<p>I need some help narrowing down my list of colleges I want to apply to. I hope to major in political science/International studies/ government, then go to law school</p>
<p>I need a school with excellent opportunities for internships, summer/school employment, and the best jumping off point for a top tier law school.</p>
<p>Money is a major factor, so I need good financial aid.</p>
<p>EC's and writing are my strong suits so any schools where those are extra stressed should be kept/added (for example, UChicago).</p>
<p>I'm from MA but am okay with travel.</p>
<p>Here's the list, cut some out and add more to help me out please[U/] -Vanderbilt University
-Cornell University (possible ED)
-Bowdoin College (other possible ED)
-Johns Hopkins University
-American University
-GWU
-Georgetown University
-University of Chicago
- College of the Holy Cross (Legacy)
-UMASS @ Amherst
-Colby College
-Stanford University
-Dartmouth College
-Brown University
-Tufts University
-Williams College
-Middlebury College
-Haverford College
-Emory
-Davidson College
-Boston College
-Northwestern
-UVA
-Northeastern
-NYU
-Washington U in St. Louis
-Claremont McKenna</p>
<p>I know its long and full of ridiculous reaches. I need some help so please help me narrow down my list or add some I should be considering.</p>
<p>my stats in case anyone is curious
Rank:11/280
GPA W:4.3
SATs: CR 650 M660 W710
AP's: US AP 5, English Language 5
NO SATII's yet
Most rigorous courseload available at my public high school
Great relationships with teachers writing recommendations</p>
<p>Captain of XC team two years
Secretary general of MOdel UN two years
7 best delegate awards for model UN
Key club President 11th and 12th grade
Lots of community service, mentoring
Key club Treasurer 10th grade
NHS president
Theatre club VP
3 speaking parts
3 outstanding awards
Brown book award
Treasurer of class of 2009
-2 leadership awards from principal
-2 distinguished service awards</p>
<p>If you are looking for good financial aid, try reaching for Harvard, Princeton, and Yale (which are all strong in your particular majors). They can afford to offer you full rides, whereas less endowed schools such as NYU and Georgetown are stingy with their FA.</p>
<p>Your list is a reach galore. 80% is reach. My advise is to apply to a few safeties along with some high rankings schools, these schools are the most generous with financial aid.</p>
<p>Reach:
-Vanderbilt University
-Cornell University (possible ED)
-Johns Hopkins University
-Georgetown University
-University of Chicago
-Stanford University
-Dartmouth College
-Brown University
-Williams College
-Middlebury College
-Haverford College
-Bowdoin College (other possible ED)
-Emory
-Davidson College
-Northwestern
-UVA (OOS)
-Washington U in St. Louis
-Claremont McKenna</p>
<p>Low Reach/Math and Safety
-Tufts University
-NYU
-Boston College
-College of the Holy Cross (Legacy)
-Colby College
-Northeastern
-American University
-GWU
-UMASS @ Amherst</p>
<p>The best "jumping off point for a top tier law school" is an LAST score well into the 170s and a GPA into the mid-3 range--or a lot higher depending on what level of grade inflation exists. Being a graduate of Williams or a comparable school may help a little, but without the LSAT score and GPA it won't mean much. </p>
<p>Given that people go to law school with every undergraduate major imaginable, I think you would be best served by finding a college that suits your abilities and interests, assembling a list that includes solid matches and a safety or two, and seeing what your undergraduate years bring in terms of waht you really want to do and major in. Instead of focusing on the strength of the majors you mention, which are pretty mainstream and should be at least adequate at any good school (and by that I mean not only any school at least in the top 50 of either USNWR's university or liberal arts rankings but also other flagship state universities) think about what kind of schoool and setting you want--big/small, urban/suburban/small town/rural, and so on. Do want to be in or near a large city? Do you want a lot of variety in your surroundings? Do you want a strong sense of community? Research university? Ready access to professors? Some schools with very sheltered feeling campuses are surprisingly close to big cities and give you the best of both worlds; some schools that feel wonderfully intimate to some people nay feel too small to yoiu--only you can judge that. </p>
<p>When you say money is important does that mean you will qualify for need-based aid or hope for merit aid? If the latter, look at schools that have good merit aid offerings, such as GW. Among the LACs, both Kenyon and Davidson also have some merit aid. (I'm not especially well-versed in financial aid and only mention these based on experience among friends and family in the past few years.) </p>
<p>Bottom line: Right now, the idea of getting into law wschol ought to be among the least of your college-selection of your criteria.</p>
<p>You can retain much of your list and make all the top reach schools reasonably possible if you increase your SAT score significantly. The reason (in part) that your list is "reach galore" is because your SAT isn't quite in the range of admissions to Stanford or Georgetown, for example.</p>
<p>I'm not familiar with many of the schools you've listed, but I do know that Georgetown is the best school you could go to for international studies (SFS). And on a side note, UMass @ Amherst is a party school.</p>
<p>Reachy list doesn't begin to describe it. Feeling prestige-driven, heh?
