<p>I am going to be applying for fall 2008 admission and I'm looking for a school with the following characteristics:</p>
<p>-size: fairly small, the most important thing is good access to professors and small class sizes if possible
-atmosphere: Part of the reason I want a small college is that I'd like to have that community atmosphere, with lots of discussion-based courses and people who care about school and don't want to party every night...but I obviously don't want a place where ALL the students do is study. A nice mix is ideal (and i'll probably find that in a lot of places.)
-programs of study: I want to do some kind of international/foreign area studies or international relations-type major
-location: east coast, ideally DC area, but that's not a must
-prestige: I don't want something on the Ivy level, but maybe one or two steps down
-cost: My family doesn't qualify for very much financial aid in a need-based sense (living in southern california, the cost of living is really high and fafsa and other forms don't take that into account when calculating need) so I need to find a school with lots of options for merit-based scholarships
-my SAT: 2250 (770Math, 770CR, 710 Writing)
-ACT Composite: 35
-SAT II's: 800Math2, 770Lit, 750USHist.
-I have LOTS of extra-curriculars, including a lot of leadership positions, i.e. ASB, captain of Academic Decathlon (i've participated for 4 years), CA Girls State Delegate, theater club officer, conflict management officer, and internship with the local human relations comission.</p>
<p>Here are the schools I've been looking at: Are there others I should think about as well??</p>
<p>Georgetown
George Washington
American University
William and Mary
Washington and Lee
Univeristy of Richmond
UVA (maybe)
Johns Hopkins
Tufts</p>
<p>Thank you SO much for your help! Any suggestions would be fabulous.</p>
<p>Wow, great stats. George Washington U gives good merit aid, so that is a good choice. I think that all of the schools on your list will want you, but not all of them seem to fit the goal of a small, intimate atmosphere. Goucher may give you more aid than Hopkins, yet you can take Hopkins courses. It is also smaller and gives more individual attention. Tulane gives great aid. Look at Ohio Wesleyan, also. Boston University will probably give you more aid than Tufts, but it is not small or intimate.</p>
<p>You said that you liked discussion based courses, so maybe you should look into liberal arts colleges. They seem to be a lot more "discussion based" than universities (small class sizes, etc.)</p>
<p>I think your list is actually really great. But the only schools on your list that are likely to give you any merit aid are Richmond and Washington and Lee (MAYBE GW, depending on what you plan on studying).</p>
<p>At the more prestigious schools (UVA, Georgetown, Tufts) I'd be more worried about getting in than getting aid. UVA has a few great scholarship programs but they're mostly for in-state kids and the rest are for super stars. And I don't think Tufts even gives merit aid.</p>
<p>I dunno, I think GW would be a good shot at merit aid. They are quite happy to get folks with stats like the OP's, and are willing to toss money their way to entice them. Whether or not it's a good fit for the OP is something she'd need to determine. </p>
<p>OP, you have terrific stats and that is a fine range of schools on your list. Be sure you communicate your serious interest in the schools you apply to -- you don't want them thinking these are your backup plans. If American gives money, you'd be an excellent candidate there, too.</p>
<p>St. Johns College in Annapolis would give you all the intellectual discussion you'll ever want, if you are interested in their approach (also an hour or so away from DC and Baltimore). We know someone's daughter who attends there and LOVES it. She has great retorts for when people come up and ask her about "the Greek life" (meaning frats and sororities) at her college -- which is heavily focused on classical education.</p>
<p>Richmond would be a great fit, but the problem might be the merit aid. Assuming that your grades are good, you have the scores to be a Richmond Scholar, which is a full tuition scholarship, room and board as well, I believe. They give out 50 each year. Richmond also loves proven leaders, so write great essays and send out the application by the deadline, and see what happens. You've got a great chance!</p>
<p>Trinity College in Hartford. It is small, good access to professors and offers full merit scholarship. It also has great honors program. You would get a lot of mentoring if you were to get the scholarship and honors program.</p>
<p>One specific note: Washington and Lee is not in the DC area anymore than Colgate, say, is in the NYC area. W and L is several hours south of DC in the I-81 corridor in a very pretty litttle town. If you are coming from California you might want to take into account the fact that W and L is not near a major airport and that getting to and from wlil require either a longish car ride or a connecting flight to a smaller airport (Roanoke? Richmond?) and still having to get to Lexington, VA from there. That also makes it a fairly expensive trip if finances are an issue.</p>
<p>I think, too, looking at your list, that most of the schools are not epecially small and do not necessarily offer easy access to faculty unless you are very good at establishing relationships and/or are lucky with some of your early professors. </p>
<p>As far as fit and admissibility you probably could look at the LACs in the Northeast and have some shot at getting in to at least the ones that are not super-super competitive (that is, Williams and Amherst are extremely difficult to get into and not especially clsoe to major--that is, direct flight from CA--airports). I think by focusing on the DC area you may be losing a lot of options that might fit your needs better than American or Tufts. (Though many of the LACs are not close to major airports either, but Bowdoin and Bates are reasonably close to Portland.) Granted Tufts and American may both be strong in IR, but aside from your presumed major much of what you seem to be looking for is more likely to be found at a small school--and keep in mind that at small schools students often study abroad for a semester so that you would get good international and language skills that way as well as on campus.</p>
