S21 - ACT improved so now reworking PolSci/IR/Govt list of schools

College Search & Selection
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S21 – junior (@ a public High School and in the AICE program)
3.89 UW/4.7 W
ACT 35 (11 on essay)
SSAT WH 790 (will take SSAT AmH and EngLit in June 2020)
AP European His 5
AP WH 4
Class rank: currently top 10%

4 years of high school level Spanish (8th grade was a high school class)

Hispanic (but raised in non-Hispanic family)

EC’s – JROTC – 3 years (leadership in all years, and good shot at CO next year)
NHS – officer this year, and likely higher/st officer next year
200+ Volunteer hours to date (mainly via JROTC community events)
Boys State June 2020

Interests: Political Science, History, Govt, reading “Foreign Affairs”, Nat’l Geo History edition magazine, Smithsonian, classic books and writers, and writing. Likes to “show his chops” via written word.

Bookstores and libraries are his top “must see’s” in a new city. No exaggeration.
(He was thrilled to discover the Strand bookstore in NYC ‘s third (?) floor that houses some first editions, yet then he was disappointed when we wouldn’t buy him one!)

He’s old school with books (hates his kindle and actually likes to type – yes, typewriter) papers sometimes b/c he likes the rhythm/sound of the keys striking the paper. (He also likes record player and vinyls.)
Strengths: preparing and delivering class presentations in any subject
Active, involved student, but not attention-seeking. Hates that in others, too.

Participated in debate for couple years in MS but went against private high schoolers and held his own.
JROTC replaced debate when he started high school.
(Service academies were a goal a couple years back but allergies rule them out.)

3 Duke Tip Summers @ Davidson, Duke and Rice btw 8th-10th grades. Loved all of them and took debate, ethics, and global perspective courses respectively at them.

Wants to travel abroad, and has read up more (thanks to posters’ input here in an earlier post of mine last fall), about Foreign Service officers, etc. Wants to be involved in govt in some way. Wants internships. Loved visiting GWU and how the location was alive with activity and opportunities.

Geography limitations – probably no further West than Texas, and preferably with easy/moderate air travel to/from Florida. Does NOT want to stay in Florida.

Does NOT care about sports at all (to watch or to participate). He likes to have passionate, meaningful conversations with others. Throw in a variety of restaurants and foods in which to hold these discussions and he’d be in heaven.

He’s looked at some schools he really liked (Wake Forest and GW in addition to the Duke Tip ones) and we plan to visit W&M soon. He has strong interest in St. Andrew’s (hence the visit to W&M) and that is still on his list (for IR). But now with his ACT improved since last year (32 to 35) we are just reworking the list of schools to consider. Schools that I thought he didn’t like turns out he “thought I couldn’t get into them so I wasn’t going to apply to them, but maybe now I have a shot?”

And that’s where I am hoping to receive some more helpful considerations from others.
Where should we be looking? Still rule out Ivies since he has no hooks? Or, maybe apply to one as a high reach, but focus on others that are less competitive?

We are full-pay. We really want to find an excellent fitting school(s) that meets as many needs/wants as possible.
Thanks in advance for your continued/updated feedback for S!

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I would not rule out Ivies. They are a reach for everyone but unhooked kids get in every year. An Hispanic boy who likes typewriters, vinyl, and bookstores? That’ll really interest some admissions folks. Princeton is what came to mind based on the Woodrow Wilson school and your description of your son. But Harvard, Brown, Columbia might fit as well. So I’d look at them but view them as long shots. Essays and letters will matter a lot. You might consider Georgetown, again just based on the interest in foreign service. I would have suggested Duke also if not already on your list. Don’t overlook some of the strong state flagships as you are looking for matches and safeties—UNC honors college for example.

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Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service,

Tufts Fletcher School of Diplomacy,

Johns Hopkins,

and the combined College of William & Mary / St. Andrew’s in Scotland dual degree program.

Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School is worth a try as well.

P.S. Congratulations to your son for earning a 35 on the ACT.

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Sounds similar my DS search this last year. He had our state flagship as a good safety (tOSU). The plan was to apply to the DC schools (GTown, GWU and American). He got accepted to GTown EA. He then dropped GWU and American. He added UChicago( likely letter) and Princeton (waiting). If you have a good safety and use EA effectively he can modify the list as decisions start rolling in. Since he was a NMSF (and NHRP), he also used Fordham as a contrast tOSU with their merit awards.

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Thank you, @politeperson. Am bookmarking Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton. . I see that each student is assigned a “faculty course advisor appropriate to their policy area of interest and program of study.” Will add those other schools to look more closely at, too.

UNC-CH you mentioned, and …maybe UVA (?) and/or Michigan to consider?

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Thank you, Publisher. Specific programs are helpful and obviously Princeton is one that I need to look at…and I will add the others to the list as well and start organizing these other additions (Tufts and Hopkins).

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Yes, UVA would be a good one also.

Michigan and a Wisconsin have very good political science departments, it’s just a question of how far you want to go and how large you want to make the list.

I agree with those publisher listed also.

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@Eeyore123 - So your DS is a senior right now? And he’s accepted to GT and likely Chicago and waiting on Princeton? Nice! How many schools did he apply overall, if you don’t mind me asking? I’d like to keep the list manageable so I’m curious of what others are considering as manageable. Congrats to him on NMSF and NHRP.

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I appreciate you mentioning keeping an eye on the list size. We had just narrowed down S21’s list to about 6-7 Monday night (yesterday)! But then scores came in this morning and it was like, “Shoot. That’s great, but we need to tweak this now b/c maybe you have a shot at some others after all.”

