Hi y’all,
I’m a junior in high school knee deep in looking at colleges. I plan to double major in polisci and stats, and I am wondering if anyone has any school suggestions. I would appreciate any help y’all can give!
A rather large range of colleges have both majors and do not have so many other requirements that it is difficult to fit in both majors.
Others can help you better if you give your academic credentials, price limit, state of residency, and other preferences.
Okay, thanks!
I currently have a 4.1 GPA, and will almost definitely have a GPA at or above 4.0 by the time I submit my applications. I haven’t taken the ACT or SAT yet, but I took a practice ACT and scored above 29 on all sections(without prep, so there is room for improvement), I still need to take a practice SAT. I live in Illinois, but would prefer east coast schools. I would prefer a school with smaller class sizes, so this basically rules out big state schools. As for tuition, I am really only looking at schools that offer merit aid, as well as need based aid. Again, thank you to whoever answers this!
Weighted GPA is meaningless to others due to not knowing the weighting system. Unweighted GPA and types of courses (particularly math and social studies) would help others help you.
That is my unweighted GPA. A+ count as 4.3 points, so once those are factored in, my unweighted GPA is a 4.1.
I’m currently in Trig/precalc, and plan on taking AP Calc AB and AP stats year. I also have taken International Diplomacy, Honors European history, US History, Honors World and plan on taking either AP World or Honors Global next year. Science wise I have taken Physics, Honors Chem, and plan on taking Honors Bio and AP Physics 1 and 2 (it’s a joint course) next year.
Some that come to mind are Dickinson, Gettysburg, Franklin & Marshall, and Lafayette, all in PA. I’m thinking of PoliSci first, and some of these may or may not have applied math (v. math). Some of these can be generous with merit aid, but likely more expensive than an IL public. If any look good to you, you can run the NPC, although it might be best to wait until the summer to do that, after another semester and some test scores and with fresher financial info.
Holy Cross in Worcester, MA is another one. Outstanding for PoliSci and claims to meet full financial need, and also maybe Clark in the same city.
Do some ACT/SAT prep, classes or online. They are different tests. If possible, take each one once. If you seem to click better with one, take that one again, unless you really feel like you nailed it the first time. Keeping working hard; your test scores and spring grades and overall accomplishments will go along way toward making you as strong an applicant as possible at these schools. And enhance your chances of securing sufficient aid. Some things you can’t control. But working hard and doing the best you can are things you can control.
Good luck and Merry Christmas!
At smaller schools, statistics may have fewer offerings, and/or be a part of the math department. You may want to check catalogs and schedules to compare offerings.
For a stretch–, depending on your scores and final GPA–Haverford or Bryn Mawr College. Both have strong math and social sciences. Students can cross register at Swarthmore College but its a bit of a trek to get there. U of Penn is on a train line and also open for limited cross registration in Arts and Sciences for Haverford/Bryn Mawr students.
Haverford and Bryn Mawr have full cross registration and walking distance to each other. .
They are somewhat female centric since Bryn Mawr is 100% women and Haverford more than 50% women.
Also Haverford has an honor code that you would need to be comfortable with. Usually meets need, but not overly generous, as they are very small LACs.
With respect to colleges that would be notably strong in math, you could find a Princeton Review sampling, “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors.” Bowdoin and Hamilton represent undergraduate-focused colleges included that would also be strong for the study of government. You’d have to be interested in these schools’ offerings in statistics and other applied topics in mathematics, though, which would be available through the courses you’d choose, rather than through defined majors.
You might look at the Data Analytics major at Denison, which includes a second academic concentration which can be Poli Sci. https://denison.edu/academics/data-analytics/degree-requirements There should be some good merit aid opportunities there with your anticipated stats.
Thanks everyone so much for your help! I’m definitely going to look into some of the suggested schools. I really appreciate all the time and effort y’all put into helping me.