Chance for good IR schools + help with finding more matches

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Gender: Male
Race: White
State: FL
Grade: Senior

IB student

Colleges: University of Florida, American, Princeton SCEA, FSU, USF, Tulane, GW

UW GPA: 3.8
W GPA: 4.45
Rank: 6/371
AP Exams: Human Geography (5) Psychology (5) World History (5) European History (5) Apush (5) Chem (3) Micro (4) Macro (5) US Gov (5) Comp Gov (5)
AP Exams this year: APES, Art History
IB Exams this year: IB English HL, IB Latin SL, IB Math SL, IB Econ HL, IB ESS SL, IB History of Americas HL (all the SLs are because my school does not offer any of those courses in HL)
ACT: 34 (35 E, 33 M, 34 R, 33 S)
SAT: not taking
PSAT: 1480/1520, likely NMSF

EC:
Founder and president of Model United Nations at school, became 2nd largest club and held conference this past summer (10-12)
Founder and co-president of student political club that worked with local PAC to reinstate a half cent sales tax in our county, gaining millions of dollars in revenue, and ran two forums for local candidates this year. (11-12)
Member of Academic Team, reaching state semifinals (11-12)
Officer of IB Community, basically student council for IB (11-12)
Vice-President of NHS (11-12)
Beta Club member, state/national convention participant (9-12), awarded 2nd place nationally for English, 1st place nationally for social studies, 1st place in state for quiz bowl
Latin Club member (10-12)
Freshman Student Council officer
NEHS member (9-10, club dissolved soph year)

Essays will be really good. My Common App essay is about the political club, which expands on what it was and its scale

Recs will be very good.

Thanks to all that read. I would like to go to schools which would saddle me with as little debt as possible. American will give me a lot of merit aid, and I’d be willing to spend for Princeton. Are there any other schools w/ good IR undergrad programs that offer good merit aid or need based aid to a 140k income?

2

Bump

3

Macalester, Hobart and William Smith, Dickinson, Umd college park.

Any Ivy League, Amherst, Williams, Middlebury as reaches.
Any reason you don’t have Georgetown?
A weakness in your application is lack of foreign language - any chance you can take an IB ab initio language this year?

4

@MYOS1634 My foreign language is Latin; I was taking Spanish as well but my IB counselor required me to choose between them after I finished Spanish 2. I’m not applying to Georgetown because my family income means that I won’t qualify for much need based aid, and I don’t think I’ll earn any merit aid either.

5

140k income at Georgetown should mean full tuition - run the NPC.
What I mean is that, for IR, you need to speak a foreign language really well - not a classical language. Latin’s intrinsic value is great but international relations, at a good level, will require ability to read the newspapers and watch the news in at least one other country 's language.
( And many diplomats also speak French. In short, speaking a less common and a more common language is expected from college graduates with an IR major. In fact ideally you’d have one to polish and one to start. )
You could always take the sat2 in Spanish and in Latin to show your proficiency in both.

6

140k income at Georgetown should mean full tuition - run the NPC.
What I mean is that, for IR, you need to speak a foreign language really well - not a classical language. Latin’s intrinsic value is great but international relations, at a good level, will require ability to read the newspapers and watch the news in at least one other country 's language.
( And many diplomats also speak French. In short, speaking a less common and a more common language is expected from college graduates with an IR major. In fact ideally you’d have one to polish and one to start. )
You could always take the sat2 in Spanish and in Latin to show your proficiency in both.

7

Ran NPC and got an estimated family contribution of 34k…not really feasible for 4 yrs for my family. We don’t have very much disposable income.

Good point on the languages.

8

Thought I’d post an update for anyone looking for data for their own application decisions! My unweighted GPA rose to 3.86 and my weighted to 4.5096 after the addition of my summer classes. I was deferred from Princeton and accepted so far to USF and FSU!

9

Congratulations :slight_smile:
Do keep your thread updated, it’s very useful for other students (and parents). :slight_smile: