Cost Constraints / Budget (High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)
won’t qualify for need based aid but have siblings so need to apply for scholarships
Intended Major(s)
public polcy
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
Weighted HS GPA: 5.129/5.0
Class Rank: 5/~150
ACT/SAT Scores: 1550 retaking in octboer sob
List your HS coursework
(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)
English: english 1 + 2 honors, AP lang, AP lit
Math: math 3, precalc, ap calc ab, ap calc bc, multivariable calc, linear algebra, diff eq, intro to proofs/real analysis
Science: biology honors, chem honors, apes, ap bio, physics honors
History and social studies: ap human, apush, ap world, ap gov
Language other than English: AP french
Visual or performing arts: visual arts major at performing art high school
Awards
Extracurriculars (Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
found like international publication (20ish countries)
write bills for state legislature
student body president
summer research policy intern w. t30
policy fellowship
teen court volunteer
affinty club founder/vp
self taught math from precalc to real analysis
debate team captain/state competitor
volutneer work basic
international leadership free camp freshman yr
unlisted stuff: nhs, mun, minimum wage hs work
Essays/LORs/Other (Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
common app pretty strong made friend/family people cry???
lor 1 from debate okay, lor from art historyt eacher good, lor from philosphy mentor hella good
Schools (List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if unsure, leave them unclassified)
Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability):
Extremely Likely: state school, out of state state schools
Need scholarships and don’t qualify for aid - so why apply to schools that don’t offer merit ? Northwestern, Gtown, Harvard, Yale, Princeton
Might a Vandy, Rice, WUSTL, Emory, and others make better choices - as they have the possibility of merit. Case Western, Rochester, Brandeis and more might be solid choices.
If you want low cost, apply to schools that cost less.
W&M will be mid 60s but with a tiny chance of a full ride. Wash & Lee gives 10% of its kids a full ride and others free tuition - look up the Johnson Scholarship. SMU has the Presidential full ride. My kid is what’s called a Charleston Fellow and an International Scholar at College of Charleston - both subgroups of Honors and turned down others just mentioned. Less selective school, highly selective program - pays no tuition.
Schools like Alabama ($20k for you) to Kansas (mid high 20s) to UMN (high 30s to Pitt (high 50s) offer solid, less expensive options than schools running by the time you finish $100k a year. Most have strong Honors colleges with high level student. UF is $45k full pay and a top school. Ohio State has loads of merit. Delaware has the Biden program for policy.
Most have a DC semester - my daughter interned at a think tank - during hers and worked for our state one summer.
Back to your list - UIUC and either UW are admits but in the $60 ish range if ok. GW and American will happen if you express interest. Both offer some merit and maybe AU will offer more this year as they missed enrollment goals. A highly cross shopped of AU is at your home - U Denver and it offers substantial aid. And strong in policy. The UCs will be pricey.
Are you a national merit scholar by chance? That opens more very inexpensive doors.
Fine list but not fine for cost. Scholarships are most commonly (by far) given from the schools themselves which makes it much easier. In a nutshell - you’re a stud. Harvard has a lot like you. UMN, Alabama some - and they’ll pay to have more !!
Best of luck. And hope that helps start a discussion.
Item #1 with mom and dad - budget. And I don’t mean I need merit but need an annual amount - $30,000 or $50,000 etc.
Agree with @tsbna44 – what a waste of time, retaking the SAT! Go do something fun instead!
Also agree with him about merit. If you won’t get need based financial aid, and don’t want to pay $90,000/year, then drop down a few tiers and focus on schools where you have a good chance of getting academic merit.
I realize you don’t have any Liberal Arts Colleges (“LACs”) on your list. If you are open to considering them, you might take a look at Washington and Lee University. 10% of each class is awarded a full ride – a completely free education plus generous stipend ($10,000?). There are interesting programs, like the Shepherd Program, linked below. It also has a strong pipeline into Washington DC. It’s an unusual opportunity at a very selective school.
The Johnson is a reach for everyone; if you focus on merit, you might look at the University of Rochester, SMU, Gettysburg, Trinity (CT), Franklin & Marshall etc etc.
Outstanding scores ! No need to retake the SAT; consider trying the ACT if determined to retest.
Consider applying to the University of Georgia Honors College (rated as the top honors college in the nation).
Based on your stats (numbers GPA/class rank/standardized test score), you may be considered for the Foundation Fellows fellowship which is awarded to 20 students each year–although about 75% are Georgia residents. The benefits are incredible & the students are brilliant & motivated. Great campus & great college town which is only a bit over an hour’s drive from Atlanta.
Atlanta & the University of Georgia are full of highly intelligent, sophisticated individuals. The UGA Honors College is integrated into the main campus and has about 2,800 undergraduate students who are free to major in any academic disciplines offered at the university.
Double-check this. There are some very financially generous schools. Have your family run the Net Price Calculator at Princeton and see what results. If you don’t get aid here, you’re extremely unlikely to get need-based aid from anywhere.
Additionally, what’s the budget? Is your family willing and able to pay $90k/year for you (and expecting to provide similarly for your younger siblings)? If not, what is the budget? That will let us know how much merit aid you need and/or what the sticker price needs to be.
For colleges that require teacher recommendations, they often prefer to have one from a STEM teacher and one from a humanities/social science teacher.
Below are my guesses as to what your chances might be at the schools on your list:
Which UW are you referring to…Wisconsin, Washington, or even Wyoming?
