@PurpleTitan yes, that’s my chief goal in retaking it – Additionally, McGill has major-specific scholarships for which US students need a 730 in both subjects of the SAT I to be considered. And I really want some aid, haha!
Also, thanks for the info on the Dutch schools!
@TTG what an interesting option! Especially considering English is the mode of instruction. I really like the idea of them. However, I really want a 4 year undergrad program because I really want flexibility. That is actually why I knocked Oxbridge off my list!
Thanks so much for the input 
@GoldenState99 I was shying away from Toronto because it seems simply monstrous, but I wasn’t aware of their organizational scheme. Thanks to you, it’s back in the mix
@citymama9 That is very cool! Yeah, I much prefer the idea of intimate classes and discussion, but it doesn’t seem so bad to me considering that that is how my state school would be, too. I will investigate Trinity!
Edinburgh and other Scottish unis would provide only slightly more flexibility than an English uni. You typically can’t change in to something extremely unrelated.
Canadian Unis provide a bit more, but if you apply to enter an Arts faculty, for instance, I doubt you could major in a science.
@PurpleTitan yeah, I have perused the four year plans of courses that I might be interested in, and find most to be more constricting than I would have liked. However, I think that I can live with it because Edinburgh offers a lot of opportunities outside of formal courses for growth, i.e. their language classes and such. And at least there is that fourth year! I think the opportunities outweigh the cost.
I will apply to a handful of American unis for precisely this reason, though!
You are sure to get in McGill, and the nice thing about going there is you could learn French fluently. That would open up the entire world of French literature and nonfiction writings to you, and the ability to communicate with people from numerous countries.
I recommend looking at some more options like McGill, where you could be immersed in another language while getting your degree. Have you considered universities in Russia or in countries with present or past ties to Russia? Perfecting your knowledge of Russian could open the door to many jobs in the future.
Another option would be to go big and apply to Oxford and Cambridge in addition to McGill and Edinburgh.
It is also possible to go somewhere like Edinburgh and spend a year studying abroad in yet another country. That way you could enjoy the beautiful city of Edinburgh, and still immerse yourself in a foreign language at some point.
Your writing achievements are amazing!! I don’t know if any of them are appropriate for publishing in an online writing portfolio or not, but that is usually one way to feature your work. You could also have it password protected, and just show it to people who ask and have a need to see it, such as an admissions rep or scholarship committee, or a professor whose program you want to join. It can be easier to share a link to an online portfolio than to email lots of documents.
^ Well, Germany at least offers some tuition-free English language degrees (though you’d still want to know a decent amount of German to navigate life).
Going to uni in Russia for a degree without complete fluency in Russian would be insane.
@mommyrocks Thank you so much for your kind words! I really would love the opportunity to learn French and deepen my understanding of Russian, as you said. I also have beginning/intermediate knowledge of Arabic and want to explore that further, so studying abroad in such locales for a semester or year is a very appealing thought.
I have been toying with the idea of a writing portfolio for a while now. I’m hesitant because my work is very personal, but I know I have to put myself out there and test myself if I want my writing to be seen as legitimate. Thus, I like the idea of a protected portfolio a lot! That is such a good idea because it would also be easy to make it public if I ever decided to.
Again, thank you for your great advice
I have some experience here since I am originally from Montreal, have family members who went to McGill, and although we live in the US and both daughters were born and went through high school in the US, nonetheless have daughters who applied to Canadian schools and one of whom is about to go to university in Canada.
Others have mentioned that McGill is pretty much a safety for you. I think that we might want to explain the term “safety” in this context. McGill is an academically very strong and very demanding university with a very strong reputation. If you go there classes will be tough and earning an A will be tough. However, admission to McGill is based almost entirely on GPA and SAT scores (and to some extent on references). McGill is not easy to get into. However, @peaceprincess your GPA and SAT scores are very strong. Straight A’s and 1480 on the SAT are above the cutoff, therefore you will get in. Actually, you will almost for sure get accepted to any university in Canada (except the ones that require fluency in French).
“I like that they have a culture of independence and the large university model”
This is true. McGill will treat you like an adult. Dorms for freshmen are optional. Great facilities will be available, but you will have to go looking for them. The drinking age in Montreal is 18 – you will need to know to study and not to just go to a bar every evening. If you run into trouble help will be available, but only if you go looking for it.
“I don’t have anything that I can market in the EC arena.”
