<p>Right now, my grades are great (4.0 unweighted all 3 years) and I did well on the PSAT last year so I have high hopes for my first SAT score...arriving this week! Nobody seems to like anybody's ECs around here but I think mine are sort of cool. </p>
<p>Beyond that, it's so confusing. I know I'll apply to two colleges in my state. That's easy to decide. And then I"ll apply to a couple of Ivies because why not (ya never know what could happen). I sort of know what i'm interested in - politics & international relations - but I can't say for sure if I'lll still want to do that when i'm 20. I know I want to stay on the east coast....my mom says i can apply wherever i want as long as its affordable. But how do I know how much they cost until I apply? And how do I know if a college feels right if I can't visit it? I mean, I guess I can go to some colleges but my parents aren't going to quit their jobs and visit 40 colleges with me.</p>
<p>You are just about right timing wise to start thinking and looking.</p>
<p>That said, there are some steps right here that you can take. The college search to the left is a great way to get started and find some schools that might be a good fit. It will ask some basic questions…if you don’t know an answer…simply skip that question. </p>
<p>Once you have a list, take a llok at their websites and visit [Welcome</a> to YOUniversityTV, the College and Careers Portal](<a href=“http://www.youniversitytv.com%5DWelcome”>http://www.youniversitytv.com) to do some of their tours if available. It is also not too early to start having discussions with your parents about what might be affordable. If they are uncomfortable, have them help you with the college search as it asks about costs as well and that may help you start to get an idea of where they are. </p>
<ol>
<li>Find a college you think you might like in a region of the country you might like or can get to easily.</li>
<li>Now find 3 more colleges in the area that are completely different, but you might qualify for. We’re talking urban vs. rural, small vs. large, greek, vs. no Greek, Ivy vs. LAC, really mix it up.</li>
<li>Now find some time during the week when you can go, preferrably with at least one day on a school holiday, so you don’t miss much.</li>
<li>Go tour the schools. Two a day. Take notes, ask questions, do both the tour and info session. You and your parents can say what the both like and don’t like about the school, but you always go first after each tour.</li>
<li>Go home and try to create a SuperSchool. Take the best of everything, toss out the worst. </li>
<li>Try to find your SuperSchool in real life using every tool and advisor and friend and teacher you’ve got available.</li>
</ol>
<p>Tour 2
Find as many SuperSchools as you can in a single area. Toss in a few outliers if you need to to fill up the two tours a day rule. This trip is ideally done over part of spring break.
Do the evaluation after each school. Keep refining your ideal school. See if any of the ones you’ve visited make the cut. Be flexible, change plans if necessary.
Really start to have a handle on what you want by the end of junior year. Have you tests done, look to improve them if you need to.</p>
<p>Tour 3
Concentrate only on schools you really like on paper or need to look at again.
If you can do interviews, schedule and do them.
Start building a list, in order, of where you want to go. If 1 or 2 obvious candidates emerge and your financial situation allows, consider ED.
Ideally, you can do this over the summer, when you have plenty of time. It might wind up being your family vacation.</p>
<p>I’m sure you’ll have plenty of other suggestions on how to do it, but this is one idea that worked for us.</p>
[ul][<em>]What are your stats? (GPA, class rank, ACT/SAT scores, etc.)
[</em>]What can you afford? How much merit or financial aid will you need? Run a preliminary EFC calculator such as [this[/url</a>] or [url=<a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/paying-your-share/expected-family-contribution-calculator]this[/url”>Expected Family Contribution (EFC) – BigFuture]this[/url</a>].
[<em>]Small (<3000 students), small-medium (3000-7000), medium (7000-12,000), medium-large (12-20,000), or large (20,000+)?
[</em>]Big city, small city, suburban, rural…?
[<em>]Which part(s) of the country? (Pacific Northwest? Northeast? California? Southeast?)
[</em>]Co-ed or single-sex?
[li]Any other factors you deem important - offers LD support, big LGBT community, big Greek scene or no Greek scene, DI or DIII athletics, etc.[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>(2) Use search engines to create a preliminary list of prospective colleges based on qualities you’ve determined are important to you.</p>
<p>(4) Narrow down based on your academic interests. Check course schedules - NOT the course bulletin, which includes courses that haven’t been taught in years - to see if courses in your areas of interest are taught regularly. Other things to look for include the number of permanent, full time faculty (i.e. not adjunct or visiting) relative to the number of majors, job placement, and where students go for graduate or professional school. The opportunity to work closely with faculty through seminars, independent studies, honors theses, etc. should also be considered. </p>
<p>Given your interest in IR, I recommend making sure the college of interest offers relevant languages to a sufficient level.</p>
<p>If you are not sure about your preferences for Step #1, I recommend visiting several colleges (varying in size and location) in your area, even if you’re not interested in them specifically, to get a good idea of what you’re looking for in a college. (Essentially, MrMom62’s “Tour 1.”)</p>
<p>Before you even think about academics, consider what you want in a school. What do you want to major in, where would you like the school to be located, what size, urban, rural, etc. Then I would go to the college match program on here (its actually really helpful) and try to find some schools that are looking for students like you. Do some research on these schools, and then choose the best and apply.
