Looking in New Engl/Mid-Atl for poly sci but room to explore

[RunningOnIce]

*Demographics
US citizen, CT, public high school (Alliance District/low performing), 1200 students
White female, half Jewish culturally but not religiously

Intended Major(s)
Political science? Pre law? But also want to explore my options in the social sciences.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
GPA 98.5 (4.0 unweighted?); my school does not weight.
School does not rank. Probably in top 5 or 6 out of 300
SAT 1480 (710 math, 770 EWR)

Coursework
(We generally cannot take APs until 10th grade, when some take AP US History.)
APs: US History (5), Music Theory, Language (5), Government (5). Currently taking ECE Western Civ, Statistics, Environmental Science, Human Geo.
All the rest of my transcript is Honors. Took French through French IV.

Awards
National Merit Scholar Commended Student
Best New Debater, debate club (11th gr)
Tri-M Music Honor Society (secretary)
National Honor Society
Essay selected for district literary magazine/contest

Extracurriculars
Marching band (leadership position)
Drama club (leadership position)
Freshman orientation leader
Book reviewer for new YA titles at local bookstore
Volunteering: Reading Buddies (tutoring K-1 students); library book sorter; food pantry Thanksgiving basket distribution

Essays/LORs/Other
I enjoy writing and think/hope my essays will be very strong.
LORs from AP Gov teacher and Latinx Literature teacher should be very strong.

Cost Constraints / Budget
I’ve been told to build my list without regard to cost.

Schools
Looking to stay in New England or Mid Atlantic. I am drawn to Boston and DC and would ideally prefer urban or outskirts of urban area.

I feel my list is way too reach-heavy:
Georgetown, GW, Haverford, Swarthmore, Tufts, Boston College, Brown, UCONN, Northeastern, Dartmouth, Yale.

[tsbna44]

So - when you say poli sci, you can go anywhere. Your list is reach heavy - but you have a couple that I see you getting in - GW if you show interest and UCONN.

So GW is very polarizing form a geography - very urban - like BU. So American is the counter to that. It’s suburban but in DC itself. UMD and GMU are larger both both near DC.

You have many LACs so if you want to add some matches - you can look at a Lehigh, F&M, Trinity, Richmond ( a little South for you), Kalamazoo and Macalester (a bit West for you but check them out), UVM, and Muhlenberg. I’d recommend W&M - but it’s less suburban and more a small town in the middle of nowhere - and it’s pricey - but otherwise size wise it hits what you’d like. You may add Wesleyan too - 40% of attendees are TO so it’s not out of reach for you…likely a match. Dickinson - not sure of its surroundings (suburban or not) but a gimme for you.

Another to look at - it meets your desires - would be College of Charleston. It’s sooooo many NE kids and it’s in the city…but not GW-ish in that it has a campus and it has dining halls. My daughter is there and for the first time, has a Jewish life - it’s there for as much or as little as you want - but hugely active. As it turns out, Charleston is where the first reformed synogauge was.

While you say cost is no issue, why spend $300K if you don’t need to. In that sense, as a Jewish student, in addition to Charleston which is 10K kids or so, you might look at and these are bigger - U of SC (top Honors college and the state capital for internships) and Bama (really big - but Honors) - lots of Jews, believe it or not and you’d go for dirt cheap - really cheap - with your stats $3K tuition. The Bloom Hillel is big and active and lots of kids from all over the country (they “buy” them in. Closer to you, you could do UMASS through the New England tuition exchange…it’s large and not urban…but then again, neither is UCONN.

Good luck.
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