I’m a senior in high school this year and I’m in the process of applying for colleges. Most of my colleges are match/safety schools and my parents really want me to apply to 1 or 2 reach/top tier schools. They will pay for the application fee and all, I just need to come up with the schools! If anyone could help me brainstorm top tier schools that I have at least a shot at getting into, I’d really appreciate it! It is a personal requirement to go to school in a city that has a student body of greater than 4,000 but less that 30,000 (wide range, I know). Thank you!
ACT: 31
Weighted GPA: 4.4
Uneweighted GPA: 3.95
White female
Intended major: international relations or political science
Strong ECs: President of National Honors Society, student government secretary, president of leadership club at my school, competitive dancer and teacher, a ton of volunteer work, etc.
All AP/Honors classes
I live in Massachusetts and I don’t need to stay in the Northeast but I do want to go to a school that has all 4 colleges. Money isn’t a huge factor but it would be great if the schools were good with meeting financial aid needs.
Yes I did mean all 4 seasons, my mistake. And I want a college that had anywhere between 4000-30000 students that is located in a medium or large city.
First thought: Georgetown. As mentioned above there are a ton of other possibilities, but when I hear reach schools for Intl Relations/PoliSci with your stats Washington DC immediately comes to mind.
If you are interested in international relations and political science, perhaps Tufts, Georgetown, American, George Washington, Columbia, Princeton. They are all very different, and range in competitiveness, but you can definitely find a reach school to apply to that fits your preferences, and has strong programs in your intended major.
Top schools with international relations or political science majors and in a medium or large city with 4 different seasons: you should check out Johns Hopkins and Georgetown.
Do you have IR-related or poli sci activities a top tier school will like?
You’re asking posters to help you pick, but you need to know why they would pick you. That’s more than asking who has good programs. You can get names in a good college guide, like Fiske. But then you need to match yourself, as they’ll view it.
I’m going to second G’town, Columbia, and JHU. CMU and UPenn also match your criteria.
Tufts and Northwestern are more suburban than urban - I don’t know whether you’re okay with this. Princeton is in a small city. The others mentioned would not be reaches with your stats.
The other schools that would match your criteria are Harvard, WashU and UChicago. Possibly Yale and Brown, as well, depending on what you consider a medium sized city.
Rounding out the top 10+ “IR related” programs are:
George Washington University - 40% acceptance rate, bottom 25% ACT=27 (Washington DC)
American University -26% acceptance rate, bottom 25% ACT=26 (Washington DC)
Stanford - No seasons
University of Denver - 53% acceptance rate, bottom 25% ACT=26 (Denver, CO)
University of Chicago - 8% acceptance rate, bottom 25% ACT=32 (Chicago, IL)
People in academia tend to favor Poly Sci focused programs while people in government/industry tend to favor the full interdisciplinary IR programs. Harvard has the Kennedy School of Government at the graduate level and partners with Tufts’ Fletcher School (two miles away) for IR. Princeton and Columbia have graduate IR schools. In general, the top Ivies tend to treat IR the same way they do Business - as a graduate degree.
Tufts is the location of the US State Department’s Diplomat in Residence for the New England Region.
Georgetown is a very good choice for a reach. You would need to look into whether or not to apply to the School of Foreign Service (a good idea if it looks appealing) or the College of arts and sciences. My D had a fairly similar profile and did not get in, but we knew it was a reach, as it would be for you. My impression is that they meet full demonstrated need financially, but are not overly generous.
Tufts (slightly less of a reach) and Johns Hopkins (maybe slightly more) are other good choices. The others mentioned here strike me as bigger reaches that may not be worth trying if you don’t apply ED or single-choice EA (Harvard, Princeton, Chicago, Columbia, and maybe Penn), or schools like George Washington and American which are good choices to consider but are matches.
My bias is toward the top full interdisciplinary programs (which is SFS for Georgetown) and from a strategic perspective you have a better chance of getting in. All are reaches given the low acceptance rates and the fact that your ACT is in the bottom quartile. I would not assume any of them is any easier/harder to get in. SFS is harder to get into than the overall average for Georgetown, Tufts is hard for Mass residents.
I have a bias against Johns Hopkins for undergrad because the IR grad school is 40 miles away in DC so it is not easy to attend activities and take courses at the grad school.
Technically Tufts is in a suburb of Boston (Somerville} but that can be misleading because Somerville is the 16th densest city in the country and the city separating it from Boston (Cambridge) is the 26th densest city on the country.
Georgetown is in a low density residential neighborhood of Washington DC
@lookingforward I wouldn’t overstate the need for ECs to match IR. Some top tiers being offered in replies don’t admit by major so it’s irrelevant what the ECs are in as long as they are strong. Needed IR/Govt specific ECs to be competitive will vary by university.
It’s not about specifically admitting “by” major, but the thinking that leads a student to go get engaged in this field she/he thinks will be the major, other than hs classes. In some humanities, that’s harder to do. Poli sci is one of the easy areas where a kid can get some local experience. But OP hasn’t given any activities to back up this interest in either possible major. The competition can drive this.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
American University
George Washington University
Georgetown University
Tufts University
POLITICAL SCIENCE
Columbia University
Cornell University
Duke University
University of Chicago
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (interesting PPE major)
University of Pennsylvania (also has an interesting PPE major)
University of Rochester