Problem is that the OPs stats aren’t quite high enough, necessarily, to get them into a school in the DC area that would meet full need. Otherwise, I’d say American, Georgetown, GW, U Md, because they can get a DC volunteer, and then maybe paid, internship all through college, and really do something in a gov’t office, rather than have a one semester in DC program-based internship.
Without that, I think their best safety bet (academically and financially) is SUNY Albany, because of its location in the NY state capitol, so that they can get that deep, prolonged involvement at the state level, at a school that is affordable for them. The experience that they can get in the state capitol would help them to get that first job in DC after graduation. Other possibility is working in their congressman’s home office for SUNY Binghamton, Buffalo, or Stonybrook, but that’s more political than public policy. It’s unlikely that with top 25th% and 1360 SAT this student will get into a DC area school with enough funding to make it possible.
Another way to bring Florida State down to budget that might appeal to this student is by doing first year abroad. OOS students who do their first year at one of FSU’s abroad campuses qualify for in-state rates for the remainder of their time at FSU.
Not sure being located in DC for all of undergrad is all the advantage it used to be for internships.
I would recommend students check which internships are in person. Many federal workplaces are still hybrid or remote.
The advantages of school year policy experience are one of the reasons why I’m a fan of state capitals for people with public policy interests. Nebraska, however, would hit all of the wishlist items, apart from being east of the MS River, and be within budget and an extremely likely admit.
In case my previous post was a bit overwelming, I’ve sorted the schools I mentioned earlier into my guesses as to what your son’s chances might be to be admitted AND get the price where it needs to be. Note that I am NOT an admissions professional.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
U. of Arkansas
U. of Louisville
U. of Nebraska - Lincoln
West Virginia
Likely (60-79%)
Toss-Up (40-59%)
Lower Probability (20-39%)
Louisiana State (the scholarship estimator indicated $15k, which would bring costs to about $36k…there’s possibilities for additional scholarships, but that moves this into the lower probability range)
Low Probability (less than 20%)
Florida State (unless the abroad program mentioned by @fiftyfifty1 is selected)
U. of South Carolina
Don’t Know I just don’t know about the merit aid likelihood to be sufficient for OP and whether OP will get any need-based aid. I think these would all be extremely likely for admission.
Colleges don’t universally adhere to the FAFSA EFC - they each calculate their own expected family contribution, based on the financial info provided in the FAFSA and, for many schools, the CSS profile. When need-based aid is sought, it’s important to run the Net Price Calculator for each school, to get an estimate of what that school will expect your family to contribute. Running Syracuse’s NPC, if you haven’t, is an important step to take: Net Price Calculator - Syracuse.edu If the result is within your budget, and your son prefers SU to the schools being discussed that would be affordable with merit aid alone, then an ED application would be worth considering, because as others are saying, it’s a low-reach that could go either way. But if the projected cost isn’t affordable, ED shouldn’t be considered.
Not only do many schools not solely rely on FAFSA EFC, most don’t come close to meeting full need, including a number of schools mentioned on this thread.
Running NPCs should help get a ballpark figure, but they aren’t currently updated for coming FAFSA changes this fall, nor do they contain 2024-2025 costs. In the same vein, not sure how OP calculated their EFC because none of the FAFSA EFC (SAI) estimators are updated for this fall’s changes either.
Hopefully some of the NPCs compare favorably to the budget.
Thanks for everyone’s input. We certainly have run the NPC on these options and are keeping a spreadsheet on costs, and GPA and SAT targets from the CDS.
We have the possibility of applying for Tuition Exchange through the college where we work. Although it is extremely competitive and not a given. In fact, it seems to make this process more confusing.
For state flagship schools like Maryland it’s hard to make sense of what the OOS admit rates and stats are. I am just going to assume that we’ll need to be over the 50th percentile - unless its a school like West Virginia that has posted auto merit for OOS.
You can view their stats here. But they don’t separate out OOS, and they haven’t updated for 2023.
The overall admit rate for Fall 2022 was 34.3%. At state schools, OOS admit rates are typically lower than the average - and since only about 23% of UMD students are OOS but make up more than 55% of applications, “upper 20s” would be a good guess for fall 2022, OOS admit rate. Expect it to drop lower for 2023 and 2024.
Of course, admission rates for certain majors are significantly below this university-wide average. Public policy is one of them, as UMD is highly ranked for this major.
Similarly with stats, as an OOS student, expect them to be higher than the averages published here.
If you want a true safety, you could look at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI. Very close to Grand Rapids, has an international relations and a political science major, has a program to study in Washington DC and a scholarship that could definitely cover the cost, and he would get in state tuition and an additional 3500, so price would be around 20-21k a year. Let me know if you have any questions, as I am a current student.
I also second UGA. That’s where I will be attending in the fall, and they have a great School of Public and International Affairs, I was admitted RD (after a deferral) OOS with similar/lower stats (3.56 uw, 1380 sat, solid ECs, and 11 APs, and a few DEs). Aid is pretty good there, but with any school, I would also recommend focusing on applying for outside scholarships because they can be easier to get and apply for all schools, but they are typically smaller. Also, UGA study abroad is huge, and when you study away, you pay in-state tuition. They also have a popular semester in DC program.
UGA would be a financial reach for OP. I agree with all else you said but he’d need a full OOS tuition waiver to make his budget. It’s possible, but more likely is no scholarship or the half OOS waiver.
I don’t agree with focusing on outside scholarships. Maybe you’ve had better luck but most strike out or get $500-1000 one time.
U of Denver works too. It does have big school spirit, especially for lacrosse and hockey. It has a very good government department, counting two Secretaries of State as alums (Albright and Rice). Study abroad is almost a given as they cover the cost as if the student was on campus for that term/year.
Denver gives a room and board scholarship as well as other merit. I’m not sure how much they give in non-need aid, but I think a lot. My nephew applied this year and he got his down to about $15k, but he is instate (there is a small state contribution per credit) and he does qualify for Pell grant, but he decided on Colo School of Mines instead (because he got that down to his range too).
Visited DU last week and found the campus much nicer than I expected. Lots of green space, felt larger than other schools with similar populations. Quiet on campus even though freeway is about a half mile away. There’s a block of walking distance restaurants off campus and it was about a five minute walk to light rail which took us to larimer square area (cute dining, shopping) in ten and Union station in fifteen. It was raining hard and we still liked it, which is always a a good sign!
I would guess that the average applicant from New York might think of WVU as being far removed from “civilization as they know it,” lol. In reality, Morgantown is only about 90 minutes from Pittsburgh. I attended summer music programs there in high school, and ended up envying my music camp friends who went there for college - they had a lot more fun than I did! In addition to WVU’s study abroad and domestic internship programs, it’s also a National Student Exchange school, fwiw National Student Exchange - Campuses / Location