Safety Schools for Political Science

Hillsdale would be a good choice, assuming that the OP is solidly conservative/Republican. Hillsdale does offer a “few full-tuition awards given each year.”

GWU and American are the obvious alternatives for the much more difficult Georgetown. American U’s scholarships top out at 22K. GWU seems to have some full-tuition scholarships. But I would imagine that these are incredibly competitive.

There’s also Willamette U in Salem, OR. It is literally across the street from the capital building, and local/state politicians regularly dine on campus. Willamette poli sci students (unsurprisingly, poli sci is one of the top areas of study) get to regularly intern at the state capital. The only concern? I have trouble picturing a student interested in Hillsdale being happy at the much more progressive Willamette. It’s possible, of course.

I’m not going to play the “what is a safety” game. The OP asked for schools where he’d be 70% likely to be admitted, and though he should of course have some Cali schools that he knows he can afford, he won’t know finances elsewhere until he applies and receives a FA award. The OP should remember that he’ll receive his largest merit awards from schools where he is a serious cut above the typical admitted student. The OP’s basic stats (these don’t tell the full story, I know) are so strong that he might be competitive for large merit scholarships at mid-range LACs (Hillsdale, Willamette, Lewis & Clark–and note that I mean “mid-range” in terms of selectivity, not academics).

Finally, OP, political science is pretty ubiquitous (like history and English), and though some schools have well-known poli-sci emphases, you can still receive a solid poli-sci background at lots of schools.

Is it the particularly conservative environment that appeals to you at Hillsdale, or the DEA of studying the Constitution?
In the meanwhile, just in case
Demonstrate interest (request info form, click on links sent, etc) at Dickinson, Willamette, Denison, Macalester, Urichmond. Once we know more about your preferences we can suggest more or cut on that.
AU has a Dec 1 deadline for Douglass Scholars and honors.

Honestly, if I were a Questbridge applicant who did not get selected as a finalist, I would find this thread quite infuriating. You were fortunate enough to be accepted as a finalist (where many others were disappointed), and had the opportunity to rank twelve schools for the match process… and yet you only ranked five (and there are five Ivy League schools on the list - coincidence?)

And now, when tippy-top-tier gov/econ/politics schools on the QB list, like Claremont McKenna, are mentioned, it’s evident that you didn’t even take the time to research the schools you hadn’t heard of, when you could have ranked seven more schools for a chance at a more-than-full ride. How could you possibly have known that you should pass up ranking those other 35 schools, without doing your due diligence and learning about them? I know it’s water under the bridge at this point, but you failed to take full advantage of an amazing opportunity. Far too many students rank only the most “famous” schools on the QB list… and therefore, the odds of getting matched at those schools are very, very low. Maybe you’ll get lucky. But honestly, for any Questbridge school to be mentioned and for you to respond that you know nothing about it… why not? There aren’t that many of them; and you’re online, so you have all the information in the world at your fingertips. Passing up the chance to use those additional seven slots should have been a conscious and well-researched decision, because no financial aid package you receive outside of Questbridge will be as generous as a Questbridge Match scholarship.

Luckily you can still apply to the other QB schools with the Questbridge application, which will give you somewhat of an admissions advantage; but if accepted, you won’t get the superlative financial package that you would have gotten by matching.

Likewise, you seem to have only the vaguest possible impressions of the UC campuses beyond Berkeley and UCLA. There aren’t so many of them that you should be making important decisions based on what you’ve heard from peers who barely know more than you do. You should have read about the poli sci departments at every UC by now, and researched their relative selectivity and reputations for yourself. All of this information is readily available.

I know I’m being a little hard on you, as you’re likely in a situation where you’re not getting much help with this process. But if you’re going to have a career in political science, rigorous research skills will need to be a big part of it. It’s time to start building the ability to seek out information, filter it for relevance and credibility, and use it to make sound decisions. Knowing when to ask for input is important too, and you’ve put that skill to good use here; I just wish you’d asked us for input before you submitted your Questbridge application.

Don’t make the mistake with the UC app that you made with the Questbridge app, and apply only to Berkeley and UCLA. You get four free applications with the fee waiver; don’t even consider applying to fewer than four campuses. (As I said before, I strongly suggest Davis as the third. Choose any campus but Merced as the fourth- with your stats, you’ll get in there automatically if you’re shut out of the others.) You also get four free applications with the CSU fee waiver - use those too. What’s the harm? If you search “Prepscholar The Ultimate Guide to Cal State Schools: How to Pick” you’ll find a decent summary of stats and rankings. (I’d post the link but CC blocks links from competing sites.)

