Chance an NYC White Male Policy Nerd [3.96 GPA, 34 ACT]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics: Male, White, NYC, Small (85-person class size) Private School (kind of a feeder), high-income. No hooks

Intended Major(s): Public Policy, Political Science, Sociology, Urban Planning

ACT/SAT/SAT II: 34 (36 English, 31 Math, 36 Reading, 34 Science). Hoping for a 35 in September, as I’m only 1 subsection point off of a 35.

UW/W GPA and Rank: School doesn’t rank, or have weighted GPAs. UW: 3.96/4.00

Coursework: School offers no APs, but does offer advanced classes as alternatives for rigorous courses starting Junior Year. I took Advanced Victorian Literature, Advanced Environmental Studies, and Advanced Programming Workshop in my junior year. I am taking Advanced Shakespeare, Advanced 21st Century Democracy, Advanced Neuroscience, Advanced Statistics, and Advanced Programming Workshop (can be retaken once as long as your independent work is different). Also worth noting that I have taken 4 years of Spanish and am taking Calculus in senior year.

Awards: Superior designation in NCTE essay writing contest (2nd best designation, only 100 students get nationally every year). My awards are definitely the weakest part of my application.

Extracurriculars:

  1. Teen Mental Health Community Organizing- Led a grass-roots community organizing project for student mental health resources for 3 years by advocating for a pair of bills to pass through the NY state legislature. Collaborated directly with New York State legislators, lobbyists, journalists, and students. Published a guest commentary in an upstate newspaper advocating for proposed legislation. Created, trained, and led a team of 18 teen community organizers around New York.

  2. Paid Campaign Staffer for a State Assembly Candidate- Volunteered for months for a state assembly candidate until I was eventually hired as a staffer. Postered, phone-banked, canvassed, and helped organize campaign volunteers and run campaign events. Only high-school staffer on the campaign.

  3. Member of (Omitted for privacy reasons) Teen Council and (Omitted) Fellows- Attended monthly meetings for 4 years with like-minded teens about how poverty in NYC is created, and how it can be challenged through a mix of philanthropy and policy. The council is facilitated by a non-profit that invests 130 million dollars annually in community partners around the city. Also spent 4 summers as a Fellow for this organization, visiting community partners and doing hands-on work around NYC. The program concludes yearly by reviewing a fictionalized funding request from a community partner and making a grant recommendation to actual staff at the non-profit.

  4. Co-President of Student Council- Member of Student Council for 3 years, Co-president for senior year. Served as a bridge between student body and administration, helped with initiatives such as moving the location of prom, redesigning student center configurations, and auditing the school’s DEI program to see its effectiveness. Met bi-annually with the school board of trustees to relay our work and the student perspective on issues.

  5. Head Editor of the School’s Literary Magazine- Editor for 2 years of my school’s literary magazine and head editor for the last two years. Helped curate works for an annual release of students’ poetry, short fiction, and art. Also helped teach younger editors how to write, curate, and edit works.

  6. President of School’s Debate Team- Member for 1 year, president for 2 years. Led team lessons and practices in Parliamentary Debate. Participated in parliamentary debate competitions regularly.

  7. President of Global Partnerships Club- Member for 1 year, president for 2 years. Designed programming to encourage global citizenship across our high school, middle school, and elementary school and welcome exchange students. Selected to attend annual global youth leadership conferences in Morocco and Kenya.

  8. Captain of Cross Country, Indoor Track, and Track and Field- Was a member of all three teams for all 4 years of high school, captain of all 3 starting junior year. Led our boys Cross Country team to its first league victory in over a decade.

Essays/LORs/Other: I’m not going to preemptively rank these, but believe these will help my application more than hinder it due to my proclivity for writing, and my strong connection with my teachers. I have an especially close relationship with my English teacher (had for 3 years, submitted me for the NCTE award) and my Environmental Studies/History teacher (had for 2 years, helped me edit my guest commentary for the newspaper upstate).

I’m fortunate that cost isn’t an issue/factor for me in the college process.

Schools:
Likely:

  1. University of Maryland-College Park (EA)
  2. American University (EA)
  3. University of Wisconsin-Madison (EA)
    Target:
  4. Boston University (RD)
  5. George Washington University (RD)
    Reach:
  6. New York University (RD)
  7. Wesleyan (RD)
  8. Washington University in St. Louis (ED2)
    Far Reach:
  9. Brown (ED)
  10. Georgetown (RD)
  11. Northwestern (RD)

What do y’all think? Please be kind, my list is still very much under construction, and I’m open to suggestions!

