Chance me for public policy (education/equity focus) @ t20 schools! [New England Resident, 1540 SAT, 4.0 GPA UW, 4.64 W]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): public competitive hs
  • Other special factors: none unless being queer counts

Cost Constraints / Budget
technically could afford pricier schools but would prefer not to (saving money for law school)

Intended Major(s): Public Policy!! or poli sci

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.67
  • Class Rank: n/a
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1540 SAT (1520 PSAT)

List your HS coursework

  • English: AP Literature, honors English prev 3 years
  • Math: AP Calculus AB, AP Stats, honors math 3 years
  • Science: AP Chem, Bio, Environmental Science, Honors Physics
  • History and social studies: AP Euro, AP Psych, APUSH, other honors courses, Honors understanding race
  • Language other than English: AP Spanish, honors prev 3 years
  • Visual or performing arts: not much tbh
  • Other academic courses: normal phys. ed, arts classes to graduate,

Awards

Girls Nation Senator (2025)

  • 1 of 102 delegates selected from 20,000 contenders

  • Won sponsored trip to D.C. to participate in mock senate

  • selected from state-wide girls state program

National Merit Semifinalist (2024)

Girl Scout Gold Award (2025)

Governors Citation

Presidential Volunteer Service Gold Award x2

Extracurriculars
- Education and Equity Chair of Governor’s Youth Council → accepted proposal and leading 35 council members, researched and proposed policies

- Town Commission Co-Chair (acc local government) + Liaison to school body → created events, a public incident tracker, engaged a lot of community members, first student commissioner

-fellow for state-based nonprofit and founder of summit → engaging 200 statewide students and 10 speakers, advocating for specific legislation, received 1.5k stipend

-cofounded of local cultural event created in response to local issue → 3500 annual attendees, received a grant and raised 10k for a nonprofit, became a 3 town event, town issue was addressed

-research assistant on education topic @ HYPSM (PAID) → reviewed cases and researched global educational policy thru fieldwork partnerships

-research assistant on misinformation and partisanship @ HYPSM → studied Econ games, learned qualtrics, analyzed survey data and policy trends, created survey stimuli

- legislative intern for statehouse representative → authored legislation that will be submitted to joint committee on education next session, other various interny things

-Girl Scout (self explanatory loll)

- president of cultural club → written about in my rec, 10 to 30 members, worked with admin on policy change and created school wide initiatives

-speech and debate → top 5 in event in my state, team mentor (not captain ;-:wink:

additional info:

-karate → 3x local champion, black belt, teacher

- team lead at local food gleaner organization

Essays/LORs/Other
personal statement: 7/10, idk anymore bro lmaooo about experiences where I failed

LOR 1: APUSH/Understanding Race Teacher and Club Advisor, 10/10 (he sent it to me lol)

LOR 2: AP Chem teacher, 7/10?? struggled a lot in class but ended with an A- because I worked my ass off, grades got better throughout year

Schools
northeastern EA

uva ea

uconn rd

unc chapel hill ea

barnard rd

umd ea

usc ea

american uni ea

georgetown ea (DREAM SCHOOL)

ivies

ucs

TLDR; I’ve been told I have a strong and cohesive profile but obviously this stuff is a crapshoot. Sorry I couldn’t provide more detailed information. Thank you all!

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If law school is your plan (which makes sense given your major), then saving money for law school is a very good idea. This does lead me to wonder: Have you run the NPCs for the schools that you are applying to?

As an example, Northeastern for us was in a near tie with one other school for the most expensive university that either daughter got accepted to (she went elsewhere and did very well). Of course your results may differ from ours.

What state are you from? Are you from California? If not then the UCs will be expensive. However, if you are from California, then the UCs are of course great schools and relatively reasonably priced.

Are you currently a junior and planning on applying a year from now, or are you currently a senior and already part way through sending in applications?

The eight Ivy League schools are not all the same. Have you thought about which ones would be the best fit for you? One way or another this is likely to come through in your applications.

You look like a highly competitive applicant for any university that you apply to. Of course so are the large majority of applicants to the highest ranked schools on your list. If “UCs” includes all of the Universities of California, and if “ivies” includes all eight Ivy League schools, then this is a lot of schools to apply to, but I do expect multiple acceptances from this list which will give you some choices when the time comes.

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Title says that the OP is from New England, which means costs around $80,000/year. Also OP would need a year of VPA for the UCs, which seems to be currently missing:

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A bit confused by the title - because I don’t see top 20 for the most part - if you say Ivies.

Are you full pay or do you have need?

If yo uare full pay, then Northeastern, UVA, Barnard, USC, Gtown, Ivies, UCs are $80K+. American may be. Some are far more.

If you’re from UCONN, it makes sense.

So you’re a great candidate for a lot of schools and I see you getting in.

But I struggle with wanting to save money for law school (great idea) and then picking a list like this.

You want to go to law school? Pick your in state public or pick a school where cost is low or automerit gets you a $20-25K all in cost thanks to merit. Or if you’re a NMSF, you can go for free. Or if you become NMF, you can also go free, etc.

Or how about a W&L and the Johnson Scholarship, etc.

Why? Look at the top law schools - Harvard has more than 100 schools represented in its first year class as does UVA. These aren’t large classes. Penn, too, and more than 200 schools represented in the overall law school. So Georgetown ($90K-ish) or George Mason, Barnard or Binghamton, etc., you, your LSAT and today more and more - work experience - will be what gets you into a top law school- which run $100K-ish and you can only borrow $200K-ish - not that you would want to - it’d be a financial killer.

So think about what you want to spend / what your budget is - and you may want to reassess - and if you’ve applied to all these, apply to schools to make budget.

Great list of schools and you can get in anywhere - but if you get in and want to save money for law school, unless you have demonstrated financial need, you’re going to put yourself in a pickle in regards to law school expense. And you might want to add some sure fire, low cost publics (your flagship, presumably UCONN) or if you are NMF, take advantage of the largesse of schools like Tulsa (free tuition, room), Alabama (5 years tuition - so you can even pick up a year+ of law school), four years room, and $4K a year - or others that will give free tuition, etc.

They won’t be the “name” you want - but they will save you $350-400K.

So to me, it comes down to - what you mean by this - technically could afford pricier schools but would prefer not to (saving money for law school)

If you truly meant this, and I assume you don’t have financial need, don’t take this the wrong way, but other than UCONN (assuming it’s your home state school), you didn’t do a good job assembling your list. You built a list to make you feel good (rank) without taking what you said about saving for law school into account.

It seems like you want to be near DC - UMD (you’ll get in) will be $60K with a small chance of merit. A GMU or even JMU if you can go a bit further, would be much less, as examples.

Good luck.

PS - examples of the 147 schools represented in the first year class at Harvard Law: ASU, Grand Valley State, Kansas, Ole Miss, Oklahoma State, Southern Maine, Tennessee and the list goes on and on - same at other top 8 law schools.

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@college_app2026 on that list of colleges, what do you think is your sure thing for acceptance, that you like and that is affordable?

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Costs are as hard to predict as admissions are because you’ll qualify for scholarships at a lot of schools, but in most cases you won’t know in advance.

As @tsbna44 has already said, the University of Tulsa offers free tuition and housing to National Merit Semifinalists.

At U of Alabama, you would at a minimum qualify for a presidential scholarship worth $28,000 and be eligible for additional awards.

Washington & Lee is particularly intriguing because it is a top 20 liberal arts college (your stated goal) and they offer full scholarships to the top 10% of the freshman class plus others to compete for. AND they are the rare liberal arts college which has its own law school. AND for someone interested in public policy, they have some very interesting majors in addition to the traditional Poli-Sci major:

  • Law, Justice, and Society
  • Education Policy
  • Poverty and Human Capability Studies
  • Environmental Studies

UConn has a number of generous scholarships for high achieving students both in state and out of state, some of which you specifically have to apply for. Check their scholarship page which has particularly attractive opportunities for in state students.

The following schools on your list all have acceptance rates below 15% (using out of state acceptance rates for state schools):

Georgetown
Ivies
Northeastern
Barnard
Virginia
North Carolina
USC
UCs

This means that while you are competitive for all of them, they reject students with your profile all the time. As you’ve said, a crap shoot. Some years ago, the president of the University of Chicago famously said, “If we removed our entire freshman class and replaced it with the next group, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”

It’s good that you list Maryland early action because admission is impossible during regular decision.

With your profile, your best chances for scholarship money will be at colleges where the acceptance rate is above 20%. Everyone has their favorites among these schools. For pre-law, mine would include Union College (NY), University of Rochester (NY), Dickinson College (. PA), University of Richmond (VA), Denison University (OH), and Macalester College (MN).

The other way to control costs is at state universities with favorable out of state prices. University of Maine and SUNY Albany will match the cost of your in state flagship. In my limited experience, SUNY Binghamton and UMass Amherst have been partial to out of state students in recent years and have reasonable out of state tuition or accessible scholarships.

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hi!! so my school requires two arts classes in freshman year that I took so I meet A-G requirements <33 thank you - I took ceramics and animation, I meant that I didn’t spend a lot of time on it in hs

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Hi! I only listed schools here that I was curious about my chances for. I have already been accepted to Penn State, am applying UConn + the STAMPs scholarship, and my state’s schools where I’m pretty much guaranteed acceptance + scholarship. Thank you!

