<p>You need to be realistic about the loan situation. The rule of thumb I hear most often these days is not to take out more in student loans that you would make in salary the first year out of college. So you need to take a look at Poli Sci/IR jobs and think about this.</p>
<p>You need to find an EFC calculator and run the numbers in it. “Qualify for government aid” does NOT mean someone else is going to cover all of your tuition. And schools that “meet all your need” often have (1) an unrealistic picture of how much your family will be able to pay (it is THEIR definition of your need, not your definition!), and (2) it can include a lot more in loans than you realistically should take out.</p>
<p>One thing to know about government jobs is that the payscale is often tied to education levels. You may need additional education (graduate school or law school) to move up that payscale. You don’t want to come out of your undergraduate program with so much debt that you can’t afford to consider graduate school.</p>
<p>Go ahead and apply to some top 50 schools. But also find some in-state (or state with reciprocity schools) that are more affordable, and maybe a couple of private schools that give good merit aid where you are in the top 25% of their statistics pool. If you get your SAT score up, you might find some of those private schools in the 50-ish ranking range. You want to have some choices that are affordable; going deeply into debt for an undergraduate degree in the social sciences just isn’t a smart move.</p>