Of course, based on your scores I would recommend you look at the Ivies, Duke, Stanford, MIT, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, UVA, UCLA, etc. You have a bunch of options because of how well you’ve done in the past.</p>
<p>Seconding Georgetown based on your interest in politics and international relations. It is hard to beat being in the center of the nation’s capital. There are abundant opportunities for internships and work opportunities. The French embassy is just off the Georgetown campus; I worked there staffing parties. </p>
<p>George Washington University also has excellent poli sci and IR, the same ideal location, and is somewhat less selective. Likewise for American University. Take note that DC-area universities have a consortium, so at any of these 3 universities you have the option to cross-register at the others for some classes.</p>
<p>Most of the Ivies also have excellent programs in these subjects, but if you have a genuine passion for IR it is hard to beat DC for the location advantages it offers. Columbia is an honorable mention, as New York also offers a lot of opportunities for the aspiring internationalist (United Nations, NGO headquarters, etc.)</p>
<p>Even American, GWU, and UMaryland would be a better choice than most Ivies for politics/IR. They are all a lot easier to get into than Georgetown and have abundant internship opportunities in DC.</p>
<p>@teenbodybuilder – I would respectfully disagree. I have worked with internationals in Europe, Asia, and South America and the Ivys carry a lot of weight even if the particular program may not be as strong.</p>
<p>And with my kids I did the following:</p>
<p>1) Realistically research what type of schools they could attend with their statistics (most schools are open to you). We used tools such as Naviance, the web, guide books (Fiske, Princeton Review to name a couple). If you have a good guidance counselor speak to him/her as well.</p>
<p>2) It is not always comfortable but you need to have the money talk with your parents. Be realistic about what your family can afford and what aid you might qualify for. If money is an issue, consider some schools where your stats fall in the top 75% of so and see if you can qualify for merit aid. </p>
<p>2) Visited a few different types of schools that were pretty close (a LAC, mid-size, and large school and ones in cities and suburban locations). Also if you are set on a particular major or area of interest then eliminate schools where it is not available. Think about attributes of a schools that are important to you ex. big time sports , greek life and anything else you care about — ex. if you want a schools with a good orchestra then that becomes an attribute in the equation. Both of my kids were able to pretty quickly find a few attributes of schools that they found attractive.</p>
<p>3)We then tried to focus on those types of schools as we moved forward in our search (we still visited one or two school that seemed like good fits academically although they were not in their preferred setting or size just to be sure we didn’t limit ourselves too much). My husband and I each took about a week off to go college hunting with each kid. A few schools we could go to during a weekend we did together and some other times we split up and did different roadtrips. </p>
<p>4)In terms of the trips, it is critical to do research on each school before you go. I’ve seen kids at an information session saying that they want to study accounting when the school has no business program etc. – that visit is a waste of time and money. Also make appointments when you can at schools, know before you show up when the information sessions and campus tours are given. Ask questions of the admissions staff and the tour guides. If you like a school and want to spend more time you can ask admissions if you can eat in the school cafeteria etc.</p>
<p>Top Ivies will be better for it, but I mean I’d say GWU/AU would be better than say, Dartmouth. The closest major Dartmouth has to IR is polsci and I don’t see students getting any first-hand IR experience in Hannover New, Hampshire.</p>
<p>Hanover may not have embassies but many IR majors end up in banking or consulting anyways. And Dartmouth has far better on-campus recruiting than any school in DC. Probably for spy agencies too, which is another place top IR kids go on to work in.</p>
<p>Anyway, there’s two schools of thought at work here.</p>
<p>One is to focus on a specific major and which schools are strong in that. If that means you wind up at a cruddy school overall that’s strong in your specific area, so be it.</p>
<p>The other is to focus on finding a good all-round education and environment for learning, and then adapt your major plans to the school’s offerings if need be.</p>
<p>I generally think the second approach is wisest, but both are valid ways to approach it.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is very good for those. Can’t go wrong with Georgetown/Dartmouth. AU/GWU are good if you don’t get into those two. My favorite economist, Reich, went to Dartmouth.</p>
<p>One crucial thing to think about is which schools have the best contacts for what you want to do. Who can get you the internships or make a phone call and get you the interview? THAT is what makes the school you choose invaluable, not what they teach you in the classroom, anyone can do that, but who’s got the most powerful Rolodex. (You kids out there may have to look up what a Rolodex is.)</p>