<p>Some of the top 20 offer need-based aid only, not merit-based. Each family’s income situation differs.</p>
<p>Kudos to OP for setting up a list that includes safeties and matches. Often here it’s said to have 2 financial safeties where the student would be quite happy to attend and it’s affordable for the family. Since the OP is somewhat new to CC, I’ll repeat the mantra: Love Thy Safety. It’s the most important college on any list.</p>
<p>The smart approach here is that OP is building the list from the bottom up, since it’s easy to fall in love with the reachiest colleges. Chances to be awarded merit grants rise when a student exceeds the statistical norms of the admission pool there, so OP is being very wise here.</p>
<p>That said, these stats are reason to include some of the reachiest colleges on son’s list, too. Good luck with everything.</p>
<p>I’m no admissions officer but I must add gratuitously that I immediately liked seeing such a strong connection among his interests: poli sci major, genuine commitment and focus on debate, thinking about a possible future in Law. These all hang together. There is focus and commitment in the EC’s relative to the academics. The Marching Band to me represents discipline, teamwork, perhaps sociability?, school spirit and of course music. Coupled with the Dad’s approach to construct a do-able list, I think this will bring good results and the son will have choices.</p>
<p>None of the dozens of people I knew who attended CMU…including some who double majored in STEM & SS/HUM would agree with that platitude. Every one of them felt the SS/HUM was so weak in general that they’ve advised all their friends and children to cross CMU off their list if their interests were mainly in SS/HUM areas as the quality of those departments were in their words “a complete joke” and “a waste of time” for anyone serious about SS/HUM.</p>
<p>@playing3tuititons - I’m very glad to hear that I’m stepping into the right track. As we started seaching for colleges, we realize how hard it is. There are really tremendous amounts of things to be considered. We’re very fortunate to know this site and get great helps from people like you. Thanks so much!</p>
<p>So, based on the inputs so far, we’re going to look into these schools more in depth:</p>
<p>American U, NYU, Georgetown, Tufts, UVA, Vanderbilt U, William & Mary</p>
<p>If not HPY then:
because of internships in D.C., any good school in D.C.
or
because of internships in your state capital, a school in your state capital’s city
or
a school in any state capital’s city (and declare residency there).</p>
<p>I guess a school in a large city like NY or Chicago might also give opportunities for a poli sci major.</p>
<p>If he knows where he wants to live after school, I would pick a school in DC or in the state where he wants to work. Jobs are much easier to get with a network.</p>
<p>Georgetown
Virginia
George Mason
Johns Hopkins
American University
George Washington
Columbia
Dartmouth
Cal
Michigan
Princeton
Harvard
Texas
Duke</p>
<p>American and GWU used to give guaranteed merit aid to NMFs who listed them as their first choice. Now it’s not explicitly guaranteed but it does seem to be very common. Students seem to have a strong preference for either American or GWU, so touring both (and interviewing!) is a good idea, especially as you’ll already be looking at AU and Georgetown. University of Maryland College Park is in the area and also has a strong poli sci program with merit aid for students who apply early. I do know one JHU undergrad who did an internship in DC. It’s a long commute.</p>
<p>University of Rochester has a strong political science department and offers guaranteed merit aid to NMFs. </p>
<p>Here in California UCSD has a good political science program.</p>
<p>Regarding NYU, their poli-sci department tends to emphasize rational-choice theory and is quant heavy. If your son’s not quantitatively inclined/interested…it may not be the best option.</p>
<p>They also tend to be extremely miserly with FA/scholarships IME.</p>
<p>Brown has a large poli-sci department with access to both the Watson Institution for International Studies and the Taubman Center for Public Policy.</p>
<p>Cornell does offer both a semester in Washington program where you work at a DC internship of your choosing and a semester in Albany program where you work as a legislative aide. There is also an Urban Semester program in NYC involving internships (I believe at nonprofits) and a summer business management certificate program where you work as an intern at a NY firm (including law firms). Their financial aid program recently became much more liberal.</p>
<p>I just looked at S HS’s Naviance and find following acceptance info for last year. Of course it doesn’t tell about the majors they were intending, but at least I could get an idea how/where his HS is getting into these days. Will this be any help for setting up the list?</p>
<p>CMU 30
NYU 22
UMich 15
Cornell 9
Texas A&M 6
Northwestern 5
George Washington 5
Duke 5
Dartmouth 4
U of Chicago 4
American U 4
JHU 4
Tufts U 3
U of Maryland 3
U of Rochester 3
Brown 2
Georgetown 1
HYPSM 4 to 8</p>
<p>WashU in St. Louis has a strong political science department, and good merit and need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>My S is a poli sci/econ double major there, with plans for law school. I’ve been impressed by the pre-law advising there, with all pre-law advisers having a JD.</p>
<p>sacci, WashU seems to be a great school. I just saw 101 reasons to attend WashU in CC fourm. It’s amazing to see how much students there love their school. </p>
<p>Would you have any rough estimate for the merit-based financial aid to students having similar stat with my son?</p>
<p>SeanDaddy, did you check out “Schools known for good merit aid” at the top of the parent threads to see if any of those schools met your qualifications?</p>
<p>W&M is great to look into more (as you have mentioned), unfortunately there is not much merit aid to be had there.</p>
<p>Lots of schools have “semester in DC” programs, that couple internships with classwork as well. The benefit of a school in DC is that you can do internships during the year when the competition is lower. Everyone flocks to DC in the summer for internships.</p>
<p>I think American also has a 5 year BA/MA program.</p>
<p>I think the graduate school (SAIS) is the only part of Hopkins in DC. As with many top graduate schools, their students generally have a few years of professional experience.</p>
<p>I want to echo an earlier poster who mentioned the value of internship experience at the state government capitols. D.C. is shiny and glamorous for internships, but there’s a lot of chunky gritty learning about government and actual delivery of services in places like Albany, Austin or Sacramento.</p>
<p>And I’m going to lobby for keeping even internships in perspective. He’s seeking a college. If this student wants to major in poli sci, is now strong in debate, and hopes to attend Law School someday, he’ll want to get a great training of his mind. As OP probably knows already, following college is the LSAT exam to enter Law Schools. It sounds to me like a souped up version of the SAT reasoning, testing analytic abilities and perhaps writing (others will know more precisely). </p>
<p>So don’t only think about internships, please. A college with some powerful courses and engaging professors means a lot. As my dear Dad used to say, “Sometimes there’s nothing more practical than a good theory.” When visiting colleges, try to sit in on some classes to see that the level of challenge is there in the core academics. He needs to keep developing “A Beautiful Mind.”</p>
<p>Does he have an interest in a particular branch of political science? Some colleges are stronger in political philosophy/theory, others in quants/election studies, or policy studies, or non-US politics, etc.</p>