There are opportunities for involvement at all sizes of schools. Maybe you should focus more on location, for jobs, interning and volunteering.
George Washington or Georgetown for poli sci? Schools with undergrad business?
You really are limiting yourself and I feel like you will just respond with more ideas from your research online. I strongly suggest visits if they become possible.
Rice has excellent econ and polite sci programs. Rice has offered a great MBA program for years, but is adding a business major for the first time starting next fall. Check out some threads on the Rice Forum on CC and ask questions you have there. Rice folks will be glad to answer.
Rice
Emory
Vanderbilt
SMU
Socially, Rice might be the best fit for you. However, econ and poli sci are not particularly known as strengths there. (though I doubt they would be substandard – probably no program is substandard at Rice)
Emory, Vandy and SMU are known to be strong in business/econ, all are warm – you might see a couple days of snow at Vandy, but not too much – and all hover around 30% Greek participation.
It seems to me that you are going to have to find good match schools that you like to your list. You’ve named some great schools, but they are almost all reaches for anyone.
One of the first places that I’d add to your list is the Claremont colleges. Yes, they’re LACs, but all clustered together with the Claremont graduate schools, you have the net effect of being at a mid sized research university. Some are impossibly hard to get into while others are not so bad. And they don’t have the LAC negatives for the most part that you’re trying to avoid.
Your mentions of Tufts, BU, and Northeastern suggest that you’ve considered the Boston are, but Boston options don’t end there. Brandeis, Boston College, and Bentley are all strong, medium sized colleges with suburban locations but easy city access that you seem to like.
Emory gets you out of the snow belt onto a nice campus. City location, but you can opt for the suburban Oxford campus for your first 2 years if the city seems too oppressive. It seems to check your boxes.
U of Rochester and Syracuse U are in the snow belt, which you said you can tolerate in the right situation. These are not big cities, and are in fact quite livable. I’m trying to come up with schools which can be high probability of acceptance but have strong programs in your areas of interest.
Best of luck.
Not at all!!
I second @compmom 's concern that you are looking at schools superficially at best. This does not bode well for you with respect to admissions at highly selective schools.
I am also concerned that everyone (,including me) is focusing on reach to high reach schools, when what you really need are safety and match schools.
Yes, matches are my biggest issue right now! I’m looking for the tier of schools between UCF and Yale.
My problem is that a lot of these places seem to be the stingiest with financial aid! It’s so difficult for me to justify choosing an expensive match over a cheaper safety, in my opinion. This process is so difficult!!
With regard to Rice, their business program is new only on the undergraduate level. Their Jones School of Business is almost 50 years old and is well respected. The business faculty is simply moving their offerings down to the undergrad level. Econ and Poli Sci are both top shelf there as well. In fact the Baker Institute on campus is a top non-partisan think tank for public policy research.
A real attraction for me at Rice is its study abroad programs. Keep reading. Don’t let your eyes glaze over. Rice has a long list of study abroad options, many of them are well funded, are run by Rice, and are limited only to Rice students. One of those is a full year at the London School of Economics! Could you imagine that? One of the top Econ schools in the world, fully paid for.
Honors program at Arizona State seems to be highly regarded and seems to check a lot of your boxes…
Have I missed the part where you indicate what your budget is? Have you done any NPCs? No point spitballing ideas w/o that.
Rather than financial aid, focus on schools that offer merit scholarships. The Ivies and a number of other schools like them don’t offer merit scholarships. But if you focus your search on schools where you’re in the top quartile, you’re more likely to be a candidate for a scholarship. As a general rule, schools in the South are more likely to offer merit scholarships than top colleges in the North.
You might also investigate top schools with special programs. Examples would include the Jefferson Scholars at UVA, Morehead-Cain at UNC, Robertson Scholars at Duke and UNC, Levine Scholarship at NC-Charlotte, Park Scholarship at NC State, and Belk Scholarship at Davidson. Rice automatically discounts tuition 50% if household income is $130,000-$200,000. Under $130,000, it’s free. It’s called the Rice Initiative. Check it out.
Omg… I just checked out the Claremont college website (specifically claremont mckenna).