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Penn State is near $60k. Can you afford that plus law school ?

Again, you applied to pricey schools. Getting Stamps is not something to hold out for. It’s awesome - someone will get it but with thousands of students, it’s highly unlikely to be you.

W&L, where 10% of enrollees, win the Johnson is a much better bet. Or SMU and the Presidential or College of Charleston and Fellows.

Again, it goes back to - not what you can afford but what do you want to spend to save for law school.

You mentioned that but it seems like it’s not built into your selections.

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Honestly I was having a hard time picking between the ivy league schools bc a) most are pretty close to me so not too far from home and b) I could see merits I really liked for each one of them. It helps that after my girls state/girls nation experience I had mentors going to those schools who were able to show me around a bit around the campuses! I also decided not to apply to Princeton and columbia but will be applying to stanford (given that my research mentor is moving to stanford and will be having her own center there that I want to be in). Sorry if I wasn’t specific enough in my original post :frowning:

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its mostly not built into my selection because I would be happy attending my state school with the scholarship I know I’ll receive. Beyond there, I’ve received multiple outside scholarships as well :slight_smile:

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You have been unclear about whether you might qualify for need based aid. Just be aware! Any outside scholarships MUST be reported to your colleges. These outside scholarships reduce your actual need, and sometimes also reduce your need based aid awards. You need to check each college on what their policy is re reducing need based aid because if outside scholarships.

Also, are your outside scholarships renewable for all four years? Very often, these are one time awards. So check that too.

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Ok. I don’t know how much those scholarships are for but the Ivies, Penn State, even likely NU - no $$.

If money matters and you’ll attend the home school, why bother with Ivies unless they are within budget (with the scholarships).

If you have an Achilles Heel it might be Calc AB vs BC at Ivies. And your SAT score may be considered low sans hook although it’s great. But apply and see.

In the end, you can likely go for $5k (national merit largesse) to $100k.

Your family should discuss those options if not aware - and factor in $300k plus for law school. I mean a UMD/PSU are great schools - but if you’d choose the local over them, why apply to begin with ?

Finances are far more important than anything else for folks with a budget..especially when planning for more school where your undergrad likely has little to no impact.

That’s how you should look at where to apply, not I want to go to a big name.

Good luck.

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My daughter has similar academic interests. She is curious about your Girls State experience. Would you be open to answering a few questions via DM?

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Delete - was incorrect post - was responding to a different one. Oops

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money is really not an issue for me as some of you all might think and I have no intention of attending community college. to be honest I’m quite happy with my college list and its been discussed thoroughly with my parents, I’m moreso thinking about the current schools on my list and my chances of being admitted :slight_smile:

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My understanding is that your research mentor knows you well. This might help your application, but it is hard to say not knowing how well tied in to Stanford they are currently and also given how selective Stanford is.

In an article in the alumni magazine a few years ago Stanford said that about 80% of applicants were academically qualified to attend and do well. You seem to be clearly in this 80%. Of course closer to 4% are accepted. These stats are somewhat stretched due to recruited athletes and legacy students (Stanford has quite a few athletic teams and does consider legacy status). However, having a research mentor who knows you and is associated with Stanford is a plus.

My wild guess is that your chances are similar to the overall acceptance rate, or maybe (?) marginally better.

Personally I loved Stanford and think that it is worth an application for a very strong student such as you. Of course it is a long way away for us east coast folks, but I think that it might be worth the travel. Whether it is worth the current cost of attendance is another issue (I got my master’s there a long time ago, so it was less expensive and the master’s was much quicker compared to a bachelor’s degree).

If you do go there, expect to work very hard, and be aware that since they are on the quarter system the end of the quarter comes up quickly and you better be ready.

Best wishes.

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As your acceptances arrive, this site may help you with your decision:

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Ok - you wrote this why there is the question.

I won’t go there again.

Good luck.

Ps - my response about a cc was meant for a different thread. Sorry about that.

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I’ll reiterate what I said above. Most of the schools on your list have acceptance rates of 5-15%. Chances of being accepted at these are not good for anyone, which is not to say that you won’t be. It’s just that they have rejection rates of 85-95% of a very well qualified applicant pool. No one can really predict with any certainty whether you will be accepted at any of these, one way or the other.

I think that your chances of acceptance at American, Maryland, and UConn are excellent although UConn with a STAMPS scholarship is a reach since only 5 are awarded each year. So, you have put together a very good list with a lot of reaches but also with some sure things, including Penn State and your state’s schools which you seem to be happy with.

Best of luck. :+1: :slightly_smiling_face:

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