Finishing junior year, trying to finalize list.

College Search & Selection
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<p>Hello, I'm currently a junior and have been touring east coast colleges for the last week or so. I've seen Columbia, GW, Georgetown, Yale, and Brown, and have yet to see Harvard, Boston College, and Sarah Lawrence. Through this process, I've come to recognize my preferences more than before, and am slowly changing my mind about a few things. So right now, I'm looking for suggestions for potential schools. </p>

<p>Location: Honolulu, HI
Ethnicity: Asian. Sigh. Although it can arguably said I'm half Pacific Islander (or at least my college counselor says so. Is that a minority?)
School: Really small private girls' school.
GPA: So far I've got just around a 3.8-3.9 unweighted.
Rank: Our school doesn't rank, but I'm pretty sure I'm 2/25. Yeah, really small school.
Tests: SAT: 2080 (W:710, R:720, M:650) - definitely retaking. Planning on taking the US History, World History, and Japanese SATII's. Also going to take the ACT. PSAT: 217
Course load: I've taken the most rigorous classes available to me up until now, APs haven't been available to me before this year (and only one - APUSH). I'm also self-studying for AP World. My senior APs will most likely be AP US Gov, AP Chem, AP Japanese, and AP English Lit. Our school has a limit on how many APs you can take during Senior year. Usually it's three, but they make exceptions for certain students, and I'm hoping I'll be one of them. Oh, we only have 7-8 APs offered. I've taken two dual enrollment courses at a local university and plan to do 2-3 more before graduation.</p>

<p>EC's:
Leadership: Student Council President (9th and 11th, hoping for 12th also), Student Council VP (10th), Recording Secretary for Serteens (11th), President for Serteens (12th)
Service: Serteens club, Girl Scouts, assisting with a children's aikido class (throughout high school and eighth grade).
Other: Aikido (A Japanese martial art - 7 years, will be 9 by graduation), Paddling (will be 3 years by graduation), Debate (will be 2 years by graduation), NHS (will be for 2 years), Internship with a state senator (throughout second semester this year, probably through summer, and all next year), Model UN (will be 2 years, this was the first year of the club at our school, was chosen to go to BMUN)</p>

<p>Other Info: I have no hooks. I'm positive I'll have excellent teacher recs as long as my favorite teachers don't decide to quit. I'll have done National History Day at least twice (I made it to states last year and hope to go further this year). I've done a school year-long internship with an organization that brings in foreign exchange students from around the world and have also hosted kids a few times. Our school's Japan Wizards (a competition sponsored by the Japan-America Society of Hawaii that quizzes you on things like Japanese culture, language, government, etc.) team, of which I was captain, won one of four trips to Japan in Freshman year.</p>

<p>Academic interests: International Relations, History, Creative Writing
Future goals: Either law school or grad school for a PhD</p>

<p>What I've realized I'm looking for:
Location: East Coast - mid-Atlantic or New England. Rural, suburban, or small city. Outside of big cities is okay, but nothing directly in the middle of a 1,000,000+ city. I'M ALSO LOOKING AT GOING TO THE UK.
Size: Small-medium (no more than 1500/graduating class)
Type: Probably a LAC or a university with that kind of feel (close with professors, classmates-are-your-second-family type thing). I like pretty schools. </p>

<p>Schools I'm considering applying to: Brown, Yale, Georgetown, Amherst, KCL, Oxford (pretty much just to see how that turns out)</p>

<p>Thanks :)</p>

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<p>Look at Tufts - great in IR, in the suburbs (not directly in Boston), similar in size to Brown, and is known for having the feel of an LAC.</p>

<p>I’d also look at Middlebury, Swarthmore, Haverford, and if you’re interested in all-girls schools, Smith, Wellesley, and Bryn Mawr.</p>

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<p>Haverford, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Williams</p>

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<p>Thank you for your replies :slight_smile:
I’ll look into them.</p>

<p>And I’m not really looking for girls schools. I’ve had enough of that, haha.</p>

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<p>@underwaterclouds
If you are half Pacific Islander, definitely put that down on your app. Sometimes PI is classified similarly to Native American, which would be a huge hook as they are the most underrepresented minority in the country.
My daughter and I just got back from a scouting trip and the most beautiful school we saw was Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pa. I think one of our tour guides was majoring in International Relations. Check it out.
As one who grew up in Hawaii too (but Hilo -even worse!), I wish you the best of luck!</p>

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<p>To the extent that being Asian is widely seen as a disadvantage in university admissions, it is likely less of an issue for those who are Pacific Islander (i.e. Hawaiian, Tahitian, Samoan, Chamorro, etc.).</p>

<p>But also note that some people claim that Asian applicants are a URM (or at least not an ORM) in some small obscure liberal arts colleges, some of which may be among the type of school that you are looking for.</p>

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<p>Outrigger canoes? That might be the most obscure/unusual/interesting EC in your list from the point of view of an admissions committee at some of the type of schools are you looking at. (Being unusual is a good thing in this context.)</p>

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<p>Have you looked at American University in DC? They have a Creative Writing minor, and of course a highly regarded School of International Service.</p>

<p>DC is very diverse, AU is near the embassies and you’d be on the doorstep of many international development groups.</p>

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<p>Colgate University, SUNY Geneseo</p>