So yes, maybe UVA but not Michigan we’ll add.

Thank you for taking the time to share your insights. Much appreciated.

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@123Mom123 Yes, he is a senior. He actually applied to 8 schools. Alabama (rolling), tOSU (EA), Fordham (EA), GTown (EA), Grinnell (Dec 1 RD), USC (Dec 1 RD), UChicago (RD), Princeton (RD). He was doing a fair amount of merit chasing. The list was very fluid and changed a lot especially after he got some EA acceptances. That is when UChicago and Princeton were added. Of the 8 schools that he applied, he only visited 2 of them. There was likely 30 schools that at least got some level of serious consideration throughout the process.

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@Eeyore123 “Fluid” list. I like that approach. Thank you for sharing his list of schools and how it unfolded.

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Many get new scores and suddenly want to increase the reach. Be careful that you’re looking at more factors than stats and some personal side interests.

He sounds like an interesting kid, but top tier colleges have their own list of wants, including some specific other characteristics. You have to pick up a sense of what those are. And as these schools want to see rounding and engagement in various ways with peers, be careful he doesn’t seem too limited in peer interaction, more a solitary sort. (Other than ROTC, you only note Boys State.)

They like kids who show willingness to explore other ECs. It shows them one might try new things, expand, in college.

Top tier will also look at ACT subscores, not simply Composite. His subs have to be strongest in his interest area, no area lower than they expect.

For an interest in poli sci, one great activity is to vol with a local or state rep or for an election campaign. Especially as it’s election season now. A lot of kids don’t, so this would be noticed. In fact, it can raise the question, why not.

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He doesn’t want to go farther west than Texas but wants to go abroad and to St. Andrews? Scotland is harder to get to from Florida than the western US is. U of San Diego has pretty good IR/foreign studies opportunities.

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True. He is a bit solitary to be honest. He is involved in NHS but really mostly JROTC (and a gf). So if that limits some schools, totally okay with that. He is not a Greek system type guy either. A bit of a nerd and that’s okay. Just want him to be where he is comfortable. Ironically, he wanted to continue thespians in high school as he did that prior and was successful at state and regional competitions but again, JROTC became the focus in high school as couldn’t balance both.

His ACT breakdown was Eng 35, Math 35, Reading 36 and Science 34 and Essay (from last year) was 11 out of 12.
He considered helping state rep last year run for reelection but just didn’t feel strongly enough for the guy to do so. (I know, I know.) Just really didn’t like the guy’s positions on current topics (neither did I to be honest) so in good faith, I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to do so. :wink:

Your points are well taken. We will come back to earth and take things slowly and carefully. Thank you. :slight_smile:

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He doesn’t care where he attends as long as he likes the school. So for me (not him) I’m choosing just to limit past Texas. He would truly go anywhere. I’m the one with the issue. I’m totally cool with him going to Scotland, but not CA. Yes, I have some issues clearly. But I am honest. :slight_smile:

(I could blame resulting PTSD: when I was a child, my family and I visited an Aunt who drove us along the CA highway coast in her Jeep Wagoneer at a seemingly fast rate; and recognizing how close to death we could easily be if she veered off every so slightly, and how the guard rails were minimal at best). I will never forget my pounding heart, and desire to never return to CA!

Okay, and yes, there are cliffs in Scotland, I get that, lol. BUT, I would not ever be driving near them…just walking in the town village would be my approach to the area. :slight_smile:

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Since colleges such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Brown mostly appear to fit your son’s (implied) preferences for a largish school in an urban environment, it might be difficult to choose just one college from this sample group.

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@merc81
So do you recommend replying to a couple or a few of them?

Also, GT looks like a good match stats wise…and it’s in DC (a huge plus) but, curious, is it better to try and go to a higher ranked school in political science if one could get accepted?

Thankfully, GT has EA and not ED…but aren’t the odds significantly harder for say, HSPY, Columbia and/or Duke if you don’t apply ED? (like impossible to get in?) (Bc i guess we couldn’t apply ED to a top school if he applied EA to GT.)

This is a hard process!!!

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We used a similar list/culling strategy as @Eeyore123 in terms of judicious use of EA and rolling admissions. We started with a 15-20 school list that looked like they were fits across the reach, match and safety categories. We applied rolling to the honors college for our state flagship as a low match and his first choice reach SCEA. He got into the state honors program pretty early on which eliminated all safeties and many matches. He had apps done or close to completion for 5-6 reaches/high matches as of the SCEA decision date. He had already submitted to another reach school RD because of a fee waiver. The plan was if he were rejected or deferred from his SCEA school, he would submit the remaining apps. He had declined some athletic offers requiring ED commitments, but he would have reinitiated with those coaches. If he got in to the SCEA school, he could call it a day. He was fortunate and called it a day (and saved me a bunch of app and test reporting fees).

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HSPY are all restricted early action schools, so if you chose one of those, you cannot apply early action or decision elsewhere, but you can apply rolling and to state schools where the decision is not binding (and some other exceptions). G’town allows you to apply action early to other schools, but not early decision.

There has been a lot of debate on the EA boost for HSPY. The schools deny it, but the Harvard litigation indicates there is a real boost for H. ED definitely is a boost to some greater or lesser extent by school, but you are stuck. So I would never go ED unless it were an overwhelming first choice and financial aid was not a concern.

Best of luck. I think your son will have many great choices.

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@BKSquared Thank you for sharing your approach. It helps. I appreciate you taking the time to spell it out to me bc I like to think I’m knowledgeable about this process, but I’m really not. I have much to learn.