<p>OK I am currently a student at Yeshiva university. This is problematic for a number of reasons. First off I don't want to be surrounded by religious jews for the rest of my life, thats how I grew up. secondly I want to study linguistics and YU doesnt offer that as a major. thirdly the course selection is kind of small in the liberal arts/social sciences category. They have like 8 philosophy classes and only a few soc classes. YU is a business/finance/science heavy school.so I want to transfer out. However I am nervous that those reasons aren't quite specific enough for when a school asks 'why THIS school?'. I can easily explain why not YU but why Cornell over Columbia? On the other hand maybe when applying to, for example, Penn, I could say that I want to go to Penn because of its Sociology program, or is that to generic? I am just nervous that I need a specific reason for going to a specific school and I dont know what I am supposed to tell them. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>One way to approach this is to delve into the websites of the schools you will apply to. Look into the linguistics programs or Sociology programs (whichever you are focussing on for a given school), see what research some of the faculty are doing, what the dept. brags about on its web page, what some of the advanced classes are that might be unique. Talk about how those options excite you. Repeat for each school.</p>
<p>You can also delve a little into EC's at each school, or aspects of campus life and talk about how those attract you.</p>