Chance Rising Senior please! Suggestions are awesome too!

Chance Me / Match Me!
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I plan on applying EA and applying for financial aid, and scholarships

Colleges: Reaches: U of Chicago, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Georgetown Target: U of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Safeties: Eastern Illinois University, Northeastern Illinois University, Northern Illinois University, University of Illinois at Chicago

Let me know if I should add any also :slight_smile:

Major: Political science

Demographics: White Male first-gen immigrant

Hook/personal essays: I work in politics and started working to make a change in the world.

State: Illinois

GPA: 3.88 unweighted 4.46 weighted

SAT: 1300 (Should I retake?)

AP test scores so far: AP Human Geo 5, AP World History 4 dual-credit:

Dualcredit Spanish at Eastern Illinois University, honors classes every class available for core classes, along with some electives

Courseload:

Freshman Year: 3.83 UW/4.25 W Honors Written and Oral Communication A A Honors Geometry B B Honors Biology A A AP Human Geography A A required art course Graphic Design A A Spanish 2 1st semester A Moved up to honors spanish 3 second semester A (All available APs and honors for my grade level)

Sophomore Year: 1st semester 3.71 UW/ 4.14 W 2nd semester 3.85 UW/4.31 W AP Seminar A A Honors Algebra II C B Honors Chemistry A A AP World History A A Criminal and Civil Law A A Personal finance semester 1 A Personal auto semester 2 A Health Class A A Second Semester in Summer micro internship A (All available APs and honors for my grade level)

Junior Year 1st semester 4.0 UW/4.92 W AP Lang A Honors Precalc A AP Physics A AP US History A AP Government A Dual Credit College Spanish A (All available APs honors and college classes for my grade level). Same for second semester.

Senior Year (subject to change) College Speech and Composition AP Calc AB Advanced Space science 1st sem Food Science 2nd sem AP Euro AP Psyche AP Spanish (All available APs honors and college classes for my grade level)

I hope my math progression helps also, I got a C as my math teacher in sophomore year had a personal grudge against me but got it to a B 2nd semester with a different teacher, and got an A now in Junior year

Extracurriculars:

Jewel Osco Courtesy Clerk

Debate team: 9-10 (also foreign affairs research chair for 10th grade).

Speech team 9-11.

Scholastic Bowl 9-11.

Student Principal Advisory Council member 9-10

National Honor Society 11-12

All of the following 2020-2021 political experience (don’t get political this is for democrats all around but just want a chanceme)

Field director and political director for a senate primary in Iowa

Head Field Organizer (only paid one) for a congressional primary in Wisconsin,

Field intern for a congressional race in Illinois (received school credit for this) and did it for several more hours,

Field organizing intern (paid) for a state party in Iowa,

High-ranking member of a major up and coming Political Organization (20k followers on twitter and shoutouts from big people like Congresspeoples and former Presidential Candidates (Illinois State Director)

Finance Intern for a Congressional Campaign

Organizer for a District Attorney Campaign

Any questions let me know! Thanks!

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Your ECs look to be your strong suit, and a 1300 should probably be retaken for those reaches. It looks like you already have a good mix of safeties/reaches/matches so don’t feel the need to add more applications if you like the schools(plus it cuts sown on application fees and time)

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Think you need to think a little more about some good targets and a few realistic reaches.

Since you are thinking Political Science, American University, George Washington, Fordham

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Have you run the Net Price Calculators for your reach schools? What would your costs look like at these, compared to UIUC and your other in-state publics?

If full-need-met private U’s are as affordable as, or more affordable than, public in-state, then you should consider adding some less-reachy full-need-met private schools to your list. For your interests and stats, Denison University in Ohio is one that comes to mind. (Very strong in poli sci and related fields, with an excellent DC internship program.) Running the NPC for Denison will give you an idea whether aid will be favorable at other, similar institutions.

If you can let us know how the NPC results look for these schools, it will help to refine additional advice.

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What are your career goals?

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I suggest you look at the Common Data Sets for your listed schools. Vanderbilt, for example, registers a middle-range SAT profile of 1470–1570. Candidly, considering your GPA and your current SAT score, an application to Vanderbilt would seem to represent a wasted opportunity at a school elsewhere that might be realistic for you. If you would like to research a wider range of colleges, which I would recommend, this source might be helpful based on your academic interests:

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I plan on going to law school, and possibly entering the political world in some way aswell

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Thank you! What colleges should I get off my list and to add?

