I got accepted ED to Northwestern University and now I regret applying ED. This is mainly because no one in my environment, i am from central Europe, views Northwestern as a good university. What are my chances of transferring to more prestigious universities like Cornell, UPENN, Brown, Dartmouth, Columbia etc…?
Do YOU like Northwestern, other people’s opinions aside? Northwestern is a GREAT university and one of the top schools in America. I think the people around you don’t think it is good because it is less known internationally than the Ivy League schools. I think almost everyone has heard of Harvard, Yale, Columbia etc. but not the same recognition goes for Northwestern (internationally).
If you like Northwestern, then don’t worry about what other people think. This is YOUR college education, not theirs.
Are you going to go back to central Europe to work?
Why do you care what people there think?
You just got in to one of the top universities in the world (and in the mind of Americans, on the same level as those other schools that you named; in fact, more Americans would know about Northwestern than Brown or Dartmouth).
Think of your logic: You are saying that you are questioning your decision because the people around you are ignorant. Does that reasoning make sense to you?
“This is mainly because no one in my environment, i am from central Europe, views Northwestern as a good university. What are my chances of transferring to more prestigious universities like Cornell, UPENN, Brown, Dartmouth, Columbia etc…?”
These other schools aren’t more prestigious in the US.
The people in your country don’t know what the best schools in the US; they only think that they know. I can’t say I blame them; I wouldn’t know what are the best schools in most European countries, either.
But that’s not something you should base a decision on – people who don’t know what they are talking about and rely only on “well, I’ve heard …”