Hey everybody! Over the last few months I’ve been narrowing down my college list, but I’ve been having lots of trouble. Specifically, I’m trying to find schools that have good IR/PoliSci programs and would give enough merit aid to make the cost around or lower than $35,000 yearly (my parents can’t afford their efc). Any help is greatly appreciated!
My School: Extremely competitive public high school in NYC. Ranked in top 50 nationally, and top 5 in state.
Academics:
GPA (on a 100 scale): W: 103.89 UW:??
Context: My school won’t tell us our unweighted GPA, but the lowest grade I’ve ever received was a 92 in one semester of Geometry Freshman Year. After freshman year we switched to letter grades and the lowest I’ve got was an A.
Class Rank: N/A
Honors Classes (all classes at school are honors): Geometry H, English 9 H, Chemistry H, Russian 1 H, Algebra 2 H, English 10 H, Physics H, Advanced Russian 2 H, PreCalculus 11 H
AP Classes: World History (5), US History (5), English Lang (5), Bio (5)
Dual Enrollment Classes: Russian 2 (with SUNY Albany)
Senior Schedule: AP Psychology, AP English Lit, AP US Gov, AP Calc BC, Russian for Business H
Scores:
SAT: 1550, 20 on Essay
ACT: N/A
Subject Tests: US History (800), World History (790), Math 2 (760)
EC’s:
Founder and President of a TEDx club. Hosted school’s first ever TEDx talk focused on Mental Health and Wellness (2ish hours weekly)
Manager of Stage Crew for school productions. Participated in every show since freshman year. Became Junior Manager of Spring Musical my Junior Year. Currently manager of Fall Musical, will be manager of Spring Musical (10 hours weekly, over 650 hours total)
Event Coordinator for Freshman Outreach program, serving about 350 students yearly
Head Bailiff for Mock Trial (small, non competitive)
Russian Olympiada (came in second regionally in a Russian speaking contest 2 years in a row. Currently a semifinalist to represent America at the International competition in Moscow)
National medalist for Russian writing contest (2x bronze, 1x silver)
Model UN (not heavily involved, normal club member)
Key Club (not heavily involved)
Volunteer at a rec center for special needs teens (every weekend from October to May, 5 hrs a weekend)
Summer Camp Counselor (360 hours a summer for 3 summers)
What I’d Like in a College: Small to Medium size (2,500 to 18,000 students but I’d make exceptions), in or near a city, on the East Coast, about 35,000 a year or less with merit aid, International Relations/PoliSci/Economics Major (if not an IR major, at least a concentration/coursework in the area), good Study Abroad program, good with internships. (If it helps, I loved Northeastern but didn’t like Boston University)
I’m really looking for affordable schools, and any help is greatly appreciated! Sorry for the long post, but thank you all so much!!
GW is not the most generous with merit: ~30 students/pa get significant (avg $40K) merit aid @GW; on a COA of ~$75K that squeaks in to the $35K. AU caps merit at $22K (COA= ~$65K). URichmond has ~20 full tuition Richmond scholars, plus Oliver Hill (50% tuition) and Presidential (1/3rd tuition) scholars; last year 86 1st years got an average of $34K (COA= ~$70K).
You could also look further afield. For example, IR at Durham or Exeter in the UK is a 3 year BA. COA would be more like £40k/pa (currently ~$50K), but for only 3 years so not wildly different total cost of degree. Leiden and Gronigen in the Netherlands both have good 3 year IR degrees taught in English, and they are ~€12K/pa (~$13K). There are significant differences in the experience, but it is another path that might be interesting to somebody considering IR.
Just to expand on @merc81 comment, URichmond give 25 full COA scholarships. They give another 75 1/3 tuition. At American and GW most of what I have heard for “normal” merit awards top out around 30k. At GW that would still put your COA at 45k+. There may be some higher awards possible. It is is good idea to look at some of the accepted student threads on CC to see award amounts. It is fine to apply to the schools. Just make sure that you are prepared for an acceptance with an unaffordable COA. If you are willing to expand your search to the Midwest, I think some interesting options open up at that price point (e.g. Beloit).
