International Relations + Arabic: Is my list okay?

Stats:
GPA: 3.97 UW (one B junior year)
ACT: 36C (36R, 36E, 36S, 35M, 33W)- single sitting
PSAT: 1500/1520; 226/228 (should qualify for NM)
SAT II: 800 Lit, 780 USH, 730 Bio E
Senior Year Courseload: AP English Lit, AP Stats, AP Comp Gov, AP Physics C, AP Economics, AP Latin, AP Art History

As I stated in my previous thread, my family is low income, but we own a business which means that NPCs aren’t accurate. Because of that, I have to look for schools where I have a good chance of high merit aid, but I will keep a few reach schools on my list in case financial aid works out. My parents didn’t attend college in the US, so I’m relying on CC for help with this process.

Ideally, I could major in IR or a related field and concentrate or just take classes in Middle Eastern Studies. I also hope to gain proficiency in Arabic since I have begun learning it. I am already fluent in Urdu which isn’t relevant to colleges but is a valuable language for foreign relations people.

Currently, this is my list.
Reach: Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Tufts
Match: URichmond, American, GWU, URochester
Safety: Oklahoma (NMF package is amazing!), UPitt, state flagship as last resort

Please tell me if the colleges aren’t very strong in IR or Arabic or if I just don’t have a chance (or chance at merit aid) at some of them. Research into the strength of Arabic programs is really difficult, so any resources would be appreciated!

If you’re happy with those schools, it sounds like a great list. I think you would be a strong candidate at some of the very top schools for IR (Princeton, Harvard, etc.) if you’re interested in those. If you don’t think they’d be a good fit though, I think you’re right on the money. One consideration is that with “only” 3 reaches there’s a strong possibility that you could get rejected from all three for no reason other than pure chance. Your scores are incredible though and I think you have a very well balanced list.

Other top schools would be Middlebury and Dartmouth.

Perhaps UVA would be a possibility; I know several graduates there who have taken Arabic there, and then studied in Jordan to practice language skills.

Of what state are you a resident?

Apply for the 5 year program at Johns Hopkins that allows you to get a masters at SAIS. I’d also apply to Dartmouth, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, and Harvard for IR.

I don’t know about Arabic, but Macalester is another great IR school that would be a martch (or high match/low reach, considering acceptance rate).

If you want to add Princeton,Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, or Harvard, I would recommend against adding more than a couple. You have a list with very good schools for IR, the extra essays and stress may not be worth it.

Hard to think of a better school for your interests than Middlebury.

I disagree with @usualhopeful

You have phenomenal stats, are sort of low income, and speak an incredibly rare but useful language for IR careers. As a result, you are a strong candidate for top tier schools, so I would choose based on schools with excellent financial aid.

Here is a potentially revised list of schools you should apply to:

Safety: Oklahoma and (choose one - Pitt or state flagship)
Match: Tufts, GWU, and (choose one if needed - American, URichmond, Rochester)
Reach: Georgetown SFS, JHU 5 year program, Middlebury, Columbia, Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale, Harvard (all have excellent financial aid)

You end up with only two or three more schools than your original list. Here is my rationale for the revised list. Safeties are schools that are virtually automatic acceptances for you. You don’t need more than two, so choose the ones that best fit your individual needs and that you would be willing to attend if all else fails (which is very unlikely). Matches are schools that you would be likely to be admitted into, so you really only need three at the most. I include Tufts here, because they want high stats kids interested in IR. As long as you show a lot of interest, you will most likely get into Tufts. GWU is located in DC and is a great school for IR. As is American. Rochester gives excellent merit aid. Unsure about URichmond.

Lastly, reach schools are the ones you should be aiming for. An almost perfect UW GPA + perfect scores + rigor = top applicant for first tier schools in the US. Your stats give you a a thorough read by the admissions committee, but it will be your essays and extracurriculars that differentiate yourself from other top applicants. My recommendation is to paint a narrative that fits your extracurriculars and future career interests to have a well-supported application. For example, award-winning MUN Urdu-speaker from low-income background interested in U.S. Foreign Service would make sense for your application and would differentiate yourself from other applicants. I have no idea what your extracurriculars are, but hopefully they mirror your interest in IR / Middle Eastern languages / studies.

Last but not least, the reach-heavy list gives you a better chance to attend a top IR institution while allowing you to receive excellent financial aid if admitted. Even if you are not admitted to a reach school, you are guaranteed admission into match/safety schools that you would be willing to attend with good merit aid. Choose a reach school to apply EA/ED and start writing the first drafts of your essays/supplements now. This reduces stress from writing all of your essays in December and allow you to craft excellent essays. Best of luck!

Disclosure: I used this strategy for my list and applied to 13 schools total. I had 3 safeties/matches and was admitted to all of my safeties/matches, and to several reaches. I just finished my first year at Dartmouth as a prospective IR major. When I applied, I put econ/gov for most schools, because I was not entirely sure about IR.

Thank you everyone for the advice! I’m looking into the schools that were mentioned.

@Oberyn Thanks for the detailed post! I’m glad that I have a chance at top schools, but I think you touched on one of the reasons I don’t want to focus on them too heavily. My ECs don’t completely align with my interests because I didn’t really commit to it until the last year.

My school doesn’t have MUN, but I am very involved in Mock Trial and a few major history competitions which I love. Before this year, my parents wanted me to go into science, so I spent my summers taking science classes and doing an internship in a research lab. I still really enjoy science and biology, but I realized that it isn’t what I want to do with my life. Meanwhile, I am committed to IR after speaking to a lot of faculty in the field and a few US Foreign Service members. I am taking an Arabic course during the summer, so hopefully that will substantiate my claims, but I just don’t have the narrative that you spoke about.

Plus applying to top schools is incredibly expensive, and I only have 4 fee waivers from CB. I am probably going to add in a few reaches and maybe trim the list slightly if I get into a match or safety early, but I’m trying to make sure I don’t count on my reaches working out. Thanks again!

About fee waivers - I know some people have success just emailing someone in admissions to explain the financial need for a fee waiver, although there are still CSS and score report choices on top of that.

You might qualify for a great scholarship and possibly the honors program at Fordham in NYC. May be worth a look.

Consider U Arizona—NM scholarships, good honors college, and an Arabic Language Flagship program

I went to Northeastern for undergrad ($30K for NM finalist) and have a Masters in Middle East Studies from Harvard. The schools you listed as reaches and matches are all great and will give you what you need. Georgetown quite literally wrote the book that most schools use to teach Modern Standard Arabic. Middlebury, which people mentioned is also very good. They also have summer programs that a lot of people do. NYU has a lot to offer in terms of languages and feeding into graduate programs. If you are interested there are plenty of quality programs at Ivy League schools. Penn, Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton come to mind, you have the stats to have a shot. For big state schools Texas has an outstanding program. Washington and Michigan are also good.