Course Load (For senior year): Calc BC, AP Psych, AP Lit, AP French, Philosophy, Religion, and Music
Freshman: 3.68/4.0
Soph: 3.98/4.0
Junior 4.0/4.0
ECS:
Started a fundraiser in my school and community (neighborhood etc) to raise funds for educational disparities in a west african refugee camp
Yale young global scholar solving global challenges session. did a capston research project on education in refugee camps which actually inspired my fundraiser and i write about it in my why yale essay
Intern at ghanaian refugee aid foundation
Intern at french school in nigeria
president of my school’s french club which is the most attended club in school
Squash player, i play like 5x a week and play in leagues and im ranked in the top 50 in U.S. and top 10 in d.c.
volunteer at local bilingual school as teachers assistant for 1st grade language class
volunteer at 2 west african refugee camps as an english teacher to french speaking refugees
editor in chief of school newspaper
founder of cultural appreciation club. i organized the first all school cultural showcase
Awards:
Ap scholar with honor
national latin exam silver medal 2x
national french exam bronze medal
national french honor society
school honor roll
essays: my college counselor and everyone who has read them say they’re very good an creative. wrote about my love for baking and how that taught me perseverance for common app.
recs: good recs from my french and my philosophy teacher
could I also get a few suggestions for target schools in the east coast?
What a solid record! The party line here is that — with hyper-rejective schools like the ones on your list — there’s no way that we can give an accurate “chancing”. That being said, you’ve done a terrific job in high school, and I hope the application process goes well for you!
One area where we can be more helpful is with the request for targets.
The first place I like to look is College Navigator, which pulls IPEDS data and gives you a clunky-but-useful interface to filter it. I’ve done a preliminary search for you, to find schools on the east coast that accept more than 20% of applicants, that have a 25th percentile ACT score of 30, and that have an international relations major. That search (you can see it, or tweak it, here) returns 14 schools that meet those criteria (though one, Mount Holyoke, is a women’s college). (Five of them are medium-sized (like Yale, Brown, Princeton), and I’ve bolded those in the list below.)
Bennington College Bucknell University
Clark University
Connecticut College
Fordham University
George Washington University
Lafayette College Lehigh University
Skidmore College
University of Maryland-College Park University of Rochester Villanova University William & Mary
I’m not sure if you’ve investigated any of those already, or if any have stood out as schools you want to explore more deeply, but all of them are worth a look.
Another thing that would be helpful in terms of recommendations would be noting what your budget is for school. Have you had that conversation with your parents yet?
You have a great resume. I think you will find a good spot somewhere.
The above sentence caught my eye though. It is generally recommended that you have one LOR from a humanities teacher and one from a STEM teacher, especially for more selective colleges. Is it too late to get a STEM teacher on board?
There are a lot of great IR schools in what I would call the greater DC orbit.
Among universities, those would include William & Mary (which for a public actually feels much more like the privates on your current list), George Washington, and American for less reachy colleges (although typically American wants to see a lot of sincere demonstrated interest), and also Georgetown and Hopkins as more reachy options.
Although it isn’t East Coast, the Korbel School at the University of Denver has an excellent reputation for IR, and with your profile they may offer significant merit:
Among LACs, again in the DC orbit I would definitely check out Gettysburg. They have a couple distinct tracks in IR/Global Studies:
They also host the Eisenhower Institute, which has a lot of great programming:
One of those programs is the Fielding Fellows program, where among other things you do a research project for the State Department:
Yale, Brown, Princeton, Penn are reaches for just about everyone. Really apply and see. You are a strong student.
UVA…are you a VA resident?
I think these colleges all belong in the reach or close category.
I hope you also have some sure things on your application list, that are affordable, and that you like.
You attend a small private high school in DC. Your school counselors should have a sense of how applicants do at these colleges, as well as suggestions for others. Talk to them.
You didn’t ask for more but since others are giving - you may be a candidate for the Charleston Fellows and International Scholars program at College of Charleston. The school isn’t of the same ilk you are looking but the program is. Ivy accepted attend for the program which is interview only through Honors. My daughter did the DC semester through the school (which runs through U of SC Honors) and had no shortage of DC opportunities, ultimately interning for a renowned think tank.
Anytime I hear language and IR I think of Indiana. If you have UVA, this is another large public, one of the top schools for foreign language in the country and Hamilton Lugar is strong for IS/IR.
Just a few safeties should they be needed (Charleston programs aren’t safe but reasonable) for a smaller and urban school. IU is a safe UVA alternative.