WOW! I had no clue that a liberal arts college like that existed!! The programs in Econ, accounting, political science, business, etc. all seem to be really applied and in depth. I still have to do more digging, obviously… but thank you SO much.
Sorry… my financial situation is super complex (divorced parents, complex asset situation, large discrepancy between custodial and noncustodial income). I should’ve indicated this more in my original post. My noncustodial parent isn’t very cooperative with college stuff, but they’re still involved in my life.
Essentially, I have no clue what to expect from colleges in terms of aid… I really want to try filling out an NPC.
I just think that in general, I’d prefer either to pay a lot to go to a top school, or pay little to go to a safety. The in between is iffy.
Truly that has to be the first job: there is no point getting excited by colleges only to find that you can’t afford them. The conversation with your parents won’t get any easier- I’m sorry that they aren’t making it easy for you, but you will have to step up to figure it out. Complex asset can make NPCs really unreliable, especially if rental properties or privately owned businesses are involved. The top schools typically give almost entirely need-based aid- and they will promise to meet your need - as they define it.
In your own right you can only borrow ~$27K (total over the 4 years) for college. Everything else your parents have to pay for - or sign loans for. Given that you don’t know what you want to do, but are interested in a few fields that could require grad school and/or low starting pay, You don’t want a heavy debt load.
And- saying this kindly!- you may find what so many students find: how picky you can be is shaped by your budget. Go grasp the nettle now, then come back & let us know your parameters. A lot of CCers (including some who have already posted here) are savants at finding affordable, attractive options!
We are from Florida and I saw originally UF was a consideration. Have You Checked Florida State University out. They offer instate tuition scholarships and if you don’t get that they have a First Year Abroad Program at one of their Four Satellite Campuses and if you complete it you get in state tuition for the remainder of your Degree. The campuses are in London, Florence, Valencia and Panama City. My son is going to Italy in the fall for his First Year Abroad in Florence. The FSU campus is gorgeous, very walkable and It is located in the capital for possible internships. Greek life is abundant, about 25% sororities, but with 30000 students and 700 clubs you don’t need to be in it. My son was deciding between Pitt, Penn State and Michigan State where he was accepted in to the James Madison College. If you are thinking Political Science check out MSU James Madison College it is an excellent program and in state for you. Florida State University
https://international.fsu.edu/
https://jmc.msu.edu
If you qualify for NMSF and that price is a consideration for sure, ASU Barrett should definitively be on your list: Discover why the Barrett experience is right for you. | Barrett, The Honors College (asu.edu)
no lacs, women’s colleges, or religious schools. CHECKED
Not crazy Greek life. CHECKED
No stress culture. CHECKED
strong at business, Econ, and/or poli sci in general. CHECKED W. P. Carey School of Business | (asu.edu)
nothing super urban or super rural. I want a campus with a surrounding town! CHECKED
weather: I hate snow CHECKED
Thank you for the recommendation! I’ve heard good things about asu and definitely plan to look into it 
If the objection to LACs is size, then schools like CMC (I am a huge fan of CMC) that are part of a consortium might be just the ticket. That would put Amherst and Swarthmore (and their related schools) in play.
But I agree with everyone else, figuring out your financial situation is your highest priority. Then you can decide if you need to chase merit aid or limit yourself to affordable state options.
The Claremont Consortium is different from the ones that Amherst and Swat are in. The 5 C’s are all on one contiguous walkable campus. Many facilities are shared such as the library. In normal non-pandemic times, all 7 dining halls are available to all students. With Amherst and Swat, the option to take classes on a different campus doesn’t really change the feel of how many students are on your campus on a typical day. Whereas at the Claremont campus you always feel like you’re on a bigger campus.
Yup. But still worth exploring for someone concerned about feeling isolated in a LAC. But for the weather, I would also throw in any school in the general vicinity of Boston, just because it is such a great college town. Just to kick the tires and comparison shop.
I’d suggest Brandeis, not far outside Boston. Also American University. Great poly sci on the edge of DC. Villanova in suburb of Philly. Miami University Ohio?