Building College List for Economics/Political Science

College Search & Lists
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I am a sophomore in high school who is building a college list right now. I plan to go into economics, political science, or something similar and probably continue on to law school afterward. I am trying to build a list of good colleges to apply to when the time comes. For context, I have a 3.95 GPA UW/4.3 GPA W currently. I am taking 6 APs next year, and most likely 4-to 5 the year after. I have very strong extracurriculars, including internships, shadowing opportunities, being a part of my state’s page program, president of multiple clubs that align with my intended fields, president of NHS, leadership position in DECA, debate team, a varsity sport, and a few others.

If anyone has some good suggestions on where to apply, ideally including a safety or two, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you everyone!

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I suggest you re send this in a year. Way too early. Maybe next spring break visit a large, medium abs small school or two. Get an idea of what you like.

Also you’ll start prepping for the SAT etc but you are a year premature with your question.

Good luck.

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I don’t think it’s too early to start making lists but I’m a sophomore too.

We need more information. There are tons of great places to study Econ or poly sci. What state do you live in? Do you want to be close to home? As far away as possible? Warm weather or snow? What size school? Urban, rural, or in between? Are sports important? Greek life yay or nay? Financial restrictions? Looking for financial aid or merit scholarships?

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Not your question, but think carefully about your plan to take 6 APs in Grade 11 and 4-5 in Grade 12.

IF 6 APs in Grade 11 is what high-flyers in your school typically do, that’s one thing. But every year on CC we see students who sailed through Grades 9 & 10 with near-perfect marks, and then hit Grade 11 and for the first time the work was meaningfully challenging in terms of time, content, or both. Some APs are notorious for simply the sheer volume of work that has to be done. A 6th AP is not worth dinging your GPA.

IF the reason you are dropping from 6 APs to 4-5 in Grade 12 is that you will have run out of math & FL in your HS, and will be doing DE for those in Grade 12 that’s one thing. Otherwise, consider moving one of your 6 to the following year.

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This is great advice. DS did IB in HS, and was required to take 25 classes that were honors, AICE, AP, or IB. Only freshman band and drivers Ed were regular level courses.

In addition, he had to do outside research investigations for each senior class, plus other major projects and volunteer work. Although his weighted GPA was very high, his unweighted took a few dings.

In fact, he knows of only 1-2 kids with 4.0 unweighted who stayed in IB.

The lower unweighted GPA will penalize kids who are looking for OOS merit aid and scholarship opportunities. His 34 ACT score did not help much for admissions in a test optional year. Looking back, he would have been better off going for the AICE diploma or building a sane amount of AP and DE courses into his schedule. UW GPA and admissions aside, at least he will be well prepared for writing, research projects and heavy course loads in college.

It doesn’t help to overload students with AP and IB courses if their GPA suffers.

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My D started building her list as a sophomore. I have two suggestions for you.

  1. Talk to your family about your budget. You need to understand if you are ok looking at options where it will cost them $320K over 4 years or if you need to be looking at schools that offer merit. A few things to keep in mind: if you need merit scholarship money the reach/match classifications become a function of the competition for the scholarship not just overall admittance; you personally are capped at $27K for student loans total for 4 years and any other necessary loans are for your parents (and it is possible that they can not or will not get them); you can Google NPC and the college name to get some basic ideas of what to expect to pay but the results may not be accurate for families where there is a divorce, a family owned business, or real estate other than a primary home.

  2. Ask your parents if they will take you to some casual college visits if any schools happen to be close by. We did that with our D and were able to see a small, rural LAC and a large public urban university. It helped her see that she hated the big school and being in the city so we could focus on looking at smaller schools in suburbs and small towns.

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What’s worked in our family is to read the Fiske Guide to Colleges in the summer after sophomore year. Don’t read the essays on every college, but read any that seem to interest you. Location, size, etc may be aspects which serve to determine which ones you read. Make a list. Take notes. By the end of the summer you’ll have a list - maybe a long list - which you can then work to pare down.

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As examples of general directions you might consider for your interests, you might like (1) schools in D.C. (Georgetown, GW, American), (2) schools with an available semester-length program in D.C. (e.g., Hamilton), or (3) somewhat of a specialty school such as Claremont McKenna. You also may want to research schools with an available public policy concentration, through which you could combine your interests.

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I think it’s early to develop a specific list of colleges to apply to, but it’s not too early to start learning more about various colleges. Have the budget conversation with your family. That is a key part of any college search.

Then I would start looking into your in-state publics. Explore their websites and, if interested, get on their mailing lists. That way you know what kind of options are available to you at what is likely to be the best price (barring scholarships and special circumstances). Then, if there are colleges that are more expensive that interest you, you know what they offer above and beyond your in-state options (which might well be a question your parents might ask you).

See what colleges are nearby (or near any destinations where your family will be vacationing). If possible try to visit a small, medium, and large college and preferably in urban, suburban and rural environments. Take notes about what you like and don’t like about those campuses. Those are good clues about where your preferences may lay.

Look at the Fiske, Princeton Review, or other college guides that go beyond statistics and majors. See which colleges interest you. Check out their websites and, if still interested, get on their mailing lists.

