<p>sdf - That is one of the best posts ever! I hope all college searchers - and incoming freshmen - will read it. You are so right about faculty, and even programs. Things change, and there is no way of knowing how things will be for the next 4 years. I believe every entering college student should keep in mind that they might transfer, and that they should transfer. Huge numbers of people do it. Or that they may end up with a different major, different favorite profs, different interests, by the time they graduate. Or 10 years down the road. Or 30. This is how life is.</p>
<p>It is useful to look at profs when evaluating schools. It gives you an idea of what the program might be like. But going to a school because of a certain prof is like going to college as a recruited athlete in order to work with a certain coach. If that coach leaves during your first year - which I have personal experience seeing happen - you had better have a lot of other things that you like about the school. So much is fluid, and you have to be prepared for that. </p>
<p>On the other hand, you should be sure that the things that aren’t fluid - the location, size, etc. of the school - are aspects that you are fundamentally OK with. No matter how much you wish they would change, they’re not going to. But there are always students who claimed they never wanted to be at a small school in the middle of nowhere who end up loving colleges exactly like that.</p>