Once you’re done with your CA public apps, then you can start researching full-need-met private universities where you may want to apply EDII or RD. Many good suggestions have been made here. It may be difficult to determine whether there are any EDII schools that are worth pre-empting your other pending applications with a binding app for… but if there’s a full-need-met school that would be more affordable than a UC (run the NPC’s!), that’s a good fit for you, and that would give you a big advantage for applying ED, it’s worth considering. (CMC, U of Richmond, and Washington & Lee stand out to me as possibilities, given what you appear to be looking for. All strongly favor ED applicants.)

Good luck finishing up the UC/CSU apps, and I hope you beat the odds at one of your five ranked Questbridge schools. You’ve obviously worked really hard to have the record that you have; now’s the time to work smart so that you’re rewarded for your hard work with a college experience that’s both excellent and affordable.

Grove City in PA.

Hillsdale is primarily known for being arch conservative but is one of the few that doesn’t require students to be conservative Christians, nor does t have a creed for students to sign.
Grove City is different - there’s required Chapel and Bible study.
Op needs to tell us whether they’re attracted to Hillsdale for its conservatism (hence suggestions along the line of W&L, CMC, or even Grove City) or for an opportunity to study the Constitution… Or just wasn’t aware of Hillsdale’s specific “fit”.

I don’t see Hillsdale as a financial safety since they do not accept any federal student loans or grants.

OP, have you run their “early estimator” for cost of attendance ?
https://www.hillsdale.edu/admissions-aid/financial-aid/

Check out Poly Sci at Clark University, Worcester MA. It might be a quality safety for you. See https://www.clarku.edu/academics/undergraduate/programs/majors-minors/political-science/

Regarding your comments in #42, @aquapt, I think it was beneficial to post them for all those who might read this thread. QuestBridge Finalists can rank schools from a group of 40, all excellent, colleges. I can’t think of a reason why they shouldn’t all be researched. In doing so, the OP would have found a school that meets all of his criteria — top-notch for political science, in a major metropolitan area, not in California — in Macalester that reasonably could have been ranked in the top three or so. Whether it made his final group or not, the OP would also have learned, as you observed, that Claremont McKenna offers one of the top programs for the study of government in his home state, as well as in the nation. Some (QB) Ivies fit all the OP’s criteria, notably Columbia and Yale, but beyond recognizing these schools the OP would have benefited from thorough research into all the Partners.

@aquapt and everyone,
Thank you so much for your advice and criticism, I have been busy submitting my UC Application, and will submit my CSUs today.

I understand what you mean when I could have “wasted” the extra 7 slots.

However, my thought process went like this:
The Questbridge NCM is a BINDING process. Yes, I do realize there are so many top tier LACs that will cater towards my interests and passion. However, me knowing that there are certain schools I truly would attend (Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, + I originally ranked 2 more, but did not have time to complete their supplements, sadly) that are are high reaches. I realize that if I rank the many, many other schools I would like to attend, some of which that have been mentioned, there is a greater chance that I would be matched, and binded to attend those schools.

I honestly do realize this is in a way, conceited. Coming from a low-income background, I understand that college is a privilege and being able to pay for it is a blessing.

However, me being the ambitious student that I am, me knowing that MAYBE, I had a chance to attend a school I truly wanted to attend with generous financial aid, over being binded to attend a LAC, which is still great, over a school I’ve visited and pictured myself truly enjoying, would be in a way, regretful. I’d keep thinking to myself, what if I had a chance at the regular decision round, what if things could’ve been slightly different?

Nevertheless, I do, like you said, admit and regret not researching every QB parter and UCs. Maybe if I had done a little more research, I would’ve been able to develop emotions for another school that I was truly wanted to attend. But now, since this is the regular decision round, I will take all the advice from this thread, and do research on all the schools and QB partners. And I did take your advice and applied to Davis, LA, Berkeley, and SB.

Just submitted my CSUs (Sacramento, San Jose, SLO, Long Beach).

Now, I believe my California Public safeties are: my 4 CSUs, UC Davis, and maybe UCSB?

Look into Lafayette. Probably not a true safety for you (it’s getting very popular) but you’d probably be a strong contender. Toured the school this fall and our guide was a poli-sci (pre-law) major who raved about her experience and the advising/internship opportunities she had. Beautiful campus, BTW.

Best of luck with Match decisions - you do have some great qualifications - hope one of your ranked schools makes an offer!

If you’d like to say, did you match, @boichoi?

@merc81 no, sadly I did not:( I will be proceeding into the regular decision phase.

I’m sorry to hear that. You’re still in a good stage, however! You have 40 QuestBridge partners, plus other colleges, that you can continue to research and explore!

I’m sorry :frowning: but… It’s not over :slight_smile:
Time to start exploring all the partner colleges.
Also, some colleges allow you to choose one for Ed as long as your choice is made within days of the questbridge decision (like, 1 or 2 or 3) look into it quickly!

GW and American are good options. However, they will sometimes reject overqualified applicants so make sure to show interest!