College Suggestions?

<p>So I want to major in international relations and go on to do business law and start new businesses internIonally. That's all fine and dandy, what I need help with is figuring out where to do all of this!
So I love east coast, and smaller schools (like 20,000 and under, I'm a bit hesitant to be one of 60,000-it's just too overwhelming) and some school spirit would be awesome.
As far as tuition goes, as long as I can get it down to $25000ish with scholarship and everything, I'll be fine.
I'm a smart kid, and I want a challenging school. I'm ranked 44 of 787 in a highly ranked public school in Texas. I have about a 3.87 unweighted and am waiting to hear back about national merit semifinalist, as far as SAT goes (super scored) math-690 writing-700 reading-750 </p>

<p>I've tried tons of college searches, but nothing can replace some good, old-fashioned, human advice.
So, any ideas?</p>

<p>American University?</p>

<p>I thought so too but that’ll be double what i can pay for, i’m thinking i’ll apply but i definitely can’t go with out a lot of scholarship money</p>

<p>^^ShannonAsEver: don’t be afraid of private Universities. I was admitted to several Universities, including an Ivy, and literally every other school I was admitted to had higher “sticker price” tuition than the one I’m at, but the actual financial aid packages were robust enough that price wasn’t a factor in my choosing to come here. Geography was.</p>

<p>You said you didn’t want to go to a huge school, but many people would consider 20,000 to be huge. How small are you willing to go? Urban, suburban, or rural? Like above poster said, don’t be afraid of sticker price. I am going to Reed College, sticker price $58,000 for less than any UC, sticker price under $30,000. I’m actually going to Reed for under $20,000.</p>

<p>Thanks, I’m really hoping for good scholarships but I’m so new at all of this I’m just worried.
And as far as school size, my high school has over 3000, so anything too close in size and I’ll be bored out of my mind. I think I’d be fine with a rural area if it was a bigger school, and fine with a smaller school if it was a big city. Suburbs are suburbs. They’re boring but i’ll get over myself, I’m going for education more than enterntainment.</p>

<p>Try schools in Atlanta or DC</p>

<p>I echo other people on this thread’s advice, and that is to not look just at the sticker price, but at the average financial aid offered at the school. Some schools that are strong in IR have really great financial aid. Places to start your search: Princeton, Tufts, American, Stanford, Georgetown, GW, NYU. Your SAT scores are strong enough to put you in the range of reasonableness for all these schools (this does NOT mean you will necessarily get in) but you stand a chance at all of them. Good luck!</p>