What other classes are you taking/does your school offer? APs are not looked at equally. AP Euro would be considered more rigorous than AP Gov. Human Geography does little on the rigor scale. If you want to be Humanities “pointy” it’s fine, but unless not offered, you need to add rigor.
These top schools really prefer 4 years of language. They also like to see you challenge yourself in all areas - are you taking any science? You should strive for taking all core subjects each year, regardless of your graduation requirements.
If you want to consider it, then you could get a very good education and also save buckets of money at one of the small “primarily undergraduate” universities in Canada. I think that your chances at Mount Allison (usually the top ranked small university in Canada) would be very good. Acadia, Bishop’s, Saint Francis Xavier, UPEI, Lethbridge, and UNBC are also all very good. The last two are in the western part of Canada, the rest are in the east. There are also a few in Ontario that I do know know much about.
One daughter got her bachelor’s degree at a small university in eastern Canada (and then returned to the US and found a good job). Compared to universities and LACs in the US, she was able to take more classes in her major and in areas that interested her, with relatively fewer general education requirements.
My son, who just graduated from high school, sounds slightly similar to you. Loves history and poli sci, not so hot on math and science (though he did take Calc AB and BC, and then Stats). He did not take any AP science classes, instead opting for 4 years of honors science. He did not take AP Spanish either, stopping after level 4. His test scores were similar to yours. He went to a large public magnet school that is very competitive.
For what it’s worth, he did well in the admissions cycle at liberal arts colleges and mid-sized research universities in his hard target range from College Vine. He did not do well at the reaches. Make sure you really like the schools in that hard target range. Those school also offered generous merit end. In the end, he choose Trinity College in Hartford, CT, for a whole host of reasons, one of them being the very strong poli sci department, including the opportunity to intern in state government in Hartford, the state capital.
Good luck to you!
I looked at Georgetown, I don’t love DC as a college town. It would be cool to do a semester there, but I wouldn’t love living there. Also, why would you take Princeton off? I know its a lottery, but prestige and salaries coming out seem to justify applying.
I’m looking at Law School, but I want to keep my options open. I used US News to calculate the median salary for Political Science, so that should discount a lot of Wall Street jobs. The number is compelling enough to still apply to Princeton, but I’ll definitely keep your advice in mind when looking where to commit.
I’ve visited a few colleges near me, and I definitely prefer the small to medium colleges.
I’ll check out Washington and Lee again, especially the Johnson Scholarship.
Holy Cross, in particular, I’ve heard is notorious for alcohol. I know Tulane has a similar reputation, but the regularity of the parties means there should be less FOMO and pressure to go all the time. I enjoy having the option, but I don’t want to be pressured into something.
From what I’ve heard, the entire social scene at Holy Cross revolves around frat parties and alcohol. I want to have options, and the other schools on my list have other ways to socialize beyond parties. If you know differently, I’d love to hear specifics so I can take a closer look.
I’ve always lived in California, but I’ve visited Canada consistently enough to know what the weather is like. I also want to get out of my comfort zone in college and live somewhere unfamiliar. I will take a look at Furman, though.
I’m taking all the AP humanity classes my school offers. In my senior year, I’m going particularly specialized, taking the APs mentioned, the mandatory bible class, ASB, and non-AP English. I’m trying to show colleges that I care more about delving deeply into my subjects and really learning than checking boxes for their colleges. Hopefully, that should win me points in intellectual curiosity. I was going to take AP French next year, but it legitimately couldn’t fit into my schedule with ASB, which I had already committed to.
I haven’t thought about that. The only Canadian school I considered was Queen’s, my father’s alma mater. It seemed far too large for me, but these schools could be a better fit. I’ll take a look. Thank you!
I would say you probably will get to safeties and maybe targets. I think your Hard Targets are reaches. Your reaches are not going to happen unless you will do EA to one of the lowest ones. I would not bother with Cornell, Vandy, Princeton or Dartmouth. Sorry, they are not going to happen.
Could I ask why not? My test scores are all around the median for all you mentioned excluding Princeton and Vanderbilt. My rigor is a little low but that can be explained and I have pretty solid extracurriculars.
You’re misinformed- there are no frats at Holy Cross. Lots of clubs and opportunities to stay busy without drinking. Biggest club is SPUD (Student Program for Urban Development) that take them into the city and work on service projects and mentoring. There are literally hundreds of clubs and opportunities including substance free events sponsored by the Campus Activity Board. Clubs & Organizations | College of the Holy Cross
Just some info. Do you know that at Rhodes a huge number of students are either prelaw or premed? I would say those two groups are like 70%. Are you aware that one of the current Supreme Justices is a Rhodes graduate? Or, and by the way, the current Rhodes president has JD from Harvard… So not everything is about prestige…In my opinion for pre-law Rhodes will beat both Elon and Gettysburg for sure.