Please, take mercy on me...

Applying to College
1

<p>I'm new here (really, my account is a day old), so forgive me if I have posted this on the wrong section or if I go about explaining things incorrectly. </p>

<p>I have recently come over several "dilemmas," so bear with me if I wind up talking about one thing on paragraph and something completely different in another.</p>

<p>After years of indecisiveness regarding my future career plans, university choices, and major and minors, I had an epiphany of some sort. I decided that I wanted to take up Diplomacy/Foreign Service Officer (either consular or economic, but my best option would probably be consular) as a career. To do this, I plan to get a major in both International Relations and a minor in either history or a foreign language (most likely either Russian or Italian). I'll get a Masters degree in Political Science, but that's a different affair altogether.</p>

<p>I hear that Princeton, Columbia, and Tufts have pretty good International Relations programs. I'd like to attend these schools, though I'm not sure if my stats are good enough for that. I also plan to apply to UC Berkeley, Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, Boston University, and CSU Northridge. These are the three years I've been in high school in a pretty nutshell:</p>

<p>Freshman year: 4.0 GPA (unweighted), Art Club, participation in the Los Angeles County Office of Education Student Art Exhibit, SRLA (marathon preparation club/program), and participation in the LA Marathon.</p>

<p>Sophomore year: 4.16 GPA (weighted) & 3.98 (unweighted), 2 AP Classes (AP World History and AP Biology. I got a 2 on the AP World and a 5 on the AP Bio), SRLA, and participation in the LA Marathon.</p>

<p>Junior, current year: My GPA is tentative, 2 AP Classes (AP US History and AP Spanish Language), Dance Club, vice-president of International Club, Student Government, Yearbook Committee, and Congressional Awards Program/College Advisory Program.</p>

<p>As you can see, my "resume" is not very varied and/or colorful. My school is very limited on AP courses and space is usually limited (they operate as first come, first serve), so it is not possible to choose a certain amount of AP classes. I wont get into detail about all the pros and cons of my school and classes, it'd be a very long tl;dr story full of borderline whining. I'm still not in my Senior year, so there is time to improve extensively. </p>

<p>Do you think I can get into the above mentioned schools with my stats? I come from a low income family, so do you think they'll let me in on scholarship or help me with financial aid? If not, are there any good scholarships I could apply for?</p>

<p>Gracias, thank you, grazie, and spasibo.</p>

2

<p>For foreign service, you should take a look at Georgetown. It is in Wash D.C., after all-- home of the State Dept. Georgetown has the Walsh School of Foreign Service
[Edmund</a> A. Walsh School of Foreign Service - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_A._Walsh_School_of_Foreign_Service]Edmund”>Walsh School of Foreign Service - Wikipedia)
*
"The School of Foreign Service is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading international affairs schools and is sometimes referred to as the “West Point of the U.S. diplomatic corps”*</p>

3

<p>Don’t get a masters in polysci, come on now. You’re not going to become the consul to any foreign nation unless you’re loaded and have good-'ol American political connections. As far as financial aid, all of those schools have extensive endowments which they will be more than happy to share with you. (Except for Cal Poly and CSU? Idk wt.f those are.)</p>

4

<p>You don’t need the master’s. All you need is a bachelor’s degree and to ace the foreign service exam. My brother was a FSO for years in Jarkarta, Colombo, then Bonn…B.A. in Philosophy.</p>