A college list for Govt / Poli Sci as an international applicant from Singapore - should I consider more?

Applying to College
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Hi everyone! I’m a rising junior at one of the top high schools in Singapore and I’m planning to go overseas for university. I started my college search around last year and have built up plenty of extracurriculars, along with a spike in Biology and the humanities (Gold @ the IBO, published in Concord Review, won John Locke and HMUN).

Right now, I’m considering applying to UK unis and US colleges for a government / government-related field of study. My school sends tons of people to Oxbridge, and I have really good grades so I’m really confident about my chances to UK unis. I have a 1600 SAT (not that it matters too much these days) and pretty good extracurriculars and awards, and I am also not asking for much financial aid (around $10k per year) so I think I also have a decent shot at US colleges. Regardless of which country I end up in, my goal is to attend a US T14 law school after college.

I will, though, need to serve 2 years of compulsory military service in Singapore, and am planning to apply in senior year so can only apply to schools that grant 2 year deferrals (so no UCs).

UK:

  • Oxford (History and Politics)
  • Cambridge (History and Politics)
  • UCL (Law, since they offer a dual LLB/JD degree with Columbia Law School for selected 2nd Year students)

US:

  • Harvard REA
  • Yale
  • Princeton
  • Columbia
  • Dartmouth
  • UPenn
  • Brown
  • Stanford
  • Cornell
  • UChicago
  • Duke
  • Georgetown (the college, not SFS)

I would choose any US college in this list over any UK university in this list.

My question is, should I consider more schools (the likes of NYU, UMich, Williams) / apply ED to a school that I have a higher chance of getting in to but which I still love (Dartmouth has an approx. 18% ED acceptance rate - I visited the campus when travelling to Woodstock VT last year and loved it, so should I ED there)?

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Even with strong stats, all of the US schools are reaches. Note that Georgetown doesn’t meet full need for internationals.

Dartmouth’s ED acceptance rate is misleadingly high because it includes hooked applicants such as recruited athletes, legacies, Questbridge applicants, and those who attended D’s fly-in programs. This is true for most of the early rounds at US schools, although the larger the schooler the smaller the impact of the hooked applicants.

Make sure to include some schools that are targets as well (with higher acceptance rates than NYU, UMich, Williams…which are also all reaches. Note that UMich won’t give you any financial aid). Do you have an affordable safety in Singapore or elsewhere?

Lastly, note you can only apply to only one of Cambridge or Oxford. And 5 max on the UCAS app (which you should use).

Good luck.

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