I turned down a scholarship at UPenn to attend the more expensive Columbia. I still wonder if I made the right choice.
NEWS | 05 October 2026
When I decided to pursue a master's degree in the US, I was not simply looking for a good school. I had built up an idea of what studying there could mean for my career and, if I am being honest, for my life. I applied to several universities, but Columbia University and New York were the dream I had absorbed from years of movies and television while growing up in Mexico. The other schools felt like alternatives until the University of Pennsylvania unexpectedly offered me a $40,000 scholarship and forced me to ask how much that dream was actually worth. Philly made me question my New York dream Until UPenn's offer arrived, I had never really forced myself to interrogate why I wanted New York so badly. Columbia had the prestige I was looking for, but it also came wrapped in a city I had romanticized for years. I had treated those two things as one package and assumed they were worth paying for. Penn changed the equation. Philadelphia was not the city I had fantasized about, but UPenn was every bit the kind of elite institution I had wanted. More importantly, the scholarship turned an abstract alternative into a serious option. Suddenly, I could get the academic credibility I was chasing without taking on the same financial burden. That mattered because I did not come from money. I had saved, but I knew an American master's degree meant much more than tuition: rent, insurance, flights, food, and a year away from full-time work. For the first time, I had to separate what I actually needed for my career from what I simply wanted because I had fallen in love with the idea of New York. I still chose Columbia because New York felt like part of the education In the end, I followed my instinct and chose Columbia. The decision was not financially comfortable. Once I sat down and compared the two options properly, I realized New York would require me to borrow money, while Penn's scholarship would let me begin the degree from a much stronger financial position. I knew I was choosing the more expensive path. What tipped the balance was that I did not see New York as just the place where Columbia happened to be. I saw the city itself as part of what I was paying for. I wanted to study law there, but I also wanted to understand its legal market, meet people working in it, and experience the professional world I hoped to enter. Explore BI Games Take a smarter break in your day - and see how far you get. Play now Want more Business Insider in your news feed? Add BI in Google so our reporting is easier to find when you’re searching for what matters. Add to Preferred Sources In many ways, that instinct proved right. I built relationships there, eventually worked in New York, and had experiences outside the classroom that became central to what came next. But New York also taught me something I had not expected: the life I had idealized was not necessarily the life I wanted forever. I loved the city's ambition and energy, but eventually realized its relentless hustle culture was not for me. I later moved to London, changed jobs, and built a career that looks very different from what I imagined when I was choosing between UPenn and Columbia. So, was it all worth it? I don't regret Columbia, but I'm still paying for the choice I know Columbia gave me a lot. Studying law in the US exposed me to a more practical and participatory style of legal education and helped prepare me for an international career. I am grateful for that experience, and I do not regret having gone. But COVID made the financial side of my decision harder to ignore. I had chosen the more expensive option partly because I wanted everything that came with being at Columbia and in New York. Then the pandemic changed university life almost overnight. Had I chosen UPenn, I would still have lived through those same disruptions, but I would have done so with a scholarship and more money left in my pocket. Looking back, that difference feels much more significant than it did when I was making the decision. Years later, I am still paying off two loans from my studies. Columbia helped shape the life and career I have now, and I am grateful I chose it. But every loan payment is also a reminder that UPenn offered me another route, one I will never know the outcome of.
Author: Santiago Barraza Lopez.
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