<p>I'm a prospective IR major who is looking for small to midsize schools no more than an hour away from a city. I attend a very competative private school on the west coast. </p>
<p>Gpa:3.97
SAT: single sitting 800 cr 740 writing 740 math for a total 2280
Sat lls: 800 lit, 740 math ll, 740 us history, world history and spanish 720.
Aps (not through school): 5s on spanish and english language, 4 on apush.
Extras: I've worked at a nonprofit teaching debate for four years, done mun for 5 years and won 4 best delegates among other awards (uni and high school debates), played viola for 15ish years and toured internationally with orchestra, i volunteer tutoring, vp of school gsa, and assistant stage manage school shows. I can expand on these if needed.</p>
<p>My current list is as follows:
George Washington u (sib legacy)
Stanford (ea, family connection)
Yale
Brown (legacy)
Barnard
Colombia
State schools
Swarthmore
Carleton (legacy)
Georgetown
Tufts</p>
<p>I am deciding between pitzer, lewis and clark, u Puget sound, and reed for my final school. </p>
<p>2 questions
1 is my list insane? Do I need more safties, even with the state schools as an option?
2 which of the schools I mentioned should I use as my last safety? Any others in California that you'd suggest?</p>
<p>IMO University of Puget Sound and L&C College are safeties. They’re regularly discussed on the 3.0-3.3 thread and UPS awards a substantial number of high SAT B students excellent merit aid. </p>
<p>In California, Occidental has a great IR program although it’s a match, not a safety.</p>
<p>While I wouldn’t object to merit aid, I wouldn’t sacrifice other things I want (good IR program, hopefully Arabic or Bosnian/Serbian as an offered language, super intellectual student body, and a community supportive to LGBT rights). </p>
<p>Another consideration: one parent is seriously obsessed with ‘name’ schools…</p>
<p>I’ve narrowed last school down between Reed and Pitzer. I think I prefer Reed (uber intellectual, etc), only I’m worried that it’ll be too stressful. I’ve had some problems with depression during high school (diagnosed, well treated, and doing a lot better) and it just seems a bit of a dangerous choice. On the other hand, Pitzer seems a bit too “goody-goody” for me, even though I’m interested in social action.</p>
<p>I’m worried about drug culture at both schools.</p>
<p>You should take a hard look at the IR-related course offerings at those schools. While not exclusively true, I know my D1 found that some of the west coast LACs had a strong emphasis on Asia in their IR program. If that is your planned focus, no worries. But just check out the course offerings as part of your selection process.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m not a fan of the focus on Asia, but my decision to apply to another west coast school was a compromise with my parents, who really really don’t want me to go East. I want to focus on Central Europe (the balkans) or the Middle East, so the East coast makes much more sense in my mind. </p>
<p>I know that Pitzer will give me some more options because of the 5-c consortium (I considered Pomona and Scripps as well, before deciding that Pomona added one too many reaches to my list and I’d prefer a co-ed environment and a bigger school than Scripps, even though I’m willing to apply to Barnard).
However, Reed seems to have some cool programs, and I’m thinking about sacrificing language and course offerings because Reed has such a great admit rate into grad school.</p>
<p>Reed would be stressful, no doubt, up there with Swarthmore and UChicago. The stress is the result of the hard work that gets such grads into grad school!</p>
<p>What is it that worries you about reputed drug cultures?</p>
<p>Safeties must be affordable, either at list price, or with need-based financial aid (see the school’s net price calculator, though if your family income involves a small business or is wildly fluctuating, they may not be accurate), or with guaranteed-for-stats merit scholarships.</p>
<p>In terms of admissions, ideally, you want assured admission for your stats, although not all state schools have that. Remember also that schools which consider “level of applicant’s interest” may not want to be used as safeties, so your chance of admission may be lower if you are far above the typical range of students at the school. Note that all of Lewis & Clark, Puget Sound, Reed, and Pitzer consider “level of applicant’s interest” in admissions, so they should not be seen as safeties.</p>
<p>@vonlost
Drug culture (if it exists as much as people claim it does) at both schools worries me because I do not partake ever and will never partake. I’m fine with drinking (and plan to drink a bit in college) and don’t object to weed, but have a huge moral objection to hard drugs because they fund cartels that kill tens of thousands of people a year worldwide.