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I wouldn’t get much in terms of financial aid considering my family income unfortunately so the public route is my best opportunity in saving money. I am applying for financial aid as to be considered for scholarships.

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Thank you!

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Thank you!

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Since you’re interested in the world of politics, I’d think about other areas of interest in addition to poli-sci. The economy is central to what politicians must address, which is really about the welfare of the people.

I’m wondering what you want to accomplish through politics. Whatever that is, what more do you need to know about that topic, which might be anything form our urban core to the environment and the climate crisis. Some colleges are very good at engaging with their surrounding community, be it urban or remote. Knowing more about your broader interests, could help in developing a list of colleges.

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Ah, I see. I thought you meant that you were eligible for need-based aid.

The thing is that for schools like Vanderbilt and UChicago, their merit scholarships go to their most competitive applicants - the ones they would be losing to HYPSM schools if they didn’t sweeten the deal. You’re a great applicant, but you’ll do well to get into your reaches at all - merit money is pretty unlikely. Schools like Denison, on the other hand, may well give you scholarships. The question is whether you would prefer the schools that would give you merit to your in-state flagship. The Colleges That Change Lives website is a good place to start, in terms of profiling campuses where you might get good merit offers: College Profiles – Colleges That Change Lives

In terms of financial safeties, you may want to look at some of the options in the Midwest Student Exchange Program. https://msep.mhec.org With the reciprocity rates, you can end up paying less for some of these schools than for IL schools. Consider U of Nebraska Lincoln, which (unlike UIUC) is located in the state capital, with the attendant opportunities for political involvement. If you’re interested in smaller schools, look at Truman State (Missouri’s public honors LAC) and U of Minnesota Morris (Minnesota’s public LAC - a particularly good destination if you’re interested in political issues affecting Native Americans, as that is a strength and 20% of the student population is Native American). These schools would be substantially cheaper than UIUC and offer an excellent education. Law school is expensive, so consider how your financial resources will cover undergrad plus law school, as you consider what’s affordable. Certainly worth comparing these to the IL non-flagship campuses on your list, in terms of costs and student experience.

Since you’re so active politically, the other aspect is to consider where you might want to be. As mentioned above, being in a state capital can be helpful. (Willamette, another CTCL school, is great in this regard and would be a great place to hunt merit.) Do you want to be in a battleground state where your efforts would matter most? (Denison is right outside of Columbus, the Ohio capital.) Do you want to sharpen your political chops by going somewhere where your views aren’t in the majority? (Hello, UNL!) Do you want to be in a progressive area that’s an incubator for policy innovations? (Boston-area schools are great in this regard, but tough to get merit at schools like BU and BC; Brandeis could have merit potential, though, or the Worcester schools - Clark and Holy Cross) A mixed setting? (At U of Utah, you could get residency after the first year,making it cheaper than UIUC in the long run; and Salt Lake City is a fascinating mix of conservative and progressive elements, with a lot of progressive social policy being developed).

Anyway, lots to think about, and lots of interesting possibilities.

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Just an aside - with an UW GPA of 3.88, UIUC may be a likely for you, and if you bump your SAT up top over 1400, it may become a safety, unless you are applying to Engineering. At my kid’s Chicagoland high school, every kid with a GPA of over 3.80 and an SAT of over 1400 was accepted to UIUC.

You may want to try ACT instead of SAT.

Another small college which pops up on the Poli Sci radar is Gettysburg College in PA. It will probably be a low match for you to possibly a likely.

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This may seem silly with scores as good as 1300, but for reaches you can always consider test optional applications, This list has a lot of really excellent schools.
FairTest | The National Center for Fair and Open Testing

You would do well applying to schools that have “holistic” admissions because your EC’s are so strong. UChicago is worth a try.

You are very involved in your state politics. Do you want to stay in Illinois? For national politics, DC schools would be good.

Not clear on finances. I know you want to save for law school so that is a compelling reason to make acost/id a priority. Sometimes private schools are more affordable than state if you get some merit aid, and your EC’s may earn you some.

Look at the Colleges that Change Lives website for some ideas as well. (Just saw someone else suggested this!). Clark gives merit scholarships for community service, and others may too.

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