<p>As a senior next year, Im going to be making college selection but am completely at a lost at what school's I should look into to. If somebody could help me out based on my stats. My possible major would either be political science (first choice), international relations, or possibly business (this is the parents' preference).
Male, White Russian Immigrant from suburban Chicago
SAT: 2210 (770 Reading 760 Writing 680 Math)
ACT: 34
GPA: 4.0 W 3.4 UW Class Rank: Top 19% 2AP's Junior Year 4AP's Senior Year
EC In school: Radio (2 years), Key Club (1 year), Chem Club (1 year)
Out of School EC's: volunteer at russian-american culture center, volunteer tennis coach, served as an aid at a computer class for seniors, went to europe as a student ambassador, took a philosophy class at northwestern for gifted students
I can write a killer essay.
I don't really have a preference for location, diversity of student body, all those preferences. a bigger, more well known university would be nice but its not a necessity</p>
<p>You have nice test scores --- but I wonder why there's such a gap between your weighted and unweighted GPAs if you've only taken 2 AP classes so far? I'll assume it is because you have taken many honors classes instead of APs. </p>
<p>Your low unweighted GPA indicates to me that there are probably relatively few "A" grades among those honors classes, but rather mainly B's and possibly a few C's as well. If that is the case, your transcript will look quite different to the most selective colleges than if your grades were consistent across the board and your GPA wasn't so heavily weighted from the "honors boost." Unfortunately, if that is the case, it will probably put many of the most selective schools out of range, or at least make them higher "reach" schools than someone who has similar test scores but less range in their grades. </p>
<p>Based on what you have said about your EC's, I also don't see anything really strong that jumps out at me, adding to my thinking that the most selective schools are going to be very difficult for you. </p>
<p>With that said, here are some suggestions for you to check out, emphasizing the "bigger and more well known" that seems to be your only preference. Ideally, I would suggest picking at least two from the first three categories and then perhaps adding one or two from the high reach category:</p>
<p>Good bet for admissions (safeties)</p>
<p>American U
University of Illinois - Urbana/Champaign
Northeastern
Indiana U
San Diego State U (has an excellent international business program)
Ohio U
Syracuse University
U of Illinois-Chicago
U of Massachusetts-Amherst
Marquette
Knox College
Lewis & Clark</p>
<p>Match schools</p>
<p>University of Michigan
University of Wisconsin
George Washington
U of Miami
Boston U
U of Pittsburgh
Bucknell
Rutgers
U of Maryland-College Park
Lehigh
University of Rochester
Dickinson
U of Richmond
University of Arizona
Rhodes College
Kenyon
Whitman College</p>
<p>Realistic reach schools (reaches, but within the range of possibility)</p>
<p>U of Chicago
Northwestern
Johns Hopkins
Tulane
NYU
Tufts
Brandeis
Claremont McKenna
Macalester
Colgate
Grinnell
Bowdoin
Middlebury</p>
<p>High reaches</p>
<p>Georgetown
Columbia
University of California-Berkeley
University of Pennsylvania
Yale</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the detailed advice. I appreciate so much. Yale is in my reach (even if its a super-duper high reach), that made my day. I actually moved from suburban Chicago to London, England over the summer between sophmore and junior year. I didn't mention this figuring it would have little affect on my admission to colleges. Is this true or can it maybe have a positive/negative effect for some of the schools.</p>
<p>It shouldn't affect your chances one way or the other. It might make a nice essay topic if you target it correctly Will you be applying as an international or a US citizen? </p>
<p>Best of luck.</p>
<p>well i do have dual citizenship, american and russian. which in your opinion would be the better approach considering that i have lived in teh usa since i was 8</p>
<p>Definitely apply to Georgetown, Tufts, and Claremont McKenna.</p>
<p>If youre looking for another safety on the west coast, you may want to consider the University of San Diego (USD). Good international relations department and solid business department.</p>
<p>thanks for all the great tips and ill definetely apply to alot of these considering many are on the list of universities for the common application, something i plan on doing</p>
<p>University of Arizona - match?</p>
<p>I thought that school was ridiculously easy to get into.</p>
<p>it is, u need a 900 SAT to get in.</p>
<p>if you are interested in politics & international relations,
check out these DC area schools: Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, American, and George Washington (the first two are highly competitive to get into, the later two should be safties for you).</p>
<p>Also check out Tufts in Boston... they have amazing politics and international relations...</p>
<p>In California, check out Claremont McKenna... one of the 5 schools in the Claremont Consortium... Claremont McKenna is well know for strengths in the social sciences, including politics, economics, and international affairs.</p>
<p>Just apply to all of the top schools, since they all tend to have good polisci departments</p>
<p>Going to school in the DC area really isn't that much of an advantage if you ask me, but Georgetown is great nonetheless</p>
<p>yeah seriously, just choosing a school because its DC area is utter stupidity. If you are interested in IR tho , Gtown and all the ivies</p>
<p>do you people even know what you're talking about?</p>
<p>Of course being in DC is NOT necessary... but if one has a particular interest in politics, DC has some nice advantages... have you ever watched CSPAN? there are countless televised lectures by various political leaders, policy wonks, foreign dignitaries, etc that are held on the campuses of the various DC universities.</p>
<p>if one had a particular interest in american politics or american govt., I would think that would be mighty attractive...</p>
<p>again, many universities throughout the entire country excel at political science, but why deny that DC schools have an attractive perk?
should it be definitive to one's decision? who knows...</p>
<p>If you saying that DC should play a major role, than what are you talking about? Its not like internships and positions of interest in Washington DC are reserved your students at AU or Gtown. I didn't consider Washington DC when I visited schools I was accepted to as a major factor, just a nice little perk.</p>
<p>thethoughtprocess...</p>
<p>of course not... anyone can get an internship... but you cannot deny that if you go to school in DC, you have greater opportunities for more frequent interaction with the political establishment...</p>
<p>I'm not saying georgetown is the only school to go to for politics, that would be ridiculous... all I'm saying is that it has some nice perks for those especially interested in american politics/government... and if one is at all interested in those things, then georgetown should be on the list of possibilities... the final decision one makes will include many other factors... </p>
<p>obviously, if one got into Harvard, stanford, Yale, Princeton, Chicago, Columbia, PENN, etc... one can get a phenomenal political science education...</p>
<p>in any case, would you deny that if one was interested in film, then schools in LA have a particular advantage?</p>
<p>or that columbia gains no advantage from all that NYC offers?</p>
<p>all i'm saying is that some schools have some particular advantages/perks because of their location... that should be but one factor among many (not necessarily definitive)</p>
<p>yeah true, plus I'm sure Gtown has lots of advising regarding internships in DC compared to other schools</p>
<p>The idea that being in DC would expose me to a greater number of political lectures as well as opportunities to experience politics first hand is awesome imo. nonetheless, idk if i have the grades and ec's to get into georgetown. american is another option but, obviously, i'd prefer to go to a match or reach over a safety. As i've been considering the colleges im going to apply to more and more ive started narrowing my list:
reaches: georgetown, berkeley, tulane, usc
matches: BC, Michigan, Wisconsin, McGill,
safeties: syracuse, u of i uc, penn state, BU</p>
<p>^realistic? not so much? good choices? any opinions are more than welcome</p>
<p>seygenson...</p>
<p>good list, but I would add tufts... the fletcher school at tufts is incredibly well-known for international affairs</p>
<p>You should check this out:</p>
<p>I think it's the only ranking in the world ever made of political science departments.</p>