My heart was set on the blah blah blah program offered at blank university; it had (has) a lot of positive feedback from previous students and it also offered (offers) an interesting variety of graduate courses.
By using "was" at the very beginning of the sentence have I locked myself into a rule of needing to stay in the past tense for the following clause. I ask this because while my heart "was", but no longer is set on that program. The positive aspects of the program still exist. So, by stating that the program "offered" or "had" am I suggesting that it longer does not? Because it most certainly still does.