<p>I am a junior in high school from New York and I am really interested in Stony Brook and I wanted to know a few things...</p>
<ol>
<li>What is the criteria like for admissions?</li>
<li>Do you need a lot of volunteer hours?</li>
<li>Is a 3.7 GPA unweighted, good enough?</li>
<li>What is campus like?</li>
<li>Where is the closest beach? </li>
<li>Is it a diverse community?</li>
<li>How is the swim program?</li>
<li>Is it big on school spirit?</li>
<li>What is something that makes the school unique?</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>You need low 90’s grades and decent SAT scores (somewhere in the 600’s, but 700’s will get you noticed).</li>
<li>Extra-curriculars (including volunteer hours) are awesome, but it boils down to your grades.</li>
<li>Yes.</li>
</ol>
<p>The rest can only be answered by actual students.</p>
<p>I’ve found that grades are more important to be admitted. GPA and SAT/ACT, so do well on those. I’ve heard of a huuuuge mix of SAT scores, though. From low 1700s to perfect 2400s. </p>
<p>I really like campus, but some people dont. I did a tour in the fall when it was all orange and beautiful, but now that I’m here I’ll be honest and say Stony Brook totally skipped that this past fall, haha. Its pretty big and you’ll do a lot of walking. I’m in Tabler quad which takes a walk up the infamous tabler steps to get to, and is a decent walk to some food places, the sports complex/fields, and some other quads, but its all good, I love it here. </p>
<p>A lot of people leave on the weekends, but you WILL find people that do stay. Frats and sports teams often have parties on the weekends, if you’re into that kinda thing. And if not, theres always something happening in the dorms, or at the student activities center. You will NOT get bored, unless if you’re the type to sit in the room all day and night. If you venture out and meet people it will be really fun.</p>
<p>Diversity, yep. I’m from NYC so the diversity thing didnt phase me at all. But a lot of my friends are from some really… non-diverse areas and were so excited to be making friends of different backgrounds lol.</p>
<p>Swimming seems good… I actually just met a bunch of people on the swim team the beginning of this semester. They have practice A LOT and its intense. I’m pretty sure they went during winter break to some Caribbean country for practice haha. But yeah they say its really hard, and I dont think any of them get scholarship money for being on a varsity team. But they are all sticking with it because they love to swim, so I guess you have to be in that mindset, too, if you make the team.</p>
<p>School spirit, eh… I went to pretty much every football and basketball game, and some soccer ones, because I love sports. But there isn’t as much school spirit as you’d find at a lot of big schools. Homecoming was huge, as well as a lot of the basketball games, but sometimes the other games wouldnt be. You’ll notice people wearing red shirts that say “Whats a seawolf?” on the front and “I’m a seawolf!” on the back… They’re sorta famous. You need to go to a basketball game, I think to win/catch one. They have events during basketball games, like little games, where you can get one. My first ever basketball game I caught one in the stands, my friends were jealous lol. But again, if you find a group of friends who are into school-spirit kind of things, it will be fun. </p>
<p>Another kind of “spirit” is within the quads. There are 6 quads and we compete in the battle of the undergraduate colleges. I enjoyed participating in it. Another thing is Roth Regatta, which is where various groups build boats to race across what is called Roth Pond in Roth quad.</p>
<p>I’m tired, can’t think of what else to say haha, you can message me if you have questions</p>
<p>Lucky that they have a minor in adapted aquatics, then!</p>