Good schools for International Relations major?

<p>Hi! I'm looking for possible schools to apply to that have very good international relations programs that also offer a lot of financial aid (first generation with single immigrant parent currently living in NJ).</p>

<p>Schools I'm looking into so far (are they good for this program?) :
NYU
George Washington University
Georgetown</p>

<p>I don't want to go past the Eastern states and I think DC or New York City would be the best location for such a major. What other schools should I look into? I appreciate any help! :)</p>

<p>You can forget about NYU probably because they’re stingy. You’d have to have superb stats and ECs. </p>

<p>For your chances at colleges other than NYU, we’ll need a lot more information. </p>

<p>Are you a junior?</p>

<p>We’ll need your GPA, CR+M/ACT scores, any SATII scores, AP scores, AP courses taking now and next year, and languages to start.</p>

<p>Have you run the net price calculators using your parent’s tax returns from 2012 for any of these schools and can your family afford them? You can do that later if you haven’t, but you need to do that soon.</p>

<p>Oh yeah sorry. I’m a junior, these are my stats:</p>

<p>GPA:
4.46/5.6 weighted
3.91 unweighted</p>

<p>SAT:
Haven’t taken it yet, projected to get at least 2000
Subject Tests: will be taking US History, Math II, 3rd test not decided, maybe Spanish. Expected at least 700 in all</p>

<p>Courses:
freshman year all regular, sophomore 2 honors, junior year 3 honors, senior year 4-5 honors expected</p>

<p>APs:
US History - expected score 5
Statistics - expected 4-5
Euro - expected 4-5
US Gov - expected 4-5</p>

<p>EC:
President of school’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity
Co-Founder and President of school’s chapter of HPA (international social justice charity)
School’s Literary Magazine member
Member of Stage Crew in Theater Dept (backstage, lights) all 4 years of high school
Volunteer at Library
Team member for annual cancer event. 2 years.
Waiting for response from National Honor Society
Total volunteer hours: around 150+</p>

<p>and I’ve run one calculator a while back for NYU, got a generous grant so hopefully I can have similar results for other schools</p>

<p>In addition to what you have on your list, American is also good.</p>

<p>If you want to apply to any Ivies, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, and Penn have good programs.</p>

<p>Also, the above poster is wrong about NYU. You have to apply to the NYU IR major as a sophomore, not as an incoming freshman.</p>

<p>see: [IR</a> FAQ, Department of Politics, NYU](<a href=“Wilf Family Department of Politics”>Wilf Family Department of Politics)</p>

<p>Georgetown SFS is the program that you have to apply separately to as a freshman. </p>

<p>Given your stats, I would say you should apply to all of the schools on your list. Try to get your SAT score as high as possible. You should have 2200+ for Georgetown.</p>

<p>If you want merit aid, you may also want to consider American (DC) and Fordham (NY). Some other choices not mentioned by others above might be Johns Hopkins and Tufts.</p>

<p>There’s also Occidental (meets 100% need and has a -selective- program at the UN).
I second Tufts.
If you’re a girl, look into the women’s colleges (especially Barnard) since they have a strong alumna network.</p>

<p>I don’t know what I’m wrong about with NYU, but okay.</p>

<p>The most important qualification this student has is not her GPA but “first generation with single immigrant parent.”</p>

<p>We can talk about all these fancy schools and what could happen, but nothing is going to matter until OP gets her mom to help her fill out the NPCs for these schools. Mom needs to know what these schools are saying it’s going to cost the OP to go there, and then Mom has to tell the OP what mom can do to help.</p>

<p>OP could earn really good merit aid at one of them, say $30K, and it’s still going to cost her mom $25K each year to send her to school. </p>

<p>OP, it’s hard for people who’ve been living in America for 80 years to understand how much it costs to go to college in this country. You may not want to know, but looking for colleges without knowing if you and your mom can afford them is a waste of time.</p>

<p>Check out east coast schools listed on both of the following pages:</p>

<p>[Inside</a> the Ivory Tower - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_the_Ivory_Tower]Inside”>Inside the Ivory Tower - Wikipedia)
[Colleges</a> That Claim to Meet Full Financial Need - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2013/09/18/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need-2014]Colleges”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2013/09/18/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need-2014)</p>

<p>Almost all the east coast schools on the Foreign Policy “undergraduate programs” list are also on the US News “full financial need” list. Exceptions: American and GW (which are less selective than the others and might make good safety/match schools.) Use the online Net Price Calculators to see if some of them would be affordable after aid.</p>

<p>That’s why I talked about 100% need schools - OP should pick most of her schools from this list:
[100%</a> Meet Need Colleges | CollegeGreenlight](<a href=“Colleges with Need-Blind Admission for U.S. Students”>Colleges with Need-Blind Admission for U.S. Students)</p>

<p>Plus American and GW.</p>

<p>OP: try and see if you can get into Questbridge. It’s very selective but it’d really help you get into highly selective colleges with a full ride (= tuition, fees, room, board, money for books and incidentals).</p>

<p>Thank you everyone for the help, I will definitely start looking at the schools on these lists and figuring out costs and affordability. All of the suggestions and advice are really appreciated :)</p>

<p>William and Mary has a really good program. We have the center for the theory and practice of international relations and were selected to pilot a state department program. The model UN team has also won the world championship. The college is also “cheap” if you’re in state.</p>

<p>IR is a fairly common major. Most professionals have an advanced degree – often from the schools you list – but their undergraduate experiences are quite varied. Since you will need a lot of financial help, you should put together a wide list, not just the best known names.</p>

<p>As mentioned, you should look into QuestBridge, which helps match high achieving low income students with some of the best colleges in the country.</p>

<p>Believe it or not, USC has a amazing IR department. </p>

<p>^ Are you referring to the University of South Carolina, or to the University of Southern California? The OP said s/he did not want to leave the East Coast. South Carolina costs ~$40K for OOS students; it covers, on average, 74% of demonstrated need (acc. to USNWR), however, that percentage may be lower for OOS students. </p>