Colleges I should apply to?

College Search & Lists
1

Hi! I am a high school senior looking to add a few more reach/match colleges to my list before I apply.

Here are my stats:

ACT: 33 (Math: 32, Science: 29, English: 35, Reading: 36)
PSAT: 1430 (National Merit Commended)
GPA: UW: 3.99, W: Not sure, but definitely near the top of my class
Class Rank: 14 of 410 unweighted, likely within the top 5 or 10 if weighted
AP: Sophomore: Seminar (4)
Junior: US History (5), Composition and Language (5), Physics (4), Calculus AB (4)
Senior : Economics (macro and micro), Research, Calculus BC, Environmental Science, US Government
Honor: World History
College Level: Spanish 103, Spanish 201

Extracurriculars (through senior year):

Varsity Cross Country for 4 years, member of a state ranked 3A team in a competitive state
5K time: 16:21 (I will run in college, whether on a team or just for fun.)

Varsity Track for three years (JV Freshman), 4:40 1600m time

National Honor Society for 3 years, Volunteer Coordinator Junior year, President Senior Year, organized school functions, projects, and volunteer events

Leadership: Class senator 9-11, School Treasurer senior year, presented workshops at statewide leadership conference, head of Logistics Committee for statewide arts festival, attended multiple leadership camps, have taken class for 4 years

School Board Representative: student representative for my school at the district level, shared my experiences and learned about the internal workings of the school system, presented information about my school to the board. Attended statewide policy conference.

Writing: I’ve won short story writing competitions in my county of 850,000 for high school aged authors for the past 3 years.

Service Project: I created a service project through the National Honor Society which compiles the short stories, poems, and essays of elementary students into a book published through Amazon. The students were asked to write broadly about the future, in order to stimulate critical thinking and literary skills. The books were published using funds from the NHS, meaning that all the students received their book free of charge. I am working with my library system and other schools to move this project onto a larger scale and into more disadvantaged communities. My eventual goal is to get schools throughout my region to take on my project, and create a network of high school writers helping each other throughout the self-publishing process.

Speech and Debate (9-11)- Public Forum debate. Quit senior year to focus on cross country.

Knowledge Bowl (11-12)

What I’m looking for:

Academics- Strong programs for economics, international relations, politics, or business. Strong placement in law schools or graduate programs.

Size- Anywhere from a liberal arts college to a mid-sized university (Around 5,000 undergrads).

Location- Location isn’t that important to me, but I have some preