If you look at the Rhodes Scholar lists, most are from top schools but every year there are one or two (out of only 32) from ‘surprise’ schools. Last year the regular suspects of Stanford and Harvard and service academies, but also Coe College, Eastern Mennonite, and Davidson. I think there are 2 factors - the nominee’s work and brilliance and a faculty member (or 2) who knows the system.
My daughter’s faculty at the U of Wyoming really want her to get a PhD (history). She is still deciding. She wasn’t even a history major when she started college so it isn’t necessary to plot out the path as an 18 year old. It can be done from any school. Mentorship is important (her #1 faculty mentor is a PhD from Harvard so knows the system). Her cohorts in her masters program were from many different schools, had credits from community colleges, had degrees in many subjects.
EA round over, newly accepted to Richmond, Northeastern (Oakland start), Gettysburg
Richmond/Northeastern are 40k, 35k with loans, will likely seek outside scholarship to cover the loan part, would be a financial stretch but not impossible
Waiting on aid from Trinity/SMU - these would need to outcompete Northeastern on price for me to attend
Nope. Your thoughts matter. I just eschew debt. And btw Boston will be pricey off campus.
There’s other cheaper you can still apply to.
Debt can be strangling, you may be in grad school and taking on debt today will impact options you have in the future - more likely removing flexibility to make the choices you want. If you were an accountant or engineer, it would be ok. Plus don’t forget debt comes with upfront fees and interest.
You initially said $15-20k and talked about auto merit like Bama and Ole Miss to get you under $20k. Ole Miss is strong in International Politics.
Best of luck on whatever you choose. And congrats on your options - even the one you can see everyday
Ps - some career color from a solid LAC Kenyon - these are first jobs their poli sci students had. My poli sci / into studies kid aligns. I’m sure plenty went to grad school too
Assistant editor, The National Interest magazine, Washington
Director of university journalism program, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Wilmington, Delaware
Associate, CIBC World Markets, New York
Research assistant, American Enterprise Institute, Washington
Sixth-grade teacher, Oakland, California
Legislative associate, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Washington
Business analyst, McKinsey and Company, Chicago
Staff member, Urban Institute, Washington
Research and reporting, Global Securities Lending, Bank of New York Mellon, New York
Consultant, Nomura Research Institute, Tokyo
Internship, Minor League Baseball, Idaho Falls, Idaho
Elementary school teacher, Teach for America, Baltimore
Tourism intern, World Wildlife Fund, Namibia
Research assistant, Hudson Institute, Washington
Field organizer, Ohio Democratic Party
Online marketing fellow, Bully Pulpit Interactive, Washington
Case assistant, Irell & Manella, LLP, Los Angeles
Robert L. Bartley Fellow, Wall Street Journal
Assistant canvas director, Fund for the Public Interest, Minneapolis
Business services trainee, Latham & Watkins, New York
I agree - I don’t plan on taking out debt and my parents will only let me if I insist on it
I mentioned that to say both costs, and I plan on finding outside scholarships to cover the differential (if I get any addl outside scholarships, all of the need schools will reduce my need aid accordingly)
If I still have the options I have now, I’d probably switch to a combined Pols/CS major at Northeastern and skip law school, trying to get a job out of college
I think that either Ole Miss or Bama are far too much party schools for me, and that I would be really frustrated at either school - to a lesser extent TAMU/SMU
I’d live off campus at TAMU which is still around 30k in total costs, same at Bama (with transportation, etc) - inflation is coming for us all! I’ve been on the ground with parents pretty regularly about all this (college stuff has all been me) and they don’t have any concerns
I also got Eisenhower at Gburg which made it 34k without loans and 27k with them so that’s fine but I don’t really have any interest in going there
I actually applied to Kenyon so that’s cool good to see that they’re finding those jobs out of there
Every school on your list is a party school to some extent and every school has a large percentage that don’t.
But there are also other low cost small schools - like a Truman State or UAH. I just mentioned those two. Small schools have auto merit too. Did u check Tulsa ?
Bama is $49188 minus $28k. So no way $30k, even with transport. And you’ll save off campus.
Ole Miss is under $35k for tuition room and board. You get $28440 off. If I have it right, $7k a year. If I have it right.
Yep there’s trade offs.
There’s also more aggressive LACs but may be too late. Hendrix and Ogelthorpe will match UT tuition. And more but lower ranked.
Anyway you’re clearly on top of your game so whatever you choose will be great.
As for outside, check car dealers, your parents employers any local groups. If you have merit aid (public schools), they won’t take away. But need will.
I’m fine with how things are going; I don’t want more applications.
I just want to keep y’all updated, especially because y’all did me a huge favor telling me about the schools I applied to and helping me find my niche!
Thanks so much for the update, @jameshawkings, and congrats on the additional acceptances!
I just made this table to help keep track of where you applied and what the results were. Do I have all of the schools? Did you end up applying to Brown and Emory, or did you end up deciding not to apply? Is any of this information incomplete or incorrect?
School
Decision
Merit $
Additional Info
Brown
Colby
Denison
Interviewed
Drake
Accepted
$34k
Invited to apply for other scholarships
Georgetown
Deferred
Interviewed
Gettysburg
Accepted
$52k
Received Eisenhower
Grinnell
Kenyon
Macalester
Accepted
$20k
Interviewed; financial aid package less than stellar
Northeastern
Accepted with Oakland start
Oberlin
Interviewed
Richmond
Accepted
$22k
SMU
Accepted
$30k
Invited to apply for Presdients’
TAMU
Accepted
Trinity U.
Accepted
$33k
Interviewed; invited to try for Tower
U. of Alabama
Accepted
$28k
Honors program; applied for Witt Fellows
UGA
Accepted
Honors program
U. of Minnesota
Accepted
$15k
Honors program
UT Austin
Deferred
W&L
Interviewed
WashU
Wesleyan
Congratulations on receiving the Eisenhower! That’s a wonderful program for someone with your interests.
I just want to note that when you’re comparing offers from colleges, I would strongly recommend only looking at direct-billed costs from the university in order to make an apples to apples comparison. I recommend that because some schools are more generous than others in terms of budgeting for transportation, books, personal expenses, etc, whereas most of those expenses will probably be pretty similar no matter which college you attend.
So for Gettysburg, it would be $66,640 for tuition and fees + $16,110 for room & board for a total of $82,750 in direct-billed fees - $52k Eisenhower scholarship for $30,750/year prior to any loans. You’d want to do this for all the schools that you receive offers from so you can have fair comparisons when looking at the financial implications.
That all looks good, only updates are that I didn’t make Johnson or Fellowship, I got 22k President’s at Richmond, and the three financial aid packages I got were 40k-ish at Northeastern, Mac, and Richmond
And I applied to Brown but switched Emory for Kenyon
Thanks for the info. I updated the chart based on your post. I only entered the merit scholarship data as others’ financials are likely to look different than yours, but they can see how a student with your profile ended up doing in terms of merit aid. Just usefulness for others’ future research.
Congratulations, that’s wonderful news! A terrific school in a state capital with in-state pricing and the major you want! Appreciate the continued updates.
waiting on brown/georgetown but not expecting anything
Any thoughts on UT versus Wesleyan? They cost about the same after aid, but distance does add uncertainty and expenses. I do think wesleyan is a better fit though
Good point - I haven’t visited yet (visiting UT saturday), we’re considering a visit up there but it is expensive… I was basing that on
a) clubs at UT are (anecdotally) competitive and I would rather have collaborative
b) open curriculum at Wes
c) nice living options up there, don’t have to scramble for housing like overcrowded UT
Concerns aren’t homesickness, but parents are concerned about what if there is an emergency up there - far away from family, friends, etc.
Transport is an inconvenience - what do you mean by that - that it’s not a significant factor?
