, that definitely may change! I may love Brown. But that’s what I was trying to gauge here. What if I don’t like Brown? I do not love it too much right now, and there is a very real possibility that I do not enjoy my time there. So, if I want to transfer, how easy would it be?
That’s all the purpose of this thread was, which I felt like you understood. So thank you very much!
@PurpleTitan It wasn’t to transfer because of perceived notion that overall prestige of Columbia was somehow more recognizable than Brown’s. They are both amazing in their own right. It’s simply that I just do not like Brown too much as of now, and I was considering other universities a better fit socially and psychologically, as well as comparable (if not better, like Wharton) academics.
By the way, if you noticed, all of Harvard, MIT, and Stanford fit the same criteria that I presented for Columbia and Penn. Harvard and MIT are in Cambridge (very close to Boston), and Stanford is in the Silicon Valley (literally the home of the technological powerhouses, and the weather is simply a plus).
It is only Brown, that is located in small city Providence, and has a vastly different student body. If I listed all these universities, and tried to pick the one that is most different (not in terms of prestige or academics even), but just social fit, Brown would definitely be the most different. And that is not necessarily a bad thing! Many people love Brown. But I just do not know if it is right for me. Thank you.