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
Likely (60-79%
UIUC
GW (make sure to show demonstrated interest)
American (only if you show a lot of demonstrated interest)
Toss-Up (40-59%)
Lower Probability (20-39%)
Low Probability (less than 20%)
U. of Chicago
Northwestern
Cal (this will cost around $75k/year with no merit of significance…is this affordable)
I agree with others. You need an actual budget–as in you and your family can afford to pay $X per year. You then need to check if colleges without merit can hit that budget using their NPC. If not, then there is no point applying.
If you then tell us that budget, we can given you informed suggestions as to which colleges will be certain to hit that budget, might hit that budget with discretionary merit, or will not hit that budget and so also should be eliminated.
I note some families have a variable budget depending on the college. If so you can work with that, but you need to have that clearly locked down in advance so there are no miscommunications or surprises when it comes time to picking which offer to accept.
As others have said, your introductory post implies that your family could not reasonably afford full-pay private colleges and still have enough left for your siblings… and yet, your whole list is full-pay private colleges and almost-as-expensive OOS publics. Clarity on budget is needed.
Also, you mention your visual arts background and call yourself “artsy” - how does that figure into what you’re looking for in a college? Are you mentioning it just as something that could strengthen your application, or are you looking for colleges with an artsy vibe/culture (which is not a trend I particularly see in your tentative list), or do you hope to include visual arts in your college studies, in addition to your other academic interests?
Additionally… you appear to be very strong in math. There are tons of students who are interested in poli sci and public policy, but relatively few of them are as strong quantitatively as you seem to be. I would suggest leaning into that, and looking for quant-heavy policy programs. That skill-set will set you apart and open doors after college. For example, how about this as a top-tier option at a mid-tier price? B.S. in Public Policy | School of Public Policy (And if you want to be artsy too, you can cross-register at SCAD Atlanta.)
Given your profile, I think you should really consider some prestigious LACs. Your profile appears to me a good fit with schools where interdisciplinary approaches are emphasized, so schools such as Williams, Amherst, Pomona, CMC could be possible options for you to consider. (Do check the cost tho!)
However, the OP’s intended major, public policy, which relies on the fields of political science, economics and philosophy for its foundation, will be inherently interdisciplinary at any school that offers such a program.
Although Williams and Amherst represent fine choices for many students, they do not offer majors in public policy. Nonetheless, LACs that do offer structured programs in public policy may suit the OP especially well, in my opinion.
I agree, but I think LACs can be a good fit because 1) the OP seems to have a lot of interests and may benefit from an interdisciplinary academic setting, beyond just the field of public policy, and 2) importantly, LACs also want students that may value and benefit from interdisciplinary approaches. I think OP’s profile would really speak to AOs at LACs, so I would really consider giving it a go.
In terms of public policy major, my question for OP is this – if the end goal is to work in public policy, would majors such as econ/politics be acceptable for you?
LAC’s have a lot of potential for the OP, in concept, but it seems clear that the family cannot full-pay for schools like Williams and Amherst (which do not offer merit) without blowing the budget for OP’s siblings.
Options with merit could include Denison (Policy Analysis track of the Politics & Public Affairs major), U of Richmond (PPEL major - they also offer arts-specific merit, which requires minoring, but not necessarily majoring, in the arts discipline), and for likely big merit, Earlham (Public Policy major) Also, William & Mary (already suggested by tsbna), which is really a research university with an LAC vibe, is top-notch for Public Policy, and the OOS sticker price, while costly at $71K/year, is still a solid $20K less than the no-merit elite privates. W&L, as previously mentioned - the Johnson Scholarship could definitely be within reach… and Gettysburg gives some generous scholarships too, and has good DC connections. (Public Policy - Gettysburg College)
I don’t see how the “Ivy+” schools on OP’s list, or the “Little Ivies” suggested here, are going to work if the family doesn’t have 400K to throw at their oldest child’s education, with at least two more kids in the college pipeline.
I still see Georgia Tech as the “bang for your buck” winner, but W&M is top-notch too, just a bit more expensive if merit doesn’t come through (which it might, but they just don’t give out a ton).
And then, apply to schools that give merit, and see whether you get a compelling offer.
I do not understand another poster’s suggestion of LACs for you (especially those which do not provide merit scholarship opportunities). Seems a bit inappropriate based on your accomplishments, your preferred major, future financial need due to siblings who will follow, and on your list of preferred schools which are all universities.
You should benefit from a university setting due to the availability of a myriad of opportunities including graduate level math courses. Seems to me that you need a lot of options that go well beyond the limitations of a small school.
Several posters (@tsbna44) have offered solid advice regarding National Universities.
If you do consider applying to small schools, then @aquapt has provided good suggestions of LACs which offer substantial merit scholarship opportunities.
If seeking merit scholarships, consider the Southern state flagship universities which offer substantial merit grant aid.
OP: Do you have any interest in attending a small college ?
A career in public policy obviously does not require graduate level math courses. To be blunt, I would suggest unless you already come from a well-connected family, you should think carefully about networking opportunities. And of course various LACs have very good networks in policy circles–not of course as large in scale, but very well-placed, with fewer people trying to make use of those networks. But of course there are also research universities with good policy networks, including ones that are not necessarily ranked high on generic lists, but are very well connected to prominent policy markets like DC.
Although I don’t know if this is at all relevant to the OP, I note if a LAC does not offer some graduate-level math topic of interest as a pre-established course, it may be possible to do it as an independent study, advanced topic seminar, senior thesis, or so on. The faculty overseeing such classes/projects are of course typically themselves PhDs from top math departments.
Finally, some LACs have partnerships with research universities where you can also take some graduate courses, although again that may not be necessary depending on what the college itself offers under various names.