<p>I must, must, must finalize my list but there are so many colleges and I am kinda overwhelmed by the idea of "final." I want to study international relations and I also want to take classes in Chinese (started learning it last summer in a StarTalk program and I really enjoy it). Do not need a major or anything just some language classes. Also want to study abroad. I from a very southern state (not well represented at a lot of top schools) which I am hoping will help with admissions. Female, 32 ACT, lots of leadership at school and community but no sports. Politically left-leaning but like to have friends with different views. </p>
<p>The semi-final list includes:</p>
<p>Rhodes
Birmingham-Southern
Trinity University
Swarthmore
Claremont McKenna
William and Mary
Brown
Stanford
Yale</p>
<p>FLVADAD, I am looking for ways to narrow down (if one or more could be cut) and/or for schools I should add. Do I have bad choices on my list? Or any really good choices not on my list? Thanks!</p>
<p>You should put Penn on your list. My friend and I were both East Asian Studies + Int'l Relations majors. Now she has a Fulbright and I'm working in a sweet job in....India! (actually we get a lot of former "china-hands" applying here...perhaps they grow weary of the Chinese "model" of socioeconomic and political development. Lord knows I did)</p>
<p>I think you have good choices on your list. Depending on the rest of your profile, I see a couple of safeties, maybe a match, but most look like reach schools considering their low acceptance rates. So if you want to cut down the list I think you need to eliminate one or two of the reach schools. I can't really suggest which ones since I know very little about you. </p>
<p>It appears your preference is for smaller to mid size schools. Unfortunately, some of the schools with the strongest Chinese language programs with less competitive admissions are very large schools like University of Indiana, University of Wisconsin, and University of Washington. </p>
<p>Cornell, though still larger than your other choices, is not huge. Plus, it might be an easier Ivy to get into making it worthy of consideration as a substitute for one of ther other ones on your list. Additionally, they have a really unique Chinese language program that might interest you. I"d encourage you to take a look at </p>
<p>As top publics, along with your choice of WM, University of Michigan and Berkley are also very strong, but again, probably larger than what you are looking for, and I certainly wouldn't suggest they are easy to get into. I just mention them here as programs you might want to look at because of their academic strength. </p>
<p>A good match/reach that is not too large is University of Chicago. </p>
<p>Lastly, the particular schools that I think might be a really good solid match for you all around would be Furman and Oberlin. I think both definitely belong on your list.</p>