Hello everyone! I’m trying to decide which school to ED/REA at next year, and these are my top 3 choices.
I know this must seem weird, since they are so incredibly different, but each of them has something I love about them:
I want to study IR/politics/economics, so my original top choice was Georgetown. I would love to be in DC for internships, and I feel like Georgetown would set me up for a successful career given its location and prestige internationally.
However, I toured Williams and found that I massively prefered its campus, student life, and culture overall. Plus, I live in Massachussetts and it would be great to stay close to home/within driving distance.
Furthermore, I realized that my legacy/donor status at Stanford will probably give me the biggest chance at getting in there (over G and W), and it would be really hard for me to turn down Stanford’s weather, campus, and elite reputation.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I honestly don’t care very much about how big/urban the school I go to is, as long as I have good exit opportunities.
You would need to post stats and ECs for ppl to really be able to determine which school is best, but judging from the way you talked about it, you seem to like Williams the most. I toured Williams about a year ago and the connections you get from there seem really good. Also, if anyone sees this please chance me on my thread I posted!
My ACT is a 35, I have a 4 UW / 4.7 W GPA, and I’ve taken classes at a T20 university.
I don’t wanna go to deep into my ECs, but I’ve been very involved in my school and I also founded an NGO and won national awards, and all my ECs fit together quite well.
I don’t know about Georgetown, but I’m pretty sure I have a shot at Williams and Stanford because I have connections at both.
Looking at the stats you’ve posted, it seems you have a shot at all three schools. But considering that you’re aware of what you want to major in at college, I’d recommend basing your decision on job prospects and program quality. In terms of poli-sci/IR, Georgetown is by far the best out of three. Not only is it known for its Public Policy and Foreign Services schools, but its location in DC affords you the opportunity to do internships while attending school.
Have you toured Georgetown? If so, what were your impressions of it?
If you prefer Williams you could see if they have a semester program in DC (my D’s friend who is interested in politics did a semester at American U from a different LAC).
Thanks so much! I haven’t toured Georgetown, but I’ve been on its campus and I really liked it. I agree that it has fabulous programs in the areas im looking to study, but I’m a little concerned about its quality of student life (I’ve read online reviews saying that students are often stressed and unhappy), and I’ve heard that its facilities are siginificantly worse than S and W (probably because of its low endowmen per student). Is this true in your experience? Georgetown has been my dream school for years, so it would be great for me to have these concerns addressed.
If you love Williams I would go for it. It is a unique place and prob the only time in your life you will get to experience that type of environment. It’s prestige is more than adequate- anyone who matters will know how good it is, even if the average Joe on the street might only have heard of Gtown and Stanford.
Go somewhere else for grad school- Williams grads can go anywhere.
While I think it’s fair to say that Stanford’s facilities are the best of the three schools, (I wouldn’t Williams’ facilities were significantly better than Georgetown’s) Georgetown’s embedded location in DC allow the whole city to be your campus. That in of itself is entirely unique to Georgetown, although I’m not sure if that’s what you’re looking for. As for the student experience, I can’t speak much towards that - so the rumors of stress certainly may be true. However, I will say that in my experience, how happy you are and how fulfilled you feel depends a lot on what you make of your situation.
Have you considered the selectivity of each of these schools? Obviously all three are super competitive, but even among them, there are some differences in acceptance rates.
That is another thing I’m worried about. I posted a little bit about me in post #2. I honestly don’t know how likely it is i’ll get in. However, I am legacy at Stanford so I think I have a shot, but I don’t know about Georgetown
Why would you use up your EA on Georgetown? they are super specific that there is no admissions boost.
REA at Stanford appears to double your chances of admission- including athletes (so the bump is not as strong as it looks), and legacies. Legacy status at Stanford is supposed to mean that instead of a 5% chance you have a 10-15% chance(based on a comment from Hennessy in 2013).
In other words, your legacy status probably puts your statistical odds in the same range as Williams and Georgetown SFS.
But: Williams takes almost half its class ED.
Based on what you have posted, it seems that your main interest in Stanford is that it is, well, Stanford (“weather, campus, and elite reputation”), and you might be able to leverage connections to help you get a top name. Williams won your heart with its environment, culture, and proximity to home. Rather than working on trying to figure out odds, I suggest that you start drafting your ‘why us’ essays: the discipline of shaping a strong case may help you focus on what really matters to you.
Finally, about Georgetown…
The College and SFS are different beasts entirely- be sure which you are dreaming of, and which you are evaluating.
Online reviews should always be read with a caution!
