<p>What are some good colleges for a student majoring in history (and possibly double-major with poli sci)?</p>
<p>I have a 3.9 to 4.0 GPA weighted (depending on how this semester ends up), and around 3.5 weighted. My SAT is 2100 but I plan to take it again and am aiming for around 2200-2300. I'm doing a lot of volunteering in the summer at a public library but my extracurriculars are fairly limited in my personal assessment although I'm fairly involved in one club. I'm a California resident.</p>
<p>Based on this information what colleges would you recommend? I'm looking for large research universities although I don't mind liberal arts colleges.</p>
<p>What areas of history are of interest? You may want to check course catalogs and schedules to see what areas are offered at each school.</p>
<p>UCs are obvious choices to consider as a California resident, although your GPA makes admission uncertain to most of them (and unlikely for the most selective ones). Among OOS publics, UNC - Chapel Hill and Virginia supposedly meet financial need for OOS students, but these are unlikely admissions with your GPA. Minnesota has a relatively low list price, and Ohio State does offer merit scholarships to bring the OOS price down somewhat.</p>
<p>I haven’t really considered the financial side yet-although I know I should. </p>
<p>As for areas of interest, I’m mostly interested in European (especially German) and American history but most of the colleges I’ve checked seem to offer the basic courses on German, British, American etc. history.</p>
<p>Talk to your parents about what they are willing to contribute (the AFC or actual family contribution). You can add an ASC (actual student contribution) to get the net price limit. ASC can be up to about $8,500 if you are willing to take a $5,500 Stafford loan and work for $3,000 of work earnings; use a lesser number if you want to have less debt or work.</p>
<p>Use the net price calculator on each school web site to get an estimate of financial aid at that school.</p>
<p>Note that you may find some courses of interest in the German departments as well as the history departments.</p>
<p>*I haven’t really considered the financial side yet-although I know I should. *</p>
<p>Yes, you should otherwise you could come up with a list of totally unaffordable schools.</p>
<p>Ask your parents how much they’ll spend each year. Since you’re a Calif resident, they may refuse to spend more than what they’d have to spend if you attended a UC or CSU. Or worse, they may expect you to commute to a local CSU or CC to save money.</p>
<p>As UCB mentions, many schools do not give much need-based aid, but some give merit scholarships.</p>
<p>What is your Math + CR SAT score? </p>
<p>As for schools that have good history and poly sci depts. There are probably hundreds that do. One thing that I’ve noted is that if a school has a good law school, then it often has a good history and a good poly sci dept. Of course, there are schools that don’t have a law school that also have good history and poly sci depts.</p>
<p>Get the US News rankings, pick any school that looks interesting. Pretty much any you pick will have a perfectly good history dept. Urban? Suburban? Big time sports? Some you might be too low on the GPA scale for though. Maybe concentrate on the 35-100 range.</p>
<p>You will probably have to refine it from there if you have cost constraints. </p>
<p>I would concentrate on fit and cost rather than looking for the best history departments. Just about any major research school will be fine.</p>
<p>Here is a link to a listing of AAU members, essentially, the best research schools. “The Association of American Universities (AAU) is an association of 62 leading public and private research universities in the United States and Canada. Membership in AAU is by invitation and is based on the high quality of programs of academic research and scholarship and undergraduate, graduate, and professional education in a number of fields, as well as general recognition that a university is outstanding by reason of the excellence of its research and education programs.”</p>
<p>University of Iowa has outstanding programs in history and political science and would be an admit for you. Kansas, Ohio State, U MN, and Pitt might also be worth a look.</p>
<p>have a 3.9 to 4.0 GPA weighted (depending on how this semester ends up), and around 3.5 weighted. My SAT is 2100 but I plan to take it again and am aiming for around 2200-2300</p>
<p>do you mean 3.5 UNweighted? If so, that sounds like it would hurt your chances for some schools. What is your rank?</p>
<p>Try LAC’s, some of which have the highest Ph.D. productivity rates of graduates. Even students who don’t go on for a doctorate in history get the same inspiring educational experience as those that do.</p>
<p>However, LACs may have more limited selections of upper level courses.</p>
<p>A way to mitigate that is to look for LACs with convenient cross registration agreements with research universities that have a greater selection in upper level courses of interest.</p>
<p>Retake the SAT if you can. Since you are a CA resident, any of the UC’s would be great, but Cal and UCLA are stronger in European History. Since you have a high GPA and are of a low income background apply to some of the Ivy’s, the University of Chicago, Northwestern and some of the other schools who offer full rides to lower income students. I do not know your ethnic background, but affirmative action/diversity INCLUDES lower income students.</p>
<p>Since I’m of Asian background, I’m not sure about the Ivies to be honest. According to some reports I’ve read, the Ivies have in effect a quota system for Asians and the bar for the Ivies seems to be incredibly high (I read one thread on this board of a girl whose achievements are absolutely amazing and they noted that even she wasn’t a shoo-in) .I might still apply to some of the less prominent Ivies (in the sense of being less famous not less good) though like U of Penn.</p>
<p>3.5 unweighted GPA would make the Ivy League and other super selective schools even more of a reach than they are for everyone (even applicants with 4.0 unweighted GPA, #1 rank, and very high SAT or ACT scores are not shoe-ins at such schools).</p>
<p>The more selective UCs would also be a reach with your GPA.</p>