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You attend a small private high school. One of the benefits of these schools is they usually have excellent college counseling. And they also know how students similar to you did in terms of admissions to the colleges on your list.

So…have a chat with them.

My only free advice…for American University, you need to show significant interest.

And secondly…if your parents are indeed able and willing to fund your undergrad costs regardless of the amount, please give them a HUGE thank you and a big hug. This is a wonderful gift to you. Some families won’t do this even if they have the resources to do so. So…let your parents know how much you appreciate their generous gift to you!

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I think U MD, U Wisconsin, and Boston U need to be bumped up to being low reaches - out of state admissions rates at Maryland and Wisconsin are lower than the overall rate, so will be much less certain than if you were in-state. I’d suggest looking to find schools that truly fit in the target bucket - you are a strong student, so you could get into your reaches, but you’ll likely want to have options even if those don’t pan out (or you decide you’re less excited about them).

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Assuming your college counselors agree Wisconsin and Maryland are Likelies, that seems like a pretty solid list to me. A few thoughts/questions on choices:

Out of curiosity, why ED2 WUSTL? My S24 is headed there so I am definitely not inherently against it, but I am curious why they stood out in that fashion.

Similarly, you mostly have universities, and only Wesleyan as an LAC. Why specifically Wesleyan, and would you be interested in more LAC options?

Finally, policy kids in my circles very often apply to William & Mary. It is great for policy, and functionally basically a Greater DC school.

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As a New Yorker, you should definitely consider the Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell. It one of Cornell’s contract colleges, which gives an admissions bump and lower tuition for New York residents.

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WUSTL was mostly an ED2 because it’s one of the only schools that offers ED2, and I genuinely really liked it. It’s not great for any particular reason, I just got a really good vibe when I visited. I would’ve rather ED2’ed to Georgetown or Northwestern, but they don’t offer that. I’m not even sure I’m going to ED2, this again is a list very much “under construction”

Wesleyan I visited mostly because 2 of my friends from high school got in this year, and I ended up really loving the culture there. I love open curriculums, and I liked the socially conscious/progressive vibe there. I did visit Amherst and Vassar, but found Vassar to not be a good culture fit for me and Amherst I didn’t think I would get into regular. I generally prefer schools with more options/ flexibility, but Wesleyan (and Amherst) were able to have other factors that made me overlook their small size.

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I thank them every day! I know I’m incredibly fortunate, and I never want to be ignorant of both the resources I have and the support I receive from those around me. I’m really lucky to be able to go into a field I want to study without worries of debt (for my undergrad at least), and I let my parents know often how much I appreciate the gift they’ve given me.

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  1. Use your school counselor. Where have kids like you gotten in?

  2. Good luck on your ACT but if you end up a 34, don’t worry. It’s great and your splits are great. And some schools may fractionalize - no way to know. So a 34.5 is that.

3.gw an easier in than UMD. But like AU, requires demonstrated interest. You might reverse those two. I’d move U Wisc to target too. Stats wise your’re in but there’s been too many top kids blocked.

  1. BU in RD is a reach. ED - a target.

  2. Wesleyan seems an odd choice given the school sizes of the others. Edit - just read your note on Wesleyan - check out Rochester - you might like the curriculum - and it’s bigger.

Have you visited any yet ?

You really have no safeties but again you have a hs counselor so my opinion is really based on public schools but I think you have likelies (AU,gw).

Suggestions - IU vs Wisconsin or in addition to - the O’Neill school is excellent. IU and Syracuse (Maxwell) are #2 and #1in Policy at the grad level and it falls down. So I’d add SU too.

Both are safe for you I believe.

If you like the size of Wesleyan, Richmond and its PPEL program might be worth a look.

Since you have BU, NYU, and GW, Pitt and UMN might be other urban schools worth a look or for mid size College of Charleston where you might get in the Charleston Fellows program (a sub area of their Honors College with lots of enrichment). The school is a safety - the Fellows a reach).

Talk to your counselor - where are kids with your stats getting into?

Edit - your parents are paying but you noted at least undergrad. You should make sure they are paying for grad too if a possibility for you. If not do they have a fixed amount - say $400k - and you can spend as needed - ie stretch it to 7 years to include grad school if you went cheaper undergrad ? Or it’s not been discussed. If you have a fixed amount for all of your schooling, you might want to save $$ where you can undergrad to have some saved over to graduate debt free from grad school.

Best of luck.

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This site may offer you ideas for colleges to research further:

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So personally, I don’t believe in EDing if you have other options you would actually prefer.

It sounds like LACs in general might not be for you, but if you are looking for another LAC that is strong in public policy but has an open curriculum, you might consider Hamilton.

