I hear pretty good things about the universities here, so northwestern wouldnt be a bad idea, though I doubt there is anyway that you would get the same recognition for studying at northwestern that you get in LA.

As far as the beauty, Qatar is like 3 shades of brown and thats it. The corniche is ok and the flowers are nice as long as they just planted them. The food is ok and can be pretty cheap and the misspelled signage is good for a quick chuckle but none of this comes close to comparing with California.

I drove from southern Washington to San Diego a few years ago and was blown away by how incredible the weather and the scenery was in California. It was just one beautiful valley after another. LA wasnt that great, ill admit that, but the beaches were exponentially better than anything Ive seen in Qatar.

There are some things that you can do and enjoy in Qatar, but then you get to day 14 and pretty much all the resources have been tapped out. Enjoy a month with your family tops and bail.

Oh and one term last 6 months at UCLA? that seems like it must eat away at at least a fraction of a second...