Help finding my ideal school?

College Search & Selection
1

Hello all!

I have been on the search for my ideal college/university for a long time now, and I’d like some opinions from the community on what (if any) schools fit the pretty specific community life I’m looking for. In the schools I apply to, I hope to find a combination of most (if not all) of these things:

-Strong International Relations/Studies department or PoliSci with an International Politics Focus,

-Vibrant Campus Jewish Population…in other words, a significant Jewish population with an active hillel, such as havig shabbat dinners, not services on the high holidays only in a church basement,

-Liberal atmosphere with a large enough student population to create a broad LGBTQ+ dating culture,

-Being from Syracuse, nicer weather shouldn’t be hard to find, but I love the sunshine and warmth of the Southern United States, however without the Conservative nature often associated with these areas,

-Some Native American/First Nations campus groups - I am First Nation and looking to explore my heritage more,

-A city to explore independent of or including the campus,

-Strong language programs and Study abroad opportunities,

-Party culture: I’m not particularly seeking anything extravagant in terms of partying, but I don’t want to go to a school that has little outside of party culture, or has none at all,

-While I’m fortunate enough to say financials aren’t that much of an issue for my family and I don’t qualify for any financial aid, my family would like for me to earn merit scholarships when possible.

Some schools I’ve been looking at: Tulane, Rice, Brown, Georgetown, McGill. Any more?

My SAT score is not very strong right now - my first was a 1310 (a no-studying baseline), however I have been studying to raise the score on my next test so I’d like to see a variety of competitiveness of schools. My weighted GPA was a 95 for my courses through the end of 10th great, but it will adjust and be much higher after I finish junior year.

Does anyone have thoughts on any schools that could even remotely fit what I’m looking for? Am I searching for something impossible? Of course I realize that finding a concurrence of all of these isn’t really possible, but is there anything that has several of these things?

Thank you SO MUCH and sorry for the super long mini-rant :slight_smile:

2

Look at American U and George Washington.

3

Thank you!

4

Brandeis sounds like a decent fit - though a bit removed from Boston, you can easily make a day trip into the city.

5

Georgetown is a Catholic/Jesuit school. While there will be some Jewish students there, it’s not going to have a ‘vibrant’ and large Jewish population. GW would be a good option.

6

I wouldn’t count out Georgetown. It meets many of your criteria. My daughter is there. The Jewish population is small but is very vibrant. There is a campus Rabbi employed by the university. There is a Jewish center. They have Shabbat services and other activities for Jewish students. There is also a Jewish Living Learning Community. The school is very welcoming of all traditions. My Jewish daughter loves Georgetown.

7

Dartmouth comes to mind. I don’t know anything about their Jewish population and it obviously isn’t going to be warmer than Syracuse, but it does embrace its Native American heritage and (I believe) gives an advantage in the application cycle to those who are Native American.

8

I’m biased since I go to WashU, but I definitely see some connections to your list of criteria. I’ve heard really great things from my friends who are in IAS and PoliSci, and the languages are pretty solid here. Also lots of study abroad opportunities. WashU is pretty liberal and has lots of different LGBTQIA organizations, and there is also a really great Jewish community here (Shabbat dinner every Friday, Hillel is a really active organization). I also think they just founded a Native American Student Association on campus. In terms of St. Louis, being from upstate NY as well, the weather is practically tropical considering how much warmer the winter was (of course the people from not upstate NY and the northeast will say its cold, but of course if you’re from Miami 50 degrees is gonna be cold). WashU also has a good work hard/play moderately-hard vibe (since there are plenty of parties on the weekends), but there is also a lot more stuff to do. You get free public transportation as a student, which has made it really easy for me to explore the city (the art museum, zoo, Forest Park, history museum are all super close by campus, and there is lots of great food in St. Louis). WashU also has some of the best merit scholarships considering its rank, and I’d definitely look at the Ervin, Rodriguez, Danforth, and Honorary Scholars programs.
Basically I love WashU and I think you should check it out cause I see a lot of connections to your list :slight_smile:

9

I’ve heard the same thing about Georgetown’s community being small, but very strong. Thank you for the personal advice!

10

About Washington University…wow!! I haven’t heard of it before, but it sounds like a really ideal fit for me! I’ll make sure to look into it, thank you so much for the eloquent post :))