Allegheny?
Penn State’s honors college, Schreyer? Might sweeten the deal a bit. (Not as a safety, but as something to make Penn State seem less like a place everyone goes. Schreyer ends up with a class of 300 freshmen. It’s selective.)
Thanks so much. I didn’t expect so many great responses! Univ of Denver keeps coming up so that’s definitely one we will look into a little more.
We know that only a couple of schools have merit - but American is one and close to the top of her interest list based on the major. She really liked the International building.
A few people have mentioned GW. I heard it doesn’t feel as much like a campus with no dining hall, so she wasn’t interested, but that’s one I’ll see if she would reconsider.
I agree about maybe not needing to apply to several regular decision if she gets an acceptance EA. That’s our hoped – that one will come through and she can really narrow down the regular decision list to only one or two dream schools, and maybe one that might offer money. I’m very happy to have this safety schools on the ready for her to review. Thank you everyone for your help!
Consider applying to George Mason University’s honors college early action. The college consists of a very diverse community and close to many opportunities in DC. The honors program students get priority registration and their classes have about 20 to 25 students giving you a small college feel. With her stats she has a good chance for their four year full tuition scholarship.
The best chances of admission to the College of William & Mary would be applying ED as the pool of applicants is much smaller. Apply Early Action at UVA.
How much can you pay? George Washington (GW…is that what you meant?) is VERY expensive …like $70,000 a year very expensive.
She should try to visit some of these schools this summer to narrow down her list. I know College of William & Mary schedules interviews over the summer and the registration for that must already be open.
How about University of Vermont? Great location and they give merit $.
Other schools to look at would be McGill in Canada and University of St. Andrews in Scotland where admissions are more quantitive and less holistic. Your daughter’s score would probably guarantee admittance and the price points are cheaper than private and many public American colleges and universities.
@HugoRose Univ of Denver is on my D’s list. It’s a beautiful school. It reminds me of Brown and other east coast schools. My D is also very involved in leadership at school and in the community. Check out their Pioneer Leadership Program. It is very selective but if my D got accepted, I think it would bump Denver up over more selective schools.
^^I’ll give a shout out to DU. It’s International Relations department is very good. It is in a great location in the city but not downtown, yet connected by light rail so a student could do an internship at the state house or with city/county government. There are a lot of ‘Western Leadership’ type conferences held here. DU hosted one of the presidential debates in 2012, and claims two secretaries of state as alums.
DU also has D1 sports and is champion in several smaller sports, so the students feel very involved - lacrosse, hockey, skiing. They have a very good gymnastics program, swim program, and the facilities are nice. The concert hall is wonderful. I live nearby and my kids grew up taking sports camps and doing activities at DU. I even know all the secret parking spots!
She should prepare very hard and take the SAT one more time. Decent chance she can get to 1500. And if she doesn’t she might still gain by superscoring over two sittings of the exams. Also SAT 2’s are important for the more selective colleges.
We will definitely be looking at Denver closer - thank you @Marcie123 and @twoinanddone for the thoughtful advice.
@doschicos it’s funny you mention that - she has looked at some UK schools and one point but eventually decided on staying in the states. I will have her look at McGill - she hadn’t considered that.
@raclut We will definitely check out George Mason based on your recommendation. Great advice - thanks!
And thanks to everyone else I didn’t mention who also offered advice. My goal was to get some new ideas for median and safety schools that we hadn’t considered, and I believe this thread did just that. Have a great night everyone.
Here’s a sort of out of the box possibility. http://spia.uga.edu/degree/ab-mpa-joint-degree/ if she is POSITIVE about her area of interest.
Wow @jonri thank you. That program sounds amazing - I just forwarded it to her.
Here is a joint program between William & Mary and St. Andrews that she might be interested in.
http://www.wm.edu/as/undergraduate/curriculum/special/standrews/index.php
GW used to have very good merit aid (I recieved it). They may still. It is an urban campus but they have done a great job making it feel “campusy” signage and branding. I LOVED my time there. The food plan is very interesting and something that could work only on an urban campus as it includes food trucks, restaurants, coffee shops. You might want to visit to get a real feel for the place.
My daughter’s friend who graduated HS the year before ( 2014) received a full ride to GW - this was merit and not FA. I don’t recall this large amount being listed on the website when my D was initially investigating the school, but I guess it exists if they really want you. The friend did not choose GW- he went to an Ivy.
Have her apply to Schreyer as a SODA /International relations major. Essays will be online in July. Same thing for Temple honors. Do it in September, be done with it. She does not have to love them - but just be sure to have something in her back pocket (general admission) with a potential good surprise in the Spring (honors admission.)
Then she can concentrate on other colleges :-).
UDenver has already been mentioned, as well as GMU honors.
Would she be willing to look at Macalester? While it’s a LAC it’s in a major city, in a great neighborhood, and IR is one of their strong points.
What about Ithaca? Or Goucher (using cross registration with JHU)? Barnard (using cross registration with Columbia)?
She should not just dismiss the instate schools. Even without merit they would be around $30,000, less than half of U Chicago and other privates.
Pitt is in a great city and has good study abroad options. Penn State and Temple offer other environments as well.
I would have her apply to U of South Carolina too. They are supposed to have a great International business program as well.
U Richmond might also be a good choice.
Tulane values interest, but her stats should garner some merit.
Thanks everyone.
More good replies about GW so I’ll make sure she looks at that a little more closely.
@MYOS1634 Macaester is only a little over 2K students, so that’s off the table. Ithaca is one that we will revisit. Thank you for the suggestion.
@mommdc her college counselor mentioned Richmond, maybe we’ll visit on the way to W&L. Thanks for reminding us of that.
At this point I feel good about the list I have collected through all of your assistance and she will have some fresh research to do.
With her stats and a desire for Public Policy/International, I’d suggest taking a look at Ole Miss and doing a double major within Trent Lott and Croft Institutes. She is likely to get a large amount of merit aid, and then you can save what you would have spent undergrad for going to a prestigious grad school. Worth a look.
Thanks @SuburbMom