Where to apply

College Search & Selection
1

Hi! I’m looking for recommendations for which colleges to apply to. I’m a dual US citizen living abroad and my safety school is a local one, so I’m not applying to any true safeties in the States.

I’m looking to major in history or polisci (pre-law) and would love to continue studying foreign languages in college (I was raised bilingual and study French in school).
I strongly prefer a liberal-leaning environment and wouldn’t want to go somewhere where the social scene relies heavily on fraternities and sororities.
I’m open to both big and small schools as long as the smaller ones don’t feel too isolated (so Wellesley and Vassar rather than Williams, for example).
I’m flexible on location, and almost all of the colleges I’ve been looking at are in the northeast, so I’d like to know more about some outside that area as well.

Since I’ve done most of my schooling abroad and I go to a particularly hard high school (ex: math through calculus for everyone, three years of chemistry, physics and bio for everyone), my stats are going to be a bit different, nevertheless here they are:

SAT I: 1570
GPA: 9.85/12

SAT II
math 2: 800
french: 800

ECs:
(ps: my school has no formal leadership positions in ECs outside of student government)

  • 12th grade volunteering at a national human rights organization (working with the legal team on housing rights)
  • 11th grade presented independent research project on women's history and politics (published online by national institution)
  • 10th-12th grade model UN (9 awards, including international conferences and college level conferences that I was given special permission to participate in)
  • 9th-12th volunteer tutoring 7th graders in test prep (including creating lesson plans)
  • 9th-10th grade theater
  • 12th grade and summer teaching myself Hindi (don't know whether this will go on my application or not)

Extra:
taking two extra classes at a college this year (public policy and sociology)

2

https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search College Board offers a good search tool. You can input your grades, location preferences, sizes, majors, etc.

3

Your stats seem pretty good, so here are some rankings that you could look through:

https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/political-science-rankings

https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/social-sciences/political-science-and-government/rankings/top-ranked/

You may also want to consider choosing a school that is in or near a large city, where there is more politics going on… if that makes sense. For example, Georgetown and George Washington University are really good universities that are right in Washington D.C., which is probably perfect for what you are interested in pursuing.

4

What’s your budget?

Any T20 school like Georgetown, Vandy, Duke, or any Ivy. Two outside the Northeast that popped into my head are Emory and U of Miami.

5

Forgot to add that my EFC at all of the schools I’ve looked at is $0. My parents can’t afford more than a few thousand per year.

6

I recommend you avoid graduate department rankings (such as posted in reply 2), which could counterproductively direct you away from undergraduate-focused colleges.

7

For a small school, how about Macalester in the Twin Cities, Minnesota? (It’s located in the state capital, Saint Paul, but Minneapolis is very close.) Run the NPC but I think it has pretty good need-based aid.

8

For ideas for generally reach schools, search “Top Lawyer Producer Schools – Infographic.”