<p>I'm an IB Diploma student from Canada and based on my information below, can you find me some match and safety schools?</p>
<p>7 in Sl chem
7 in SL physics
Predicted 6+ in SL French
Predicted 6 in HL English
Predicted 7 in HL Econ
Predicted 6 in HL Math</p>
<p>3.8/4 unweighted GPA (including non IB marks in grade 9 and 10)
2200 SAT; 740 Chemistry; 740 Math 2 (retaking in nov)
Majors: International relations, policy making, political science, OR economics, OR chemistry.
Good essay
Good recommendations from HL English and HL Econ teachers
ECs: Lots of volunteer/community hours
Badminton all through HS; won grade 1st regionals in gr 9, top 3 regionals gr 10, 2nd place regionals in gr 11
Executive in DECA: top 10 provincials (9), 4th internationals (10), top 10 provincials (11), 2nd in regionals (11)
President of French Club (2 years), president of social justice action committee (2 years)
I'm also in band and math club (Top 10 Euclid Score provincial) </p>
<p>IB has TOK, EE and CAS (all of which I've done very well on)</p>
<p>I'm hoping for schools on either coasts (I like east > west)</p>
<p>Can you pay full tuition? Or are you looking for financial aid? Dickinson might be a good safety for you. They are strong in all the areas you are interested in, and give merit aid (and I think they give FA to internationals, but can’t get at the web site right now to check).</p>
<p>^You said matches and safeties, so I listed mostly matches for your stats.
There aren’t really good safety schools for students interested in IR, and all semi decent schools have poli-sci…
All the matches/reaches above are great for International relations.
I agree that the last 4 are reaches for everyone, but you’ve got 6s and 7s in IB, top SAT scores, and okay EC’s but you’re international so admission officers will know you didnt have as many opportunities as American applicants had. Are these 4 reaches? Sure. But you’re “within range” (35 IB is considered the benchmark for “great”, and 38+ is amazing - for perspective: 24 is “okay”, and 30 is very good.)</p>
<p>So they aren’t what the OP is asking for – they seem to already have reaches identified, and need matches and safeties. Why muddy the water with reaches at all? And why would you say there are no good safety schools for IR? That is arrogant baloney, IMHO.</p>
<p>OP, all 3 of the match/safeties (GW, American, and Tufts) should be strong in all your areas of interest, except not certain about chemistry. They surely offer the major, I am just not someone who knows much about that major.</p>
<p>Sorry Intparent: I don’t subscribe to the “prestige racket”, but for IR the college name does matter - in part because if one majors in IR to work in IR, one needs to major from a college that’s known internationally (AU, Georgetown…) or has ties to international institutions (like Occidental and its semester at the UN). It’s one of the few majors where it does matter. That’s why there can’t be a safety school for IR.</p>
<p>Sorry if I muddied the waters. It’s a problem when a student has such high stats (and such high predicted IB scores): matches are also reaches due to the level of selectivity that match their stats. </p>
<p>Safeties and matches for poli-sci: any college located in a State Capital. There isn’t a decent liberal arts college that doesn’t have an equally decent poli sci dept. Depending on what you want to study (more qualitative or more quantitative, for example) you may want to look at required courses for the majors, research specialty for the professors, courses offered.</p>
<p>For chemistry: Holy Cross , Grinnell, Bucknell, Dickinson, Occidental, St Olaf, Centre, one of the women’s colleges; for matches, Wabash (men only) or a lower ranked women’s college , Allegheny, Wooster, Juniata, Albion, Hiram, Kalamazoo for safeties.</p>
<p>So Occidental might be a safety/low match for this student, and has a semester at the UN as you mentioned. However, other colleges have a semester in DC that can be leveraged into an IR-type position; Dickinson would be an example. One of my kids spent a semester at the US Department of State through that program from Dickinson.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much! It’s true that I’m looking for low matches and safeties and I think that I have my reaches set on UPenn (ED), Brown, Yale, Williams, Amherst</p>
<p>My non-reaches (but not confident they’re safeties):</p>
<p>In fact, my list of schools is very long and I’m having trouble narrowing it down. So, intparent, what safety schools, outside of the already mentioned list, would you suggest?</p>
<p>and MYOS1634, thank you for you insight! I didn’t think that my IB marks were very high </p>
<p>My ECs also include volunteering for my region’s family literacy night; weekly sessions to promote literacy for young families, for my french club, I’m also organizing each meeting, giving fun interactive classes to younger students. </p>
<p>as well, could anyone suggest schools with decent policy making and poli-sci? matches + safeties please!</p>
<p>Thanks for the chemistry list! I’ll definitely look into that!</p>
<p>As well, for IR:
Dickinson: DC opportunity
Occidental: UN opportunity</p>
<p>Where else can I get these off campus opportunities?</p>
<p>And with all this wonderful information, I feel a little overwhelmed. For my ED at UPenn, what major should I be applying for? </p>
<p>I’d like to apply to IR for some schools and poli-sci for others, based on my list, could you give me an inclination? which schools should be IR and which ones poli-sci, or other better majors that are in the liberal arts area of studies?</p>
<p>My Current List (it’s too long and too many reaches/high match):</p>
<p>Amherst
Brown
Carnegie Mellon
Columbia
Dartmouth
Duke
NYU
Tufts
UPenn (ED)
Vanderbilt
Wellesley
Williams
Yale</p>
<p>*Yea I have an inclination to the east coast as well :)</p>
<p>-Advice on colleges to add/remove?</p>
<p>Once again, I never thought I’d get so much valuable and wonderful help for y’all (this being my first post)! Thank you thank you thank you!</p>
<p>Many liberal arts colleges have the DC semester. You need to look at what it includes (classes? internships?)
Type in “domestic off campus programs” on each college’s website to see what they offer.
I don’t think there are many UN semesters though. Occidental is the most famous for this.</p>
<p>From your list, I’d keep first of all the schools that good both for chem and IR - so:
Brown, Columbia, Duke, Tufts, UPenn, Wellesley, Williams, Yale.</p>
<p>That’s all crapshoots though, so you need 2 real safeties and 2 “matches” (well, schools that are not as highly ranked as the above).</p>
<p>^ The program at Oxy isn’t guaranteed to anyone. It is competitive and only so many get chosen. As others have said, lots of schools give an international semester, or D.C. semester, or summer.</p>
quite high reaches!! </p>
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