Note what opportunities are available, what image they’re projecting about the campus vibe, what kind of distribution requirements they have. Are they appealing or not? As you go through this process you should start getting a better sense of what kind of a college experience you want, and that is really key.

For instance, there are a number of kids who come here and say they’re going to apply to all Ivy League schools. But those schools are very different from one another, and students who might be happy at one could be very unhappy at another. The better a sense you have of what you want, the easier your college search process will be. You can find schools with a range of selectivity and price points to develop a balanced list of schools you want to apply to. You will have a sense of what criteria will be most important to you in the event that compromises need to be made.

But don’t fall in love with any one college. Just view this as a time to learn more and start dreaming about what the next phase of your life might be like, trying out different environments and trying to visualize yourself at each one and see what things you do or don’t like.

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I am a big fan of trying on a lot of hats to see what suits you best, so I think that starting a college list is a fine exercise. Just stick with @AustenNut’s advice: keep an open mind; expect to revise your list frequently; and most importantly don’t fall in love.

There is NO perfect school (spoiler: no perfect job, house or partner either!), and there are very very few schools that are so individual that you can’t find other schools with comparable elements.

Also remember that you are not a finished piece of work. Over the next several years your brain is going to change more than it has since you were a toddler. Leave yourself room to evolve.

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The reason I’m doing 6 then 4-5 is because of the way my school works. We have only 6 classes, meaning that I am more limited in the number of classes I can take a year. I am taking all of the core classes, but my 2 electives are AP Spanish and AP Macroeconomics, which I am taking simply because I am very interested in the class and it is known to be rather easy at my school. In my senior year, I’ll have to drop at least down to 5 APs because I need to take a “fine arts” class in order to graduate.

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I live in WA. Distance from home doesn’t matter to me, warm weather slightly preferable but no real issue, mid-size school is probably best but small works as well, I’d rather go somewhere at least somewhat urban, sports are just a bonus, greek life is fine but not actively searching for it, no financial restrictions, not looking for aid.

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Just to get you started, here is a list of schools to think about. You say you don’t have a geographic preference, but I kept these suggestions to the west coast as you probably have more familiarity with these areas, and people often end up deciding they’d like some options closer to home. And as this is the start of the process, it’d be nice to visit some campuses to see how real life contrasts with what you were picturing based on their website and other info you gather.

These are some schools noted for their poli Sci and/or economics programs (and just because I didn’t list a school as being noted for econ/poli, that doesn’t mean they’re not noted elsewhere or could have a very strong program):

  • Claremont McKenna
  • Occidental
  • Pomona
  • Whitman
  • Reed
  • Willamette

These are some of your in-state publics I’d take a good look at:

  • U. of Washington-Seattle, it’s always good to become familiar with one’s state flagship even if it’s not what you think you want.

  • U. of Washington-Bothell

  • Western Washington

  • Evergreen State

These are some other schools, generally mid-size, that might be good to browse:

  • Gonzaga
  • Santa Clara
  • Chapman
  • U. of Portland
  • U. of San Diego
  • Loyola Marymount
  • Seattle U.
  • U. of San Francisco
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You may want to choose high school courses to help determine your interest in the college majors you consider.

  • For economics: calculus, statistics, AP economics
  • For political science: AP governments, statistics

Note that no specific major is required for pre-law students.

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Thinking outside the box a little bit, I recommend that you put Babson College on your list of East Coast schools. Ignore the fact that it’s billed as a business school. In truth, it’s a fabulous liberal arts education with business components. Their approach is a unique educational model, unlike anything you’ll find almost anywhere else. And selecting a business major is not required; you can most definitely major in Economics/Poli Sci. Learning something about business along the way certainly won’t hurt your future path on a law career.

Babson is a small college (2400 enrollment) but immediately adjacent is Olin College of Engineering, another very selective school, which adds another 400 students to the mix. There is cross registration between the 2 schools, some shared facilities, and shared athletic teams. Two miles away across town is Wellesley College, a third highly selective college, also with cross registration, which expands access to economics and poli-sci courses as well as to Arts & Science courses in general.

Babson is not often mentioned in response to a question like yours, but it is in reality great preparation for law school.

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Babson itself emphasizes the business aspects of its curriculum: Undergraduate Business School | Babson College . The OP should investigate whether the large core curriculum (with lots of business) there and small elective concentrations are suitable for the OP’s interests.

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Yes, I agree. I also think it’s important to look closely at that core curriculum and what students are actually doing. For example, there is a full year seminar in freshman year in which students develop a small business venture with funding from the college, launch the business, and then manage it. Babson believes in hands on learning, collaborative problem solving, and team projects. With a course like this, they put their money where their mouth is. Liberal Arts colleges like to say that they teach their students to think, to be good decision makers, and to learn how to solve problems. What better way to do those things than with projects like this?

Second, half of that core curriculum is liberal arts courses. Babson believes strongly in having their students develop reading, writing, and research skills, which is why they include a lot of liberal arts courses. A student who chooses concentrations (majors) in Econ and Poli-Sci will be taking even more courses from Arts & Sciences. And then there are electives to throw in, which can also be liberal arts courses.

There is no doubt that Babson students, regardless of major, will be taking more than a dozen business courses at a minimum. So, a student would have to want to include this in their undergraduate education. But for the right student who sees the value in developing these skills, this can be a fabulous education.

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