Where Should I Transfer To? Unique Situation

<p>Hello All,</p>

<p>I’m a student at a top 15 public university and for a variety of reasons (personal, fit, class content, financial) I want to transfer to another university - preferably smaller and more focused on discussion, and certainly better ranked. </p>

<p>A little about me:</p>

<p>-Homeschooled before college (therefore I had top-notch grades)
-Re-taking ACT this fall and am expecting, reasonably, around 32 or 33
-Started college at age 14
-Looking at a GPA of 3.68-3.7 when I transfer (more about this later)
-Looking into natural resources/international relations programs; I’m pre-law
-Will have finished a study abroad when I apply
-Will have top-notch essays and great recs
-Fantastic extracurriculars - speech team captain with three national medals (one gold), founded a club, president of two total clubs, honors society officer, student senator, VP for a programming board with a $100,000+ yearly budget…plus the whole “started at 14” thing</p>

<p>And then, that promised “unique situation”. The reason my GPA is so low (relative to my goals, I’m prelaw) is that I got messed up for a year of foreign languages…two Cs in an otherwise great transcript. Not only was I 16 at the time and extremely immature about the coursework - to make matters worse my dad’s only friend died and he became extremely depressed to the point of suicide ideation. I spent most of that year with my family and classes got shafted.</p>

<p>I’d LOVE Northwestern or Chicago but am also thinking about Cornell, Brown, UPenn, Johns Hopkins, Rice, Reed (loved it when I visited), Michigan (safety school) and I’m going to apply to Dartmouth and Yale for the heck of it.</p>

<p>Any suggestions? Thanks A LOT in advance!</p>

<p>You already have 11 schools with one that you regard as a safety, you want to apply to more?</p>

<p>To be honest, yes. I am not naive enough to think that I should count on acceptance at these schools, and I’d like not to be forced to go to Michigan.</p>