I believe a common mistake made this year by many including yourself was to look at previous years stats and thinking they applied this year. They most assuredly did not. Just about every T20 school and many more smashed their records for the lowest admit rates. 90% or more were rejected and while your scores are excellent, many others rejected had as good or better scores than you did. It’s also true that some were probably admitted with worse scores but you can’t control that. There were many more variables this year including a massive increase in applications due to TO and not being able to visit in advance to weed out some schools. The whole point of applying to non ivy, and non T20 schools was to ensure you still had a place at a very good school and you have three to choose from. Don’t look back and best of luck!
Don’t obsess about rankings (which are inherently subjective and unreliable anyway), worry about your personal fit at the school.
Let’s pick on Cornell, Dartmouth and UCLA, shall we?
How long is the commute from campus to the state capitol for internships? How many “name brand” political consultants have set up shop in Ithaca NY? How many federal agencies have a hub (not just a branch office to conduct compliance reviews for grants) in these locations?
I think you are missing the forest for the trees. And I think Northeastern- despite a great location for poli sci- is nowhere near GW academically.
Thats a really good way of putting it, actually Cornell and Dartmouth in particular have Washington DC programs where students can take semesters off to take DC internships and those schools are really appealing because not only do you get access to some of the best professors in the world but you also get an opportunity to get DC internships, making the best of both worlds
I would suggest you think only about the places where you DID get accepted and which one of those would be better as a means to your goals.
You didn’t get accepted to Dartmouth or Cornell…so put those aside.
yeah I know, I was just speaking from the research I did while applying to explain my rationale for wanting to go to Cornell and Dartmouth over George Washington
Ditto what @blossom pointed out about the ADVANTAGES of GW WRT proximity to, and the school’s’ pre-existing connections with, internship opportunities, etc. So its time to let go of the shot-in-the-dark schools and rejoice in the great options you have. Remember too, that for many students (and many reading here), GW, Rutgers and Penn State were their top choices. Might be a good idea to be mindful of that so as not to sound demeaning. These may be your classmates.
Dang yal put me in my place lol, appreciate all the advice. I actually see Rutgers and GW more favorably now, especially GW. Guess I just got really unlucky, but hey what can I do about it now other than move on.
There are world class professors at many schools. Academic tenure is hard to get and many top scholars are at schools other than Ivies. No offense but it seems like you want the “name school.” Think instead about the experience of being there, rather than getting in. I would be so happy with GW if I were you.
I am assuming that you are from Georgia. If that is true, you got lucky. You didn’t have a true safety on your list.
I’m from New Jersey, the Ossoff Internship was a virtual one
“Guess I just got really unlucky . . . .”
Four years from now, in retrospect you might actually think that you got very lucky with where you were admitted.
I’ve seen enough students come back with positive stories after attending their “not-so-favorite” choice due to finances or acceptances to firmly believe most things happen for a reason. Maybe they met their “special someone.” Maybe they found that great mentor. Maybe they underestimated all they could do at “Y.” Whatever their reason was, many say in hindsight that where they ended up would have been their #1 choice if they had a do-over.
You’ve got a good chance of being in that group. You can do things and go places where you’ve been accepted.
let me put it a different way for you. Dartmouth and Cornell, you are competing against peers that are academically likely stronger than you. So you would be a small fish in a big pond. at GW you can be a big fish in small pond. Also my D attended GW and the advantage she got is that While she was attending class she was able to have these wonderful internships. Those who go to other schools outside DC need to either be remote or compete in the summer with the larger crowds. Ignore the ratings. If politics is what you want , DC is where you need to be. you seem to have been obsessed with ratings and prestige. Your mindset needs to adjust. And as someone else said, with that many apps, how could you focus on each one?
I agree. The ivies are such different schools in terms of location, setting, environment, teaching, philosophy, etc that anyone that applies to every single one of them is just looking for the name and certainly not fit.
It has been proven that you can become successful no matter where you go to undergrad. And if you want to go to grad school, you are better off being top of your class at a “lesser” school than middle of the pack at an Ivy. It comes down to what YOU make of your education not the “prestige” of professors.
Time for a cold shower about political science (PS) as a major and GW as a school.
PS (in whatever form) is a field in which what matters more than any other variable for getting started is internships. The internships start out unpaid/barely stipended and then poorly paid. 2-4 years after you graduate and get a (poorly paid) entry level job you will need a Masters- during which you will be back to internships. I cannot emphasize enough how brutal the early stages of this career path are.
Which brings us to GW. GW is far from a perfect school, and I get why you think that the lower rank is important. But IRL, if you are a go-getter, GW is the single best PS program out there. Why? b/c they lean into internships. You make make your schedule work so that you have internships every semester that you want one. There is simply no other school that makes that more possible than GW - even Georgetown is harder, b/c it’s farther and their class schedules are less flexible. It’s technically possible at NYU- but there are so many fewer PS internship opps available nearby. It takes hustle, and working with admin & advisor, but the PS people who are really into PS as a career path (not just as a major before law school), manage to build amazing CVs during their 4 years, graduate into super jobs with actual paychecks that you can afford to live on*, go to superb Master’s programs and launch into great careers.
*truly, I cannot overemphasize how hard that is in your field- no matter what college you graduate from. I can reference the direct experience of recent grads from HYP and current grad students at HKS / Georgetown SFS / JHU SAIS / Columbia SIPA: starting salaries aren’t higher than those for students from any other university.
My friend’s D is a recent GW graduate. She interned for a US Senator while she was in school, just one among many opportunities she had in DC while she was at GW. Now she’s a first-year at an Ivy League law school. If the $ work, go to GW.
Focusing on weighted GPA can be deceiving. What is your unweighted GPA? Many schools recalculate GPA and exclude honors classes, non core classes, etc.
Your rejected schools are the most elite schools in the US. It is fine to include them as reaches but they are reaches for basically everyone.
Thank you all for the advice, I’ll take every bit of it into consideration, leaning a lot towards GW!
My goodness, I’m not sure I have ever seen a better response to a thread or student comment about a school. To the original poster: please follow this advice, as this should be your guide to college success (and quite honestly, success in life). To others disappointed with choices, or wishing they got in to an Ivy, please read and internalize everything about this comment.