Advice on my college list?

College Search & Selection
1

Hey CC! I’m a senior, and I’m in the midst of the frenzy like pretty much every other senior here.
I’d love some advice on my college list. I feel like I need some reassurance that it’s balanced enough and I’d love some insight into these schools if anyone would like to offer some!

Brown
Columbia
Duke
Georgetown
Harvard
Northeastern (EA)
U of Missouri (accepted)
U of Virginia (EA)
Vanderbilt

Mizzou is my absolute safety, and I feel decently confident that I will get into Northeastern and U Virginia. My dream school is, I think, Brown, but I would be happy to go anywhere on this list, and that’s important to me.

Basic stats/stuff:

  • Not a member of a minority group, first gen, or an athlete
  • 5/368 class rank (should go up at semester) at a Midwestern public school
  • Looking to study political science or international affairs, or something similar
  • 3.94/4.00 UW GPA, full IB diploma + one extra AP class
  • 35C ACT, SATII Literature 770, Spanish 720
  • National Merit Semifinalist, some state/national journalism awards
  • NHS Pres, actively involved in community/school ECs usually with leadership positions
  • Varsity golf for 3 years, varsity scholar bowl 3 years, captain this year
  • I’m going to be giving a teen TED talk later this year, currently trying to work that into essays
  • Recommendations should be great, especially from my counselor

I would love input! Is my list too top-heavy? (Yes.) Any last-minute suggestions? Obviously it’s a bit late to apply EA most places, but I’m open to suggestions of any similar schools or things that I could do to make my list a bit more well-rounded.

2

Might look at another Massachusetts school - Holy Cross very good school(Iimo much better than Northeastern) HC Hhas strong poly sci major and great campus.

3

Looks like a good list to me.

4

How about George Washington University in DC? A great school/location for a poly sci/IR student and being from the midwest, gives you an edge by adding geographic diversity. It’s an urban school, so you have to like that, but DC is a great city to be a student in, it’s internship central, the weather isn’t bad year round, there are tons of free resources (like museums and music events) and the city sits along-side on a national park (the 180 mile long C&O Canal - wonderful biking, hiking, running, kayaking, etc…).

5

Thanks for the suggestion of GWU! I absolutely love DC and I’ve been lucky enough to visit there a few times. I’ll check it out for sure.