<p>Your numbers are good, though I don't think I noticed what your grades are. Perhaps it would be helpful to talk and think seriously about what your family can manage financially. Many merit-based scholarships are only a few thousand dollars and that might or might not be enough to help you. Some schools give a decent number of small to midsize merit scholarships and a few full or almost full ones (Kenyon and Davidson come to mind; the former is in a charming and tiny town in rural Ohio at least an hour from Columbus, so not a great plane destination. The latter is near Charlotte, NC, which is well served by United, US Airways, and Continental, among others, but not necessarily a great trip form California--has several nonstops a day to LA but I don't know what elses is available to CA; Davidson has a strong tradition of study aborad, thanks inpart to the Dean rusk program, though that is not the same as international relations as an academic discipline.)</p>
<p>one thought ... depending on what you mean by "community" some of the more urban schools may not have as much of a community campus feel to them as some of the other schools depending on how the campus is set-up.</p>
<p>Another thought about campus community--yadlin may want to look at what percentage of students live in on-campus housing, especially after freshman year. Just as an example, Vanderbilt Univ. will be requiring, starting with this year's incoming freshman class, that students live "on campus" throughout the undergraduate years. Housing ranges from single/double dorm rooms, to suites, to apartments on campus. Their new freshman housing complex is elaborate, includes a new student center, and is designed to establish a community feel among the student body. There are probably a lot of other colleges/universities with the same commitment to developing and maintaining a close student body, but I don't know examples off the top of my head.</p>
<p>GW quite simply will not fit any of your requirements for campus atmosphere. You may find smaller classes there as an upperclassman but I would say not early on in your studies. So, if that small college community feel is truly a requirement you could scratch GW off your list. UVa, though also large and not fully a match, comes closer to a community feel simply because it is in a college town where most student activity centers around the campus itself (GW in some respects doesn't really have what you think of as a distinct "campus"). Again, small discussion-based classes might not be available until your upper years. William and Mary is more LAC-like than UVa, although not tiny (about 6000 students). One thing to keep in mind, though: as state schools, the tuition they charge, even out-of-state with no financial aid, will be the equivalent of receiving a merit scholarship of $5K-$7K a year from most of the private schools you are considering.</p>
<p>Also a few notes on Georgetown and American. I don't know much about these as institutions, just to comment on the physical campuses and atmosphere. Georgetown certainly has more of a defined and enclosed campus than GW, but it is hardly LAC-like: it is in the middle of probably the most vibrant area of DC, which a lot of people love, but the hustle and bustle definitely permeates the campus as well. Contributing to this is that Georgetown University Hospital is a major DC hospital that is effectively right on campus. Many undergrads may stay on campus full-time but for everyone else there is a lot of coming-and-going.
American is certainly within the borders of DC but it would be more helpful to think of it as being located in a ridiculously upscale suburban environment, which is to say, it is primarily a residential area on the outskirts of town. This makes the campus a lot more self-contained and insulated that GW or Georgetown and a little bit more cut off from urban life. I don't know though if this alone creates the sense of "community" you describe, I never really got that sense when on the campus myself, but that was quite a while ago, the environment may be different now.</p>
<p>W&M and UVA are public schools (i.e. merit-based aid is rather unlikely). UVA does not offer merit-based aid to out-of-state students or in-state students (except for the Jefferson Scholarship, which is a full scholarship only offered to in-state students after a long process). they do have certain "scholarships" (like the Echols Scholarship) which allow you to sleep in the Honors Dorms and have a few other privileges (like picking classes before everyone else), but no money involved.</p>
<p>JHU was the first school that came to my mind. but it doesn't really have a "community atmosphere" from what I can tell, nor is it really a small school.</p>
<p>I believe most schools take into account cost of living for need-based aid. I know my school (Swarthmore) does - because my dad was telling me about how shocked he was at how much the fin aid officer knew (including cost of living in our region). the FAFSA and CSS Profile are just templates for the important data - the schools themselves take other things into account.</p>
<p>speaking of those, you should consider some liberal arts colleges. Swarthmore isn't a bad place :D</p>
<p>I agree with the other posters. Why GWU? It doesn't have a campus feel, the class sizes aren't exactly going to be small, and regardless of aid, it's still the most expensive school in the country.</p>
<p>GW gives exceptionally good merit aid to strong students. For example, students who are denied admission at schools such as Penn but are highly qualified and just did not get in for relatively arbitrary reasons, may get half-tuition merit aid at GW. That said, however, it does not appear to match the OP's other criteria.</p>
<p>I didn't know Trinity College CT has an honors program. I'm interested in learning more about it; do you have a source? I couldn't find any info on the website.</p>
<p>how about George Mason? that's also near DC and i believe it has a good poli sci/IR program. it's also less competitive than Gtown or GW, and I heard (not sure, though) that they give merit $$.</p>
<p>Dear mochamaven and OP: problem is, George Mason is a huge school dominated by commuters, not exactly what OP asked for, in fact just the opposite.</p>