What do you do if you get to university and realize you made the wrong choice?

Mara Seitan was a first-year student at Edinburgh, where she was studying history.

Shortly after classes started, she realized that student life in the UK was not what she had imagined: the subjects did not motivate her, the weather was gloomy almost every day, and her social life was nearly nonexistent.

She felt she was on the wrong path.

In an act of courage, Mara dropped out of the university in Edinburgh and applied to a university in Barcelona. She started from scratch, in a new country, in a different field.

For Mara's story, read on.

The international high school in England

Five years ago, I left Romania for the first time. I was only 16 when I packed my whole life into two huge suitcases and set off for Wales.

Although I did not know it yet, two completely unusual years awaited me at the UWC Atlantic boarding school. A place where the trajectory of my life was about to change entirely. In that setting, I became a completely different person from who I had been in Bucharest, and so I began to look at my future from an entirely different perspective.

When I was living in Bucharest, my dream was to go to an Ivy League school in the US and study something in the field of psychology. Over the course of my experience at UWC, I noticed that I would like to stay in the UK and lean toward the area of history and politics.

I applied to 3 universities in the UK (UCL, the University of Edinburgh, and SOAS), all for history courses.

I was not entirely convinced that this was the best option for me, but I did not really know what I wanted, where I was heading, or what my passions were. Out of inertia, I think, I chose history.

Over the following weeks, I started to receive replies from these universities, and to my delight, I had been accepted at all three. All of my friends were talking about how all of these universities are super cool and that the choice should not be too complicated.

And so, without thinking too much about this choice, I chose to study history at the University of Edinburgh.

Life in Edinburgh

The city itself was not the problem. Not the course, not the people, on an individual level, nothing about Edinburgh was, per se, unpleasant. Instead, from the very first week I felt that this was not my place. People were not very open, the weather depressed me, the classes were relatively boring, and I had the impression that I was doing almost nothing all day.

On a typical day, I would wake up around 10 or 11, go to the single lecture I would have for the day, and then, if it was not raining too much, go for lunch or a coffee.

After that, I would go to Tesco and buy a few things to cook, maybe go for a walk (if the weather allowed, which was not very often), and then I would head back to my residence and spend hours on TikTok or watching Netflix before going to sleep.

This routine was completely different from the expectations I had had: the first two years I had spent in the UK had been so much fun, always something to do, friends everywhere, and an academic challenge to match.

What had changed? I found it very hard to understand why my former classmates from UWC were having far better experiences in the UK than I was in my first year of university (at least, that is how it seemed on social media). Even those who were also in Edinburgh seemed to be having more fun than I was.

"What am I doing wrong?" was the question I asked myself day after day, hoping that the answer to this question would be my get-out-of-jail-free card.

The critical turning point

Finally, around April, I went back to Bucharest for the Easter break.

I was very unhappy, and the thought of going back to Edinburgh kept me awake at night. I felt that I had no power over the course of my life, and that the only option was to go back to that university, finish the 4 years, and then do a master's and another master's and another master's until I reached a point where I could find a job with that history degree from this university, which was, in theory, among the best in the world.

One evening, I was talking with my mother about this whole situation, explaining to her that I felt I had no alternative. To my surprise, she asked me why I did not leave that university. In that moment, I stopped crying and fell silent.

How could I leave? I had worked so hard to get into Edinburgh and, on top of that, the history course is among the best in the world!

Even so, the next day, the idea began to gain momentum. I had started, in secret, to look at other universities and other courses.

I learned about ESADE by chance. I had heard of this university, but I was not really sure what went on there, especially because I did not know anyone who was studying there.

What I was looking for was something radically opposite to the university in Edinburgh, and, at least on the surface, this university seemed to be exactly what I was looking for.

The application to ESADE

Without giving myself time to change my mind, I applied for the double degree in BBA & Global Governance, a program that combines business with economics, politics, and law, and to my delight, I was accepted a little over 2 weeks later.

Although it was quite different from the history profile I had been following for almost a whole year, I felt that the only way I could resolve this almost misanthropic state I was in would be to make a radical change.

New beginnings, at ESADE

In September, I set off for Barcelona. From the moment I got off the plane, I knew it was going to be much better than in Edinburgh. The sun was strong, and people were happier, friendlier, and more relaxed.

I spent the first few weeks of university, before the serious work began, going out to terraces, on walks, and to parties, meeting very interesting people and discovering the cool areas of Barcelona.

Throughout the year, the energy of the place stayed unchanged.

On an academic level, I remember that one of my main problems in Edinburgh was the fact that I lacked intellectual stimulation. Even though I was studying history, I only had 3 one-hour classes a week and another 3 hours of seminars.

Here, on the other hand, I have classes in the first part of the day every day, and the subjects are far more diverse: from geopolitics to statistics and macroeconomics. I never end up getting bored thanks to this interdisciplinary variety.

Compared to Scotland, the students are far more diverse, more international, and much, much friendlier. At last, I feel that I have found my place in an academic community, and I can confidently say that coming here was one of the best choices I have ever made.

A lesson about courage

The moral of the story is not that Edinburgh is bad and Barcelona is perfect. The moral of the story is that it is completely normal for a university not to be the right fit for you and that, although it may seem frightening, choosing to change universities can be the best option.

Although until a year ago I would not even have considered the idea of studying economics or business, or the idea of studying in Spain, I found out that stepping out of your comfort zone can often be surprisingly pleasant and, in my case, a best case scenario.

I always have two pieces of advice for every student I work with.

The first is to think seriously about who they are and not to choose a place just because it seems like the right one, because they "have to" go there, or because that is where everyone is going.

The second is to understand that, if they are unhappy, there are always solutions.