UPenn vs. Notre Dame

onimpulse
Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:58:02 +0000

After what has been a grueling college application experience, I have my options for next year narrowed down to Notre Dame and the University of Pennsylvania. My plan is to go into the Humanities.

I feel somewhat pressured to go to Penn. I know that, as an Ivy League school, a degree from Penn would open doors for me that few could even imagine. I don’t really feel pressured by my family, but a number of people whom I’ve spoken to—teachers who’ve gone to Oxbridge, and even one of my interviewers for another Ivy to which I was rejected—have pointed out that so many more opportunities are available with an Ivy degree, even from one of the so-called “lesser Ivies.” Penn is not quite Harvard or Yale, but it is an exceptionally good school.

But I will be brutally honest: My heart tells me to go to Notre Dame. I am so drawn by its incredible sense of community and its overall sense of purpose. I was accepted, in this admissions cycle, to twelve respectable institutions in both the U.S. and Canada. But I know quite honestly that if I denied ND, I would always be asking myself, “What if?”, in a way that I know would not happen if I denied any other institution. I will ask “What if?” if I deny Penn as well, but the question would assume a much different character.

I have my sights set on grad school already, and I’m particularly interested in applying, when the time comes however many years from now, to Oxford and Cambridge. Penn, I know, would make it easier for me to get into superior grad school programs.

Still, I know that I would be happier at Notre Dame. It’s not that I would be unhappy attending UPenn. On the contrary, to be totally honest I know if I attended I’d probably spend four perfectly happy years there, and end up with a very valuable degree. But I cannot shake the feeling that I would get something more than happiness from Notre Dame; a greater sense of purpose, perhaps. I think ND could very possibly enable me to change fundamentally as a person for the better.

So will someone tell me whether or not I’m crazy to even think about turning down an Ivy? And does anyone know of people who have been in a situation like this before? This may very well end up being one of the most important decisions I’ll ever make.

Thank you so much for your help.

And to you waitlisters: I apologize if it seems I’m taking up a spot that someone who absolutely LOVED Penn could put to better use than I… But I imagine situations like these are not unique.