"Awards: eh, nothing worth mentioning "
When one daughter (and years ago me and a sibling) applied to McGill they didn’t even ask about ECs. You have the grades and you have the SAT scores, you are in.
“I know I won’t get any fin aid from intl schools. Still cheaper than private schools at home, lol”
In most cases for international students less famous Canadian schools are likely to be less expensive than more famous Canadian schools. The most famous Canadian schools will still cost less than US schools in the absence of financial aid. I have no experience whatsoever with need based financial aid for Canadian schools.
If you want information on “less famous” Canadian schools then I and probably several others on CC will be happy to do my/our best.
@DadTwoGirls thanks again for helping me out! It’s wonderful to be quite confident in the idea that I can depend on admission into such an excellent school
One possibility would be to look for colleges with strong Arabic programs and study abroad in Morocco, where you could study both in French and Arabic, and speak both too; it’d combine well with international relations.
Note that Arabic has many different “dialectal” /spoken versions. Due to instability in the region, these days you can typically study Arabic in Morocco or Jordan only. Dubai or specific areas in Tunisia may be okay. However you should not try to go study on your own as it is still risky.
Stuyding abroad in Russia is possible as part of a US college program, but going on your own (even if you know a little russian) would be quite risky too, unless you have Russian relatives. It’s not a woman-friendly country, it’s very easy to run afoul of the law (student stepped into church to play Pokemon go and was arrested for blasphemy, risking years of hard labor or prison, for instance) and being at the wrong place at the wrong time can lead to being beat up by the police. Corruption is endemic and most young Americans don’t get what that means thus can end up in trouble. In the past ten years or so, the vibe has turned sour toward Americans (not just America). It used to be Russia considered the US an adversary but Russians considered Americans friends. Nowadays, the narrative that Americans want to deprive Russians of their God given rights, weaken values, and unfairly claim to have “won the cold war” has taken hold - perhaps not in universities and among youth, but is a majority view outside of St Petersburg/Moscow and other major cities in the Western part of Russia. For instance a free, popular video game vaunted on RT (propaganda outlet) in 2012 replayed the Cuban missile crisis with the goal of the Soviets “winning”, and nuking the US was an acceptable option. Going as part of a US college study abroad mitigates the risks greatly while providing immersion (you live with a family, go to a Russian University).
Aberdeen and Glasgow have good Russian studies/international relations programs.
Investigate us colleges with strong study abroad programs: Middlebury, Dickinson, Kalamazoo, St Olaf (offering different levels of selectivity).
W&M has a dual degree with St Andrews. Sciences Po has a dual degree with Columbia, UCB, UBC (UBC’s would likely appeal to you most since you’d combine Canada with France).
@peaceprincess
My D is a rising senior with stats similar to yours. She is very interested in the Canadian Universities, and has visited McGill, UToronto, and UBC multiple times. She also attended McGill’s two week Summer Academy in July. There is a lot to like about UToronto, but it moved down her list after spending time with her Canadian peers at the McGill program. Many of them said that their friends at U of T were miserable, as it is very difficult to connect with people there. McGill is much more of a community, she was told. Of course there was probably some bias there, but D questioned that very thing while on the U of T campus previously.
For the record, my D also really likes UBC. It is very international as well, but the campus is not integrated into the city the way McGill is. It’s a nature-lovers paradise. Check to see if their programs match up with your interests.
Best of luck to you.
Second for looking at the Netherlands. My nephew (grew up in Switzerland, France, and Germany) is entering his second year at Leiden University in the Hague. Courses are in English, the students are chosen from high academic achievers from all over the globe (he has good friends from South Korea and Ecuador) , and there are few places more international than the Hague. They specialize in programs of study with an international flavor.
@MYOS1634 @ShrimpBurrito @Magnetron thank you all for this info! I’m trying to acquaint myself with the international education scene and this is all so helpful
Canadian university students love to talk smack about other universities. I wouldn’t put any stock in what McGill students say about U of T or vice versa. Current Macleans (Canadian equivalent of USNWR for university rankings) info puts McGill’s retention rate at 92.4% http://www.macleans.ca/schools/mcgill-university/ and U of T’s at 91.7%. http://www.macleans.ca/schools/university-of-toronto/ Keep in mind that U of T’s graduation and admission %ge numbers are depressed by their satellite campuses which have lower admission standards than the downtown (St George) campus.
I know you said that you don’t want a restrictive curriculum but if you’re looking at IR, Philosophy, Politics, Sociology etc then I would definitely look at LSE which offers a lot of combined degrees between two or three subjects.