<p>@Erin’s Dad @happy1 and @ucbalumnus Thank you guys for the explanation! My state flagship school is University of Florida so I’ll be looking more closely into their International Relations/Poli Sci programs.</p>
<p>If you test well, you would probably qualify for a good scholarship at Temple, which would make it pretty affordable. I don’t know how strong their Poli. Sci./International Relations majors are, but they are fairly solid in most areas, with plenty of opportunities to study abroad. </p>
<p>@woogzmama Thank you, I’ll check it out!</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE</strong> I talked to my parents and plugged in some numbers into College Abacus and some EFC calculators and I have some numbers for you guys. My EFC is around 25k but my parents are only willing to put up around 15k for school (roughly the amount they would be paying for in-state schools). Where do we go from here?</p>
<p>Look at the threads at the top of the Financial Aid forum. There is one with schools with COA <$25K.</p>
<p>@ellesea, try to use this summer to prepare for the PSAT in the fall. It could put you in contention for National Merit awards and can open a lot of doors at colleges that give scholarships for National Merit Semifinalists, Finalists, etc. You should also consider taking the SAT in the fall - the prep for the SAT and the PSAT is essentially the same. This will allow you to get a better understanding of where you stand. There are schools that your scores and GPA will garner merit aid for you that can bring the cost down to or below 15K. </p>
<p>Erin’s Dad: I will check the forum right now! @suzy100 I am currently studying for both the PSAT and SAT hoping to get a National Merit award and a good score on the real deal! Wish me luck! (Also, any prep recommendations are greatly appreciated!)</p>
<p>Foreign Policy magazine publishes an annual guide to top graduate & undergraduate programs in International Relations. Wikipedia has a summary of its rankings over the past few years.
<a href=“Inside the Ivory Tower - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_the_Ivory_Tower</a>
As with any college ranking, take this one with a grain of salt. </p>
<p>Schools that are not on the list in your original post, and that are less selective than Georgetown or Chicago, include:
URochester
Maryland
Pittsburgh
Syracuse
U Denver</p>
<p>Other very selective, medium-to-large East Coast schools that are not on your list include:
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, Cornell (Ivies)
Duke
Tufts
Johns Hopkins</p>
<p>Definitely also consider your state flagship.
Even if a college does not have a highly-rated IR program, it may have a strong political science (/ government) department and otherwise be a good fit. </p>
<p>@tk21769 I was looking at that list the other day, and I saw it also had Swarthmore and Williams, but I don’t know much about either of those schools. Do you know anything about them, their atmosphere, and what students fit nicely there?</p>
<p>OP, you’re getting good advice here. Way back when, I had asked you about your family’s finances. Thanks for getting that info. You say your EFC is 25 and your parents are prepared to put up 15K. </p>
<p>I’m going to assume that the EFC already includes the maximum loans the feds will offer you the student: 5500. That means that the gap of 10K should not (but theoretically could) consist of any more loans. Therefore, the 10K must be made up every year (growing at 2-8% of COA per annum) by merit aid (usu not included in EFCs), gifts, savings, work (in addition to any work study you have been granted), outside scholarships, departmental scholarships, etc. Maybe you can work and save 2-5K over the summer; maybe you can work and contribute 1-2K over the school year; maybe your state has a scholarship of 500-2K if you go to an in-state school; maybe you can win a scholarship from the American Legion; maybe you can cut costs after freshman year by moving off campus into a packed apartment with a rice cooker, etc. It is not an impossible gap to close, but it could make things tight (and some schools will be near impossible, of course). The sooner you address this gap (read: start saving money and searching for merit) the easier the gap can be met.</p>
<p>Good info to have about financial “fit.” I hope you’ve recorded some of this info about each school that came out of College Abacus and the npcs. Some schools are more expensive but generous with FA and/or merit. Some are less expensive but give little FA but some merit. Every school has its aid formula, and you have to know them individually. </p>
<p>Now you await the SAT score. Study hard. Nothing can improve your chances more efficiently at most schools than studying for the SAT. Look at the Financial Aid forum on CC to get more info on merit aid.</p>
