<p>I want to transfer from SUNY Stony Brook for next fall. I really have no idea what I want right now though. I'm afraid that not knowing this could make my essays weaker and thus make me unable to really transfer at any school. I'm very focused academically and want to go to the best school I can possibly be admitted to. But what is that? </p>
<p>HS Stats:
2170 SAT (660 M, 790 W, 720 R - unfortunately only 1380 2-part)
30 ACT, but just retook it and I think it's reasonable to estimate that I got 32-33.
Ranked 10/265 in class
93.62 unweighted GPA, took 10 AP exams, average was >100 weighted
Honors/Awards: Ranked at 98th percentile for Spanish National Exam - "gold award", 3rd in county/16th nationally for French national exam (both level 5), national, french, spanish, and german honor societies, President of French Club, lots of other clubs that were lower in importance to me. </p>
<p>College Stats:
I don't have a GPA yet, but my lowest grade is a 96 right now, so I'm expecting a 4.0 or close to it.
Courseload: French 311, Latin 111, Linguistics 101, Existentialism, Logic and Reasoning
Activities: Oxfam Club - Events Coordinator, Oxfam Action Corps in Manhattan (and I've done A LOT of events with them), Food Not Bombs, Philosophy Club - Secretary, <em>trying</em> to be founder of a Students for a Sensible Drug Policy at my school, Internship at county's Democratic Committee
Work experience: been working at Trader Joe's since 11th grade, 15-20 hrs/week. </p>
<p>Hook?: (always unsure of whether I should tell colleges this or not, but it justifies some mediocre [by my standards] grades from 10th grade) - I've been in recovery from anorexia for 3 years and was hospitalized for 2 months for it in 9th grade. My school work wasn't terribly affected, surprisingly. Is this worth mentioning at all? </p>
<p>I have a few dilemmas/personal confusions. At SB, I'm a sophomore because I have 30 credits from AP/college classes. If I transfer though, I'd prefer to be there for 3 years, not 2, because I'm not ready to declare my major yet. I don't know if I want to do linguistics, and I really want to take a bunch of classes outside of my major. I really like all subjects, even science and math even though my strong points are in language. I really want to challenge myself, which I stupidly didn't do by taking all language and philosophy classes this year. I regret it a bit, but I'm quite terrified of taking math/science classes at SB because they're in large lecture halls and it's known as a math/science school. I'd like to be in a more welcoming setting. I don't know if I want a liberal arts college or a university. I'm quite competitive too, so I want to go to a competitive school with a good name (yes, that does matter to me.) I wish I could get into Brown where I could take a lot of pass/fail classes. I'm trying to make the best out of my time at SB and am getting the most out of my schedule.</p>
<p>My ideal right now would be to get into U. Chicago. Do you think I have a chance? What about Ivy leagues? Or liberal arts schools like Swarthmore? I'm going to visit Swarthmore and Middlebury because I love the idea of a liberal arts school, and Vassar would've been perfect for me if I didn't think I'd definitely be majoring in linguistics at the time. I also like comparative lit and international relations and art and language. Too many interests! I wish I could do a quadruple major with a triple minor. </p>
<p>And what's the best way to learn about a college, besides visiting it if that's not feasible?</p>