Advice: Georgetown College or SFS?

Applying to College
1

<p>My ideal dream school would be to go to Georgetown School of Foreign Service to study International Relations (Foreign Language Heavy as well). I have clearly shown passion with this in doing a semester abroad in Israel as a Junior, taking three languages in High School, and being very involved with my temple youth group.</p>

<p>I'll post my stats below if you'd like to read them, but a quicker summary is that I am an excellent student but not a crazy 2400, 4.0 kid. I've taken the most difficult courses at my school, 1400/2100 SAT, 3.86 GPA. In my opinion, that sets Georgetown as a reachable reach (lol), but no guarantee. SFS is more difficult to get into and I'm worried that I'll get rejected and wouldn't be able to go to Georgetown, because I'd love Georgetown regardless (and I could prob transfer into SFS).</p>

<p>So, besides my wordiness... is it better to apply to the College or go for it and apply to SFS?</p>

<p>Stats:
Class of 2008
Arizona resident
Jewish (yeah, since every school is lacking Jews... psh)</p>

<p>Academic:
Rank: 30/650 (5%)
SAT: 700 on CR, M and W, will retake and take SAT IIs
W GPA: 4.6
UW GPA: 3.86
8 APs by end of senior year
Most rigorous schedule available at school
Taking a Hebrew class outside of school
Did a semester abroad as a junior (in Israel)</p>

<p>ECs:
Semester Abroad in Israel 11-Spring Semester
Temple Youth Group (TYG) 9 10 11 12
Communications Vice President of TYG 11
Programming Vice President of TYG 12
Historian of the Southwest Region for TYGs 12
Leadership Camp Summer 2006
Day Camp Counselor Summer 2007
Hebrew High 10 11 12
100+ Hours of Community Service at School and Camp of Underpriveleged Children
NHS
Spanish Honor Society
Had jobs since sophomore year</p>

<p>Note: Because I did a semester abroad, it was difficult to expand my ECs because I was away from all of them. My TYG ECs take up most of my time in the year, and I was able to continue with those while in Israel.</p>

2

<p>I just spent a week at Georgetown and met at least five professors from SFS. It's an incredible place.</p>

<p>Honestly, you could abuse the system and apply to College with the intent to transfer later. Your academic credentials are not only outstanding, but they also show your passion for IR and not just academics in general. I think you have a good chance of getting into SFS as is. All of our counselors at our Georgetown program were students at the school and I think 9 of 13 were SFS. They all were very good HS students, for sure, but they weren't 2400 geniuses either. </p>

<p>Personally, I think you should go for SFS. Make your passion for IR really apparent and explain that your fallbacks in the numbers (not that I see any, but you might) is counteracted by your love for IR and international affairs. You could also email Dean Robert Gallucci of SFS, he's a really cool guy and could probably give you an honest answer from another perspective.</p>

<p>Hope that helped! :)</p>