Match Me-Looking for US Target/Safety/reach schools as a student studying in the UK [international, GCSE 99999998877, political science, can full pay]

One problem that I am seeing is that there are thousands of colleges and universities in the US. It is hard to know where to start without more information that will help us narrow the scope.

So, while there are thousands of colleges and universities in the US, there are far fewer which are famous outside the US. Unfortunately the famous ones tend to be the ones where admissions is difficult to predict. There are only a few that meet “full need” for international students, and they are all reaches for even the strongest students. Since you are an exceptionally strong student, they may be possible, but they are reaches. A lot of private universities in the US will be more expensive than a $77,000 per year budget, but they might not be more expensive by all that large of a gap.

You could run the NPC on Harvard, Princeton, and a few other famous schools and see whether they appear to be likely to be affordable. However, they would be reaches. The typical applicant to these schools is exceptional, which puts you at the level of being a typical applicant, and these schools have something like a 1% acceptance rate for international students

Some top Liberal Arts Colleges offer undergraduate education that is very much at the same level as the very top universities. Amherst College, Bowdoin College, Williams College and Middlebury College are four examples from my side of the US (there are more, even just here in the northeast corner of the US). However, these schools are probably not as well known outside the US so I do not know how well they will help you for a career in the UK or Asia.

This is why I suggested McGill above. It is a very strong university with a strong reputation worldwide. It is very strong for a range of majors including everything that you have suggested in this thread. It will fit your budget. Admissions is relatively predictable and is very heavily based on stats, and your stats are excellent. I see from your original post that you do understand some French. While this is not needed to study at McGill and do well, knowing some French will make it more interesting to live in Montreal for four years. You mentioned preferring an urban location, which applies to McGill (it is right in the middle of Montreal).

The University of Toronto would have nearly all of the same advantages as McGill, except that French will be far less useful in Toronto. It tends to be slightly higher ranked compared to McGill.

If I were in your position, I might apply to Harvard as a high reach, and to McGill and Toronto as reasonable matches. I have visited all three of these schools. While they are all in urban locations, they are also all in urban locations where the crime rate is not particularly bad and where I would not be nervous if I had a child living near one of them.

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