Reverse Chance Me/Suggest Schools

College Search & Selection
1

Hi! I saw someone else doing this and I thought it was an amazing idea since i’m a high school junior seeking to expand my college list. i’d love it if you could suggest reaches, targets, and/or safeties based on my info below!

what i’m looking for:
*my ideal school would be somewhere with a good amount of prestige (name is recognizable) but with also a good social scene and camaraderie
*although schools in the northeast are ideal, i’m also open to other areas such as cali as long as there is close proximity to a city
*like above, although it doesn’t necessarily have to be in a city i’d like it to be near one or at least in a college town
*schools I will probably apply to for reference:
syracuse, nyu, brown, uc schools, boston u
*major: i’m thinking either poli sci, international relations, or math (odd mix i know)

personal info:

*latina immigrant (brazil)
*home language is Portuguese
*my parents went to college outside the US
*I will not be asking for financial aid, merit aid would be ideal but not necessary

my stats/education:

  • 3.92 UW GPA, 4.25 W
  • no class ranking is done at my school
  • attending a specialized high school in nyc
    noteworthy classes:
    *Freshman: AP World and AP Euro and PLTW design
    *Soph: APUSH and APCSP
    *JR year: AP lang, AP human geo, AP calc bc, AP spanish culture, graph theory and number theory, math research
  • SR year: i’m planning to take AP stats, AP macro, AP spanish lit, and either AP gov or AP pysch, multivariable calc, linear algebra
  • haven’t taken SAT yet because they keep cancelling it in nyc, practice tests range from 1480-1510 and am hoping that i will have a 1520/1530 superscore by my third SAT. If I have below a 1500 superscore I think I will apply test optional to reaches.

extracurriculars:

*Model UN, all four years (vice president right now, very likely I will be president next year) there’s about 200 members. I have won various awards including some international ones.
*Student Government, Student Assembly, and Student Leadership for all 4 years (I am the press secretary for my student government and will be running for class president senior year.)
*Animal Rights Club (President and Founder)
Have led a lot of school wide initiatives and a city wide protest is in the works for May, expecting around 200+ people
*Animal Rights Coalition Non Profit
Nationwide coalition of animal rights club, offering resources, a curriculum, and coalition wide campaigns, website will be out next week and we already have some clubs signed up!
*Congressional Campaign Research Intern and Phonebanker (60 hours)
*City Council Campaign Intern
*Marketing and Communications Intern at a multi-million dollar company (doesn’t really fit the spike i know, but i am interested in corporate law so maybe i can incorporate it?)
*Best Friends Animal Shelter Action Leader and volunteer
*IDAUSA volunteer
*Interning at DA’s office (this summer)

thank u for the help! greatly appreciated :slight_smile:

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Congratulations - you’ve done well.

Now, regarding possible schools, do you have a safety, both academic and financial, that you would be absolutely happy attending if you were not accepted anywhere else, or could not afford anywhere else?

OK, now

If Poli sci and International Relations are your intended majors:

To begin with:

Reach - Georgetown

Match - George Washington, and

Safety/low match - American

Now that we’ve got those out of the way, other schools (from the Foreign Policy Magazine - The Best International Relations Schools in the World – Foreign Policy) and a couple more. Most are reaches, but here are some that look like they meet your requirements:

Reaches: UChicago, Columbia, Berkeley, Northwestern

Matches: UCSD, (maybe safety?), William and Mary (perhaps high match)

Safety: Ohio State, UC Davis, Wisconsin

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American apparently does not like being used as a “safety” behind Georgetown and George Washington. It considers “level of interest” to be “very important”. An “overqualified” applicant needs to convince American that American is a top choice, not a “backup”.

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That’s all true, and when a student applies, they should keep that in mind.

It is also a college which is regarded as one of the very top in the field, so American is considered a better choice than, say, Berkeley, and I would recommend that a student who is accepted to both attend American over Berkeley (or Tufts, W&M, Northwestern, UCLA, UMichigan, or OSU). The only reason that a student should ever choose any of those over American is if they aren’t certain that they want to major in Political Science or International Relations, AND if these colleges are better at the alternative majors, AND/OR a student is a California, Michigan, Virginia, or Ohio resident (and the other choice is in-state).