Political Science Major
IL: great school overall. Less than 2 hours from home. Less expensive
American: probably better for poli sci., better internship opportunities in DC. Smaller class sizes. Nearly all students are politically active. Smaller school but not many sports. FAR from home in Chicago suburbs. Below my son’s SAT level. Offered top merit scholarship!
What does “Below my son’s SAT level” even mean?!
How much less expensive is UIUC? Will debt be involved? I’m guessing that even with the Presidential you are looking at $50K/year v $35Kish? (if you are instate)
Would you be willing to put the $60K difference towards support while doing no/low paid internships? b/c that is how you get the good jobs in polisci- you pay your dues doing #@$# internships and entry level jobs. It is hard to exaggerate just how brutal the field is at the entry level.
UIUC has a good DC program: https://washington.illinois.edu/
There are a gazillion summer internships on the Hill.
By below I meant he’s above the range that 50% of students are within. He really wants to be challenged. I think he’s looking forward to a change of scenery, too.
Are you looking at the SAT levels of UIUC in general or political science specifically? I can promise political science medians are below overall UIUC since all the engineering/STEM kids skew the overall averages upward. The social science kids aren’t slouches, but their medians are lower.
Illinois is a great school overall (I’m a grad), but I don’t think there’s anything particularly spectacular about its political science program (and my D21 was accepted to UIUC in political science). It’s a very solid program at an excellent school. But I think American, if that’s an option for you, puts you in an overall better environment to study political science.
How much more expensive is American? While UIUC is a top school overall, it is not as good as AU for political science. Few colleges are as good as AU for Poli Sci.
Thanks cormac05. We didn’t really pay attention to the SAT avgs for UIUC because of what you said and went by the fact that it’s a good school overall. I think American is better for poli sci, too, but hopefully quite a bit better since it’s still ~$15K more per year after the scholarship (add in travel costs, too!). I hope he likes the smaller school atmosphere!
$15K per year is not nothing. Is American worth $60K more over four years? I guess it depends on if that fits in your budget and what his potential grad school plans are. With my D, she’s fully aware grad school is very, very likely with the type of undergrad she wants to pursue. Another thought would be to get the best, most cost-effective undergrad you can and then pivot to DC for grad schools. You know, an 18-year-old’s idea of what they want to do can certainly shift as well. He may love the idea of political science right now, but what if his interests shift? Illinois makes sense for lots of different majors. Would American? (I thought the public policy & law major in the ACES school looked fantastic and very marketable, btw. An interesting alternative to straight poli sci).
I realize I’m now playing devil’s advocate against my own argument for American. 
eh…depends on what you mean by “few”
I wouldn’t put it in the top-20. It is in DC- by the hair on it’s chinny chin chin. It is not easy to do internships during term. Yes, there are cool DC events to go to- but you have to get there first. It’s the guts of an hour by bus + metro to get to the capital (and a car is not a viable option in the city). Note that AU itself offers a “DC Semester” (same as UIUC) for internships, including housing closer to the Hill area.
I am not nay-saying AU’s PoliSci program- it is a good program. But it has an extra mystique b/c of it’s address. The Political Science dept is strong- but so are many, many others, including UIUC.
IMO, it comes down to the $$: if you can afford it w/o debt, and still be able to help him a bit in the early working years- go for it. But if there is debt, it’s not worth it.
Thanks and yes, totally agree. We have explained to him he might switch majors and UIUC might be better for that (if outside of what we’re discussing now with poli sci or public policy, etc). We’ve explained that we might be able to help with grad school if he chooses UIUC. I can see both sides of the argument, quite honestly. And I don’t know if we should play the parent card and say we’re going to play it safe and choose UIUC. He said he’s made up his mind on American already. Do we support that or step in and say no, financially UIUC makes more sense.
Parenting is tough!
If they are both within budget, I’d ask him if there are other better things he’d rather spend $60K on (I certainly can think of many).
Was there a previous understanding about what the parental contribution limit is? If so, are both colleges affordable within that parental contribution limit?
That is very interesting about the semester in DC option at American. Something to think about…
He’s done some research on the professors and feels the ones at AU are better.
The short answer, yes.
YES!!
We had a similar debate and price difference for S18, $50K per year for American (PPL with scholarship) vs $30K for state flagship. Decided to stay instate (CA) and save the money for grad school and its worked out very well, including a DC internship that was better than his classmate who went to American.
When we visited, we didn’t think much of the campus and location, S would have preferred GWU over American (and UVA over both - the quality of students he met was more important to him than the location, even though he’d like to be in DC eventually).
HI there, thanks for your feedback! Can you tell me in what way the internship was better?
Interestingly, my son prefers American’s campus over GWU.
Is GWU an option?
No, it’s not.
It was with a very well known think tank. His high school classmate ended up interning with an unknown NGO. But my main point is that you shouldn’t assume attending a college in DC would automatically gives you access to the best internships. That will depend much more on your experience and academic track record.
On the comparison of GWU and AU, it was the central location of GWU that made the difference.