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Doubtful that Hamilton has the same culture as Wesleyan University. They were one of the few NESCACs without a pro-Palestinian encampment last spring.

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Completely different. Got rejected from Wes and into Hamilton and I’m headed there. I’m convinced it’s because the school was a horrible fit for me. Hamilton is much more “Quiet New England area w nerdy but also smart kids,” and Wes gave me much more SJW vibes.

But I know a ton of ppl going into PPE at Hamilton. And the open curriculum is great. I signed up for my classes and I’m taking 4 classes, all in 4 different departments which I’m interested in.

I would say Hamilton is more similar to a Bowdoin, Williams, or even Dartmouth than to Vassar/Wes.

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I’m still really split on the idea of ED2ing. I feel like college admissions nowadays are so competitive that I just want the edge wherever I can get it, especially at a school as competitive as WUSTL. I do really love Brown though, so maybe I wouldn’t ED2 if I got deferred (a guy can dream). Lots to still think about and consider, and I appreciate your advice.

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Brown itself notes there’s no advantage in ED. What you are getting is an earlier decision.

Only ED if a school is your favorite and 100% affordable. Otherwise don’t ED. Many ED for better odds, then come on here and say I got into somewhere I like more but I ED’d for better odds. Don’t be that kid. Most don’t ED.

With your major, grad school is likely in your future. Have that discussion now - who’s paying?

If not them then ask, if I get into a $95k school but spend less, can I use the rest for grad school.

Plan for six or seven years if law is in your future.

Find out what your parents are thinking so you can plan appropriately to come out debt free - which is the biggest gift of all - IMHO.

If it’s we’ll pay for grad school regardless, you can breathe easy.

If it’s we’ll fund Brown/WUSTL $ undergrad so choose wisely if planning further school, then you need to plan better to use excess funds for grad school.

If it’s just four years regardless of where you go undergrad - well then you can reassess in 3-4 years.

Good luck.

From Brown:

Please do not assume that your admission chances are improved by applying under the Early Decision plan. The Board of Admission makes the same decisions under Early Decision that it would under the Regular Decision plan.

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How focused are you on urban planning/policy specifically? That was my S18’s focus (he’s now a consultant in real estate economics in DC, but also interned at a famous DC think tank during college). Although most attention is paid to masters level courses, he generally felt that the top schools in this area for the policy side (as opposed to the architecture/design side) are MIT, UCLA and Berkeley. Rutgers also has a fairly strong program.

Look at courses like this to see if they are of interest:
https://dusp.mit.edu/undergraduate

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Thank you for this in-depth response! I’m definitely planning on having these conversations with my parents now. I really do love Brown more than any other school I’ve looked at/visited, but I feel bad that the school whose culture I like the most is also the hardest school to get into. Nevertheless, you’ve given me much to think about and I appreciate it.

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I’d say I’m more interested in the intersection of politics and policy (for most of these schools that don’t offer undergraduate policy programs I’d be majoring in political science) and less so on the urban development/architecture side. My interests have continued evolving as I’ve continued to volunteer and learn different things about government, and I’m still not entirely sure what I’ll end up doing. I don’t particularly like math, but I understand it’s a necessary component of policy and know that it would make up a significant portion of what I’m doing in college. Nevertheless, I appreciate the programs you listed and will take a closer look at all of them. Thank you!

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I think if you look deeper in the poli sci major; you’ll find more in policy. Or PPE. You do have many schools with an actual major too - perhaps you didn’t pick them.

Example my daughter goes to Charleston. One of her two majors is Poli Sci. They don’t have a policy major (they do have urban studies with both a policy and a planning sub focus).

Within the Poli Sci major, they have multiple concentrations - one of which is Public Policy.

So dig into curriculums and not just the major page at each school. Policy will be very common.

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Public policy programs generally rely on the fields of political science, economics and philosophy for a foundation. Although quantitative components may appear in the required economics sequence, courses in mathematics may not be required.

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For those schools that have both PoliSci and Public Affairs (like UCLA), there’s a tendency for the Public Affairs students to shy away from math (whereas many PoliSci students double major with econ). Which is a huge shame because many of the most interesting opportunities/research in policy (as well as the best paid jobs) are now quantitatively driven. Work on big datasets can inform policy much more readily than in the past. For example my S’s thesis used GIS (mostly R) to analyze the impacts of parcel level zoning issues in LA (something like 5M records).

I think the MIT major I mentioned above (“Bachelor of Urban Science and Planning with Computer Science (SB)”) is a great example of these new techniques.

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