I’m worried that I’d be isolated if the drug culture is really a thing at either school. It’s just not my scene. I don’t say anything (usually) if friends do partake, however, so maybe I could just be at parties or whatever and not use?</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus:
I’m going to events for Pitzer, and am enthusiastic about <em>parts</em> of both schools. I haven’t found any events for reed in my area (and can’t visit), but I’m in contact with some people there through a friend I have who attends. I had a great conversation with an admissions rep from Pitzer who visited my school and am planning on interviewing for either school if I apply. </p>
<p>I know my family can pay for any school I attend, because we’d only pay 1/2 tuition due to a parent’s work funding the other half and I, my parents, and my grandparents have all contributed to a savings account which will pay for the rest. </p>
<p>My school has an awesome track record for getting people with lower or similar stats than mine into Pitzer, but only a few people have applied to Reed (as in, it doesn’t even show up on Naviance). I’m guaranteed into at least one state school based on stats, and look to be competitive at <em>most</em> campuses in the system. But I don’t want to go to a state school because they’re so big. I visited one when my brother was looking at it and another since, and felt entirely overwhelmed. I’ve looked into honors programs, etc to try to find a niche within a state school, but it’s still not ideal.</p>
<p>At all colleges I’m aware of, few students do the hard drugs that fund cartels. I wouldn’t be concerned about the drug culture at either Reed or Pitzer.</p>
<p>Your list is very reach-heavy. Even though you are definitely competitive, I go to Columbia and there are hundreds of students here with those kinds of stats. George Washington and Barnard are probably matches for you, and Tufts maybe a high match. I think you need some more matches on your list. Maybe you should put both Reed and Pitzer on it, or maybe even Reed, Pitzer, and Lewis & Clark (as a small safety that’s more like the others on your list)? I also like the suggestion of Occidental.</p>
<p>@Juillet
Sorry for the spelling fail. In my defense, I was typing on a phone…</p>
<p>As far as what is a reach, what is a match, and what is a safety, I’m getting really mixed signals. College counseling at my school says that GWU is a safety, for example. Naviance stats <em>seem</em> to confirm this. However, when I look online everyone indicates that it’s more of a match. </p>
<p>Currently, I’m thinking of dropping Georgetown (visited, didn’t love the culture but love the programs) and adding Pitzer or Reed and L&C or UPS. I’m still definitely thinking of state schools as safeties, even though I’d rather not attend.</p>
<p>As for Scripps, it’s that it’s tiny, all-female, and I didn’t love it when I visited. I fell head over heels in love with Barnard despite it being single-sex, but for Scripps nothing else made me love it, so I decided to drop it from my list. Plus, a conversation with admissions officers suggested that it restricts cross-registration a bit more than Barnard does, although it’s hard to compare, obviously.</p>
<p>But I love GWU! I like that it’s got more diversity of opinion than a lot of the schools I’m looking at, the courses it offers fit with my interests very well, the location is fabulous, it has a great MUN program that hosts a wonderful conference for high school students that I’d love to work at, and everyone I met was super nice. I think I’m showing interest–visited, toured, asked questions, talked to current students, and I’m attending an info session in my area. I’ll also be filling out the honors college application, which requires another essay I believe.</p>
<p>One thing I’m not understanding–can’t I show interest even if the school is my safety? Am I missing something?</p>
<p>Make sure that when you show interest, that it is recorded by the school somehow. E.g. register your visits to the campus or info sessions, ask the admissions people questions through your application account, check the admissions portal frequently, etc… Of course, showing interest specifically to that school in your essays is another way.</p>
<p>Showing interest is particularly important if the school is safety-level for you, in order to show the school that you are unlikely to ever attend.</p>
<p>An update: I reconsidered Scripps and decided to go for it. I realised that I was putting too much weight on the fact that it’s all-female (thanks to a chance discussion with a college rep at another all-female school I never thought of applying to). It seems to be a bit quieter than Pitzer and to not have any of the ‘issues’ I saw with Pitzer, but I’d still get an opportunity to take classes at Pitzer, Pomona, or any of the other 5Cs. I also spoke to an alumna (now a teacher at my school) who absolutely loved Scripps. Right now, I’m super happy with my list.</p>
<p>Now, the trick is actually getting into one (or more) of these schools!</p>
<p>^ If you apply to 10 schools where your admittance chance is 50% at each (but there is clearly no way to know this, though numbers offer some guidance), you have a 1/1024 chance of being rejected by all.</p>