Most of those schools have admit rates of <30%. Those who offer merit $$ give it to kids with Ivy-level numbers. </p>
<p>Get on College Board and look at SAT score ranges for your list. Look at acceptance rates. Start a new list that deals with a realistic spread of reaches, targets and safeties.</p>
<p>I left all the reaches because I havent decided which to keep, while my matches are basically all filtered out. I'm asking for help on ones to filter out, because I'm not going to apply to all those, I just want to leave them as options. I thought that was more than obvious</p>
<p>-Bowdoin College*
-Brown University
-Cornell University
-Dartmouth College
-Georgetown University
-Haverford College*
-Johns Hopkins University
-Vanderbilt University
-Williams College*</p>
<p>The ones with (*) have shown the greatest commitment to financial aid:need-blind, commitment to meet 100% of need, and no-loan for all students</p>
<p>p.s. Colby deserves an asterix as well, but I wouldn't quite put it in the category with the others. But, it's a great school.</p>
<p>For IR i would say look no further than Georgetown...haha</p>
<p>I like Georgetown...one of my top schools.
Bowdoin-good government program...not as much IR from what i have read.
Brown-good at humanities/gov/IR
Vanderbilt- strong departments in most subjects including IR
Hopkins- one of the best grad programs....carries over to undergrads</p>
<p>those all seem like reaches...your SAT scores are a bit below the averages at all the schools i think. Then again Bowdoin is SAT optional.
Your GPA and ECs look pretty strong. Probably help balance out the SAT scores. Not that they are bad...just a bit low for these high caliber schools.
As for money....you need to be in the 75+% to receive scholarships. sorry.</p>
<p>These rankings of undergraduate international relations programs were published in the March/April 2007 Issue of Foreign Policy Magazine.</p>
<p>Top 20 Undergraduate Programs</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard University 48%</li>
<li>Princeton University 46%</li>
<li>Stanford University 30%</li>
<li>Georgetown University 28%</li>
<li>Columbia University 28%</li>
<li>Yale University 23%</li>
<li>University of Chicago 21%</li>
<li>University of California-Berkeley 12%</li>
<li>Dartmouth College 11%</li>
<li>George Washington University 10%</li>
<li>American University 10%</li>
<li>University of Michigan 9%</li>
<li>Tufts University 8%</li>
<li>Swarthmore College 8%</li>
<li>University of California-San Diego 8%</li>
<li>Cornell University 6%</li>
<li>Brown University 6%</li>
<li>Williams College 5%</li>
<li>Duke University 5%</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins University 5%"</li>
</ol>
<p>Just for the record, The following schools do not offer International Relations/Affairs/Studies as a major and does not have existing undergraduate programs in that area.</p>
<p>Mini. Can you care to tell us the difference between Political science with a significant courseload or concentration in IR....how is that equivalent or the same as a legitimate IR major.</p>
<p>Care to tell us if your seriously flaunting this list off to seriously show misguided information to prospective highschool applicants.</p>
<p>Hey, maybe if I go to this school, I can benefit a lot from their undergraduate program. But to the dismay of little Johnny, when he gets on campus, he realizes oh wait, that ranking said this school has an excellent undergraduate IR program/department/major. Where is any of that? I didn't choose a political science degree. If I wanted an poli sci education, I would have gone to HYPS. HYPS dominates in that anyways. There is a separate ranking for political science anyways. IR and political science is as WAY different as Biology and Agricultural sciences.</p>
<p>41% of graduate professors from across the nation were asked in one question out of fifty...."Rank the top 5 best undergraduate programs for international relations" and those schools mentioned are tallied with respect to the number of times they were mentioned (in %)</p>
<p>Graduate professors are more knowledgable about the graduate side of things rather than the undergraduate side. Graduate professors for one, don't know jack shizzle whether or not a undergraduate IR department or major exists at an insitution or not. They go on blind insight, knowing that political science departments are good at elite famous universities are good, they go on the assumption that HYPS must have great IR major/faculty/department program. Although I've mentioned plenty of times that IR as a major does not exist at Columbia or UC Berkeley, many ppl here believe its alright to flaunt this list ever so carelessly just to show off something or whatever. That is wrong. Just pls, stop doing that. I take personally offene of just screwing around with raw made up data that may even hurt IR wannabe applicants in the future if you continue like this.</p>
<p>The data is FAR superior to the Peer Assessment data in USNWR, where a much smaller number/percentage of faculty voice their opinions on entire colleges and universities where they may not know a single faculty member, and nothing about the departments either in their own specialty, no less those outside. In this study, faculty were asked about UNDERGRADUATE departments in their area of specialty (and nothing else), something they "might" (note quotation marks) know something about.</p>
<p>Phead138 -
Dang, I just tried to post links to the courses for each of the first eight schools you listed above as not having majors or current courses of undergraduate study. But, I timed out and lost them all and don't have the heart to do this all over again. For those interested, just go to the "Academics" link on the websites of the actual schools. In some cases you have to look under subfields of larger majors (in the case of Yale it was right there, in so many words). In the case of those first 8 schools, not only do they have dedicated international relations programs, they have institutes through which forums and great speakers and excellent internships and research opportunities are offered. In some cases, like Columbia 5 year program, you aren't able to enter the program until a Junior and then by admission. </p>
<p>Piece of general advice - College Board's list of majors apparently skims for hits against certain words and clearly does not delve too deeply. If you rely soley on it, you are not always going to be getting an accurate picture. In the process of investigating schools, make sure to look at the courses offered on the actual websites. This applies to any field of study.</p>
<p>PS - Phead you seem especially conversant about this area so I don't want to offend you with something you already know - at first I thought you honestly were not aware of the programs at these schools - but on a re-read, I think it is the case that you view them as less comprehensive. Readers interested in the field should research for themselves and make their own judgments.</p>
<p>If your ultimate goal is to get into law school you are better off getting into a school where you can maintain the highest GPA and selecting a relatively easy major to help your GPA.</p>