<p>Swarthmore and Williams are repeatedly among the top colleges in the country. They are both small LACs each with a number of excellent departments. You can read much more about them. I visited Swarthmore with D. It’s a beautiful, tree-filled campus, a national arboretum, I think I heard. It’s in the Quaker tradition, like its neighbor Haverford. It has a kind of consortium it participates in with Bryn Mawr and Haverford, and to some extent Penn. This allows you to take courses with popular professors at the other schools and thereby strengthen your education. The science facilities and resources appear to be strong, but we visited on a sunday and labs and faculty were not available to us. Philadelphia is easily reached by commuter train just at the edge of campus. D found it too claustrophobic and lacking in racial and other kinds of diversity for her tastes; there was an element of group-think at Swarthmore, and that is not unusual at small LACs. D applied almost exclusively to mid-size unis to get more diversity.</p>
<p>The Claremont Consortium and Five Colleges Consortium offer similar benefits to students at LACs.</p>
<p>Swarthmore’s rep has been shaken recently by allegations that members of its administration worked to silence a female student who had accused another student of rape. It’s a complex and very confused issue, and I mention it only because I feel an obligation to mention it about any such incident I know of. Campus student-on-student rape is becoming something of an issue nationally, so you should have no problem reading more about it. </p>
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<p>If you want a college that is “Medium to Large” in size, then Williams and Swarthmore are not very good fits. Williams enrolls about 2100 students, Swarthmore only about 1500. Both are among the country’s most selective schools. A distinctive feature of Williams College is its tutorial system (<a href=“Tutorials – Academics”>http://www.williams.edu/academics/tutorials/</a>). Swarthmore’s honors program also is modeled on the Oxford/Cambridge tutorial system. Its students take PhD-style oral exams administered by scholars invited in from other schools (<a href=“Honors Program :: Swarthmore College”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/academics/honors-program.xml</a>). Swarthmore generally is considered intensely intellectual and politically liberal in atmosphere. Its alumni earn PhDs at higher rates than any other school besides Caltech and Harvey Mudd. </p>
<p>@jkeil911 I’m working hard on preparing for the SAT and continuing my college search! Thank you for the info on Swarthmore and Williams and wish me luck! @tk21769 Thank you for the information on Swarthmore and Williams. I’m not sure if they’re a fit for me, but i’ll keep them in mind. I’ve started looking at some other schools as well, do you mind helping me sift through the mess of information given?</p>
<p>Thank you guys for all of your help! Ill bump this one more time but then I’ll let it die.</p>
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<p>Is $25,000 the EFC or the net price shown? Net price would include a student contribution of student loans and work earnings ($4,000 to $10,000 typically).</p>
<p>If $25,000 is the net price, then your parents’ $15,000 plus a $5,500 direct loan and $4,500 of work earnings could make the school in question barely affordable.</p>
<p>But if $25,000 is the school’s EFC, to which the school adds $4,000 to $10,000 of student contribution to get a net price of $29,000 to $35,000, then the school is not affordable on need-based aid alone (check for merit scholarships).</p>
<p>In other words, with your parents’ $15,000 contribution, your stretch budget (with maximum direct loans and work earnings) is probably around $25,000 for net price. If there are no schools that can do that on need-based financial aid, your search needs to be based on low list prices or merit scholarships.</p>
<p><a href=“http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/”>http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/</a>
<a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<a href=“VERY LOW COST OOS COA universities......less than $25k COA for everything! - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1651944-very-low-cost-oos-coa-universities-less-than-25k-coa-for-everything-p1.html</a></p>
<p>@ucbalumnus I think that the EFC is net price so thank you for the links. I got a book with a list of scholarships so I’ll be looking through that as well as the link you gave to see if I can find some free aid.</p>
<p>Please don’t throw a lot of time at outside scholarship apps. First, they are usually only good for one year which won’t help you the rest of the time you’re at school. Second, the best (largest) scholarships come from the schools themselves. It’s more useful to spend the time selecting your schools carefully.</p>
<p>I never though about it that way Erin’s Dad. I’m glad that I got advice beforehand.</p>