Anecdotal: one of my collegekids has spent time at both Stanford and Georgetown. Stanford's big budgets show around campus (it is beautiful), but her dorm rooms weren't noticeably better / worse, nor was the food. Couldn't tell you about gyms, etc. I will say that ime Georgetown is very DC- policy wonks are not the most attuned to how swishy their digs are!
Distilling out the factors that matter most in a decision is hard. Watch any home-buying show on tv and there is the first time buyer couple with a tiny budget who simply can’t buy that house b/c it didn’t have the granite countertops and stainless appliances that they deem essential. You have to decide what is essential for you, at this stage of your life. SFS is quite simply in a universe by itself for IR. It will not have granite countertops, but it will have the best foundations going.
Fwiw, another choices you should consider, but that won’t be at the level you are looking: GW. In some ways GW is an even better option that Georgetown- esp if you lean more politics than IR- b/c they are really, really good at in-term internships (neither SFS nor AU come close). That’s partly b/c the campus is an easy walk to all the offices where you would intern, and partly b/c the course structures are timed to work with internships. Make no mistake- it takes some hustling to get the internships (there is a lot of competition!)- but the school works with you and you have some built in advantages. Money may be no object for tuition, but after you graduate the field you are looking at is ferociously overcrowded, and poorly stipended internships are the price of entry (followed by a masters in about 5 years time). The more you can knock out while in college the better set up for meaningful (meaning decently paid) jobs soon after you graduate.
Legacy status at Stanford guarantees that your application will get a second reading. That’s not a huge bump - it’s insurance against a reader in a bad mood . If your family is a major donor or very involved, your odds go from 5 to 10%. That’s what we were told several years ago on a tour during reunions. You will have to be a good fit to pull it off. Unless things have changed (and they usually make alums aware of that), it isn’t much of an edge. So if the only reason you added it is because you think your odds are good, it’s easy to narrow the choice down to 2.
I think you need to think about what kind of environment you want for your college experience. You can get internships at any but at only one can you do things in DC while you are in class. The academic calendar at Stanford makes it easier (and more common) to sprinkle terms abroad/off campus throughout your experience. Williams has tutorials and has a strong sense of community, in large part because of its size and isolation. (I love this kind of LAC. If the fit is good, this "bubble " can create a wonderful life experience. ) Each will have a very different feel to it.
Figure out what really matters to you. I like the house analogy above. Most, but not all, people care most about location. Most need a certain # of bedrooms – extra are fine, fewer are not. Some may really care about or need the yard, parking, one-floor living, #of bathrooms, etc. Few care about all those things equally if at all. You need to do the same assessment for college.
What would your 4 years of academics look like at each if you planned it today (taking into account requirements by the school and your major and time abroad)? What kind of social life excites you? What activities do you want to do in your spare time and are they available to you? Some clubs at GT are hard to get into. Williams has lots of athletes – it’s a D3 powerhouse – and a lot of your classmates will be on teams… Stanford 's athletics are in a whole different league. If you like the idea of going to games, that’s a fun place to do it.
At only Williams will you be seriously disadvantaged by not applying ED but if you want to go there, that matters!
Do some reading about getting a job in the foreign service if that’s a goal. You can pull it off from any of these 3 but you will definitely need to focus on developing high level skills in a foreign language, preferably a "critical " one.
These are all amazing schools, similar only in their prestige. Dig a little deeper on what you want. And understand the application options at each.
OP: Based on your interests and goals, among Stanford, Williams & Georgetown, your most appropriate ED option might be to Claremont McKenna College (CMC).
Examine CMC’s offerings & assess why or why not, then you should be better able to make your own decision.
Thank you for letting me know! That’s disapointing to hear, but I suppose it makes sense given how competetive Stanford admissions is. Do you think that legacy admissions would be more of an advantage in the REA round than in RD?
^^ I don’t know the answer to that. I would guess it’s the same. I say that because neither is binding. At many schools where there is more of a benefit, they say (in one form or another) “We are only going to give you this edge if we know we are your first choice. That means applying ED. Why should we prioritize you over someone else if there isn’t reciprocity?” But at those schools, ED is binding. Single neither of those options are, it may not matter.
…fancy? offices in DC- with some notable exceptions, tend to be pretty basic & functional until you are seriously far up the ladder. The emphasis is on the work you are doing, and as you are usually using somebody else’s money (taxpayer, donor, client), the focus is on spending that money for the goal of the project. True at agencies, think tanks, etc. Not so much with lobbyists ofc!