spasms of self-doubt plague my soul

[eternal_purity]

First of all, this is one of my most favorite songs of all time. I hardly listen to the genre anymore but this song is magnificent beyond words. I first heard it on a commercial for Star Trek: Enterprise. That itself was pretty cool, considering that I'm a huge fan of the Star Trek series (my favorite being Star Trek: Voyager, the only ship to have

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[lystellion]

Astronomy is awesome, in the original sense of that word. Few things tap the sense of awe and wonder better than it. Do you have a telescope? I keep meaning to buy one, but the huge price tag is always a little too much. It's one of the things to buy in that semi-mythical time when we all have well-paid jobs and houses and stable families and so on.

But then again, Davis is filled with cows and it's in the middle of nowhere,

That was laugh out loud funny. It makes me think that there are just so many cows as to constitute a reason for hating the place. 'I would go but there just so many cows, you know? Cows!'

How much significantly better is this Davis place? You need pretty big jumps in standards to make a real difference in the general intelligence of students, as far as I can see. I read quite a bit about UCSD when you were pretty sure you'd decided to go there, and there's no doubt it's a very good university.

I assume that the "better" a college is, the more intelligent its students are

To an extent, but you always get anomalies and outliers. One of my very first impressions at my university campus was that I was surrounded by morons, and there were more than one or two about, but that didn't stop me carving out a niche and making some good friends. It's a damn shame about the choir, I know how frustrated you feel given how my campus has so few actually interesting student societies. But there might well be other things you can try, there'll probably be quite a few societies that you won't know about 'till you're actually there.

toying with the idea that UCSD might not have been the greatest choice.

You have to take that perspective on things. It's pretty natural to doubt the big decisions that you make, but if you go through your decision processes (as you were doing a bit in your entry) you tend to end up back where you decided. You put a lot of thought into your choice, and you might find yourself recalling some of the reasons you chose UCSD.

I'd also repeat what my form tutor at college said before we went to university: no matter where you go, so long as it's not a terrible university and you're reasonably okay with your course, you're going to have a good time and make friends.

I plan on studying abroad my junior year so it won't work.

?

[eternal_purity]

That depends on your definition of "owning" a telescope. I used to have this gold-plated, leather-bound spyglass that would allow for a good view of the moon before my brother, obviously taken with its shininess, lost it.

And my dad bought a real telescope (well, it certainly wasn't a spyglass) for $10 last November but where it is now, who knows. It's only been assembled once and I haven't seen it since.

But that saying, I'm sure you could find a cheap telescope somewhere out there. We did.

How much significantly better is this Davis place?

It's not "better". It's lower in rankings compared to UCSD. The only reason I suggested it was because I have friends going there but no friends going to UCSD.

And about the cows--it really IS filled with cows. You can smell them from the freshmen dorms. :)

I plan on studying abroad my junior year so it won't work.

?

Well, assuming that the "?" is in regards to transferring to UCLA: It's too much moving when I transfer to a totally different environment after two years at SD and then, go to a new country all together that same year I moved to LA. It's just too much moving and I'd like to stay put for a while.

...if, course, that is what you meant by "?".