@scottt23
I agree with Hamurtle. You have very strong stats and is a good candidate for Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, whose generous need-base financial aid might make them affordable for you and your family. For example, the average grant at Princeton for families with gross income of $140,000 to $160,000 is $50,000, rendering the applicant’s cost of attendance to about $20,000 (the estimate yearly cost at Princeton is $70,000). https://admission.princeton.edu/cost-aid/how-princetons-aid-program-works
Your accomplishments in Russian are not commonplace, perhaps emphasize these to your advantage when applying to colleges. HYPS all have Slavic language departments. Of course, apply to several schools to ensure an acceptance or two, but do aim high and good luck.
@tgl2023, @Hamurtle: the OP’s family have done their homework, and- for whatever reason- their EFC is not affordable. Even the super generous aid of HYP doesn’t work for everybody.
The OP is asking for suggestions on strong IR college options with good merit opportunities that will keep costs down to $35K/pa.
In addition to looking for merit scholarships, you might want to consider public universities with affordable sticker prices. Many state flagships have OOS prices that, after deducting “self help”, might be close to your target.
For example, Ohio State was #19 for IR programs in Foreign Policy magazine’s 2018 “Ivory Tower” ranking (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_the_Ivory_Tower). Its OOS sticker price, per Kiplinger’s, is about $44K. So you’d need $9K from some combination of “self help” and merit money. Seems doable (and maybe more likely than getting ~$35K in merit money from a place like GW or a fantastic n-b aid package from Princeton).
UPittsburgh also seems to have decent IR programs and its OOS sticker is a little lower.
Yet, the EFC for HYPS is less than $35K/pa for families with gross income around $160,000, which makes them affordable by OP’s specification of ‘[around] $35K’. The OP has very strong stats and should explore all avenues, be they merit or FA.
Yes, but you chose the income for this example. The OP’s circumstances could be quite different. In any case, there’s nothing unique about the group of schools you listed with respect to need-based financial assistance.
Hello again and thank you all for your suggestions! @Hamurtle@tgl2023 To clear up the income situation, my parents make in the 175-200k range, but their gross income is above 200k. I’ve run the net prices for every Ivy, and other than Princeton, none would really be affordable for my family. My parents have said they could make it work, but I wouldn’t want them/myself to have to go into massive debt for my education.
^which is truly unfortunate that a student with excellent grades is worried that school is unaffordable. And doesn’t want to burden his parents even though they could make the financials work. Hope the OP gets into his schools of choice.
What are your in-state safeties?
I would also suggest Case Western, even though they are more of a pre-med school. Pretty generous with merit.
@merc81 HYPS are different in their need-based financial assistance, in that they provide substantial aid to families in the mid-range income; this statement is based on our family’s experience and not anecdotal. Last year, we used Princeton’s EFC and received an (discouraging) estimate of $38.5k, which would be a stretch for us. My son went ahead and applied as he saw this as an once-in-a-lifetime experience and wanted “to see what it is like”; he was accepted at Princeton and our family contribution is $30k (lower than the $38.5k from the calculator), just manageable for us. Son also got in at 3 other Ivies (not Harvard nor Yale) and others, but aids from each of them would require a family contribution of about $45k to $50k. Looking back, the only schools that we can afford turned out to be our state flagship and Princeton, this result was not what I expected at the onset of the application journey. As an aside, in addition to FAFSA, Princeton uses its own FA form, on which one can further explain one’s financial circumstance, if desired and needed.
Hindsight is golden, but I think an outcome like this would have been predictable (more or less). Applying to a few Ivies (/peers) and a couple of state schools is a simple strategy that can work for many well-qualified, upper middle income applicants.
One factor that is easily overlooked is “self help”, which (in a scenario like the one directly above) could account for about 20% of net costs.