Hi all! I’m the parent of a rising junior (graduating 2019) who is new to the whole modern college application process (BOY is it different than just 10 years ago!). He currently has a 95.22 uw average and is taking 2 APs (APUSH and English Lit) and 2 honors classes (French 4H and Pre Calculus H) in his junior year. He is planning to take at least 3 APs Senior year (Calculus BC, French AP and Macroecon AP). He is also attending the Federal Service Language Academy to further his independent study of Arabic at the University of North Georgia this summer, and is hoping to re-apply for the State Department’s NYSLI program next summer in the hopes of being picked to study Arabic in Morocco. He would like to either major or minor in Arabic but is also very interested in International Relations, so suffice to say Georgetown is his top pick.
He is a legacy at Georgetown through both myself and my dad. I did 1 year of alumni interviews when the school was in a pinch for people but my dad did them for 20+ years when he lived in Milwaukee. He is also very active in the alumni community.
As for extra-curriculars, he has been on his school’s paper since freshman year and will be on the staff as a Copy Editor this next year. He is also active in Model Congress and has attended both sessions this year with the club. He is a former competitive ice dancer who qualified for the 2015 and 2016 U.S. National Figure Skating Championships. (I say former because we ran out of $ to pay for it and the 5-6 days a week of training it required). He is still very active in skating – he teaches a Learn to Skate class once a week and is working to qualify for the National Solo Ice Dance Finals this year in Colorado Springs. If he makes it, it will be his 3rd national championship in 3 years. He is also hoping to make the Varsity team in Cross Country this fall. He also volunteers as a math tutor at our local library once a week and has won a National medal in journalism at the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.
Georgetown of course is his top pick (SFS) but since we attended a few college fairs and presentations this spring, he also really liked what he has seen of Duke and Boston U so far. He also is interested in George Mason and Seton Hall’s International School of Diplomacy. I have no idea where he would stand at Georgetown, BU, Brown, William and Mary or Duke so if anyone could shed some light on this process for us it would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!
P.S. I have heard conflicting information about whether legacies at Georgetown should apply EA or not…?
I forgot to add that he took the Pre-PSAT (didn’t know that was a thing btw) this past October, did not do any studying for it, and got a 680 in English and 630 in Math. He is planning to do an online PSAT course before he takes it for real this fall.
Your son sounds like an interesting kid and looks to be in great shape. That said, it’s almost impossible to chance him without ACT or SAT scores. Also, for Georgetown I believe he will need to take 3 SAT subject tests. Good luck to him!
A school for international relations/political science that would be a match is George Washington University. Tufts might be another school that should be on the list, although the Fletcher School is grad only. And for some reason, I think your son could be suited for the University of Chicago as well.
With some good test preparation and SAT scores north of 1500, your son could add Princeton and Yale as reaches. The background is unique with the ice skating and interest in Arabic. He has
enough unique topics to write about in his application essays.
I noticed that you did not list your son’s science courses. All the other courses seem to align with his interests and he is taking the highest level of math so far. Most competitive schools will look at all courses regardless of major, so at least 3 years of hard sciences should be included as well. I would have him take at least 1 AP science class to strengthen his overall application.
Thank you both so much for your responses! He is finishing up Chemistry with his Regents final (we are in NYS) after already taking Earth Science in 8th grade and Biology last year. He received 95+ in all three classes. He is doing Regents Physics next year but that was about all he had planned for science. I might be able to talk him into an Environmental Science AP class since he liked Bio so much, or maybe AP Bio, if it would help?
He also took the SAT World History test a few weeks ago and he thinks he did well. He took the SAT Bio as a freshman because he was encouraged by his then-teacher to do so along with a handful of other kids in his grade. He got a 680 which is not fabulous but since he only knew about 3/4 of the material going in I thought it wasn’t too bad?
For a foreign policy/political science major, AP Environmental Science might be a closer match since the class is reading/writing intensive. Some people think it’s an easy science class, but the amount of reading does surprise a lot of people, although your son sounds like he can handle it.
Does your son’s school offer AP European History? The class might align with his interests quite well. The class covers roughly the Renaissance to the formation of the EU/fall of Eastern Europe.
2 more schools which have good political science programs are Washington University in St. Louis and UCLA. UCLA may not be on the potential list because you are OOS and the cost may turn you off. And if your son’s standardized test scores put him into Ivy targets, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton is a logical choice. Also IIRC Columbia is also supposed to have a top program in Political Science and obviously New York City with its connection to the UN offers internship opportunities.
Thank you again so much for your help and encouragement! He is definitely going to take AP Euro History as a senior, I can’t believe I forgot that one. I guess if worse comes to worse and he gets too overloaded, he could do AP Environmental Science instead of the AP Macro Econ class, since I know he will most likely be required to take both micro and macro econ at whatever college he attends.
Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson school would be a dream – we haven’t even considered Princeton up to this point because we were fairly certain he would have zero chance of getting in. Hopefully I will be able to convince him to at least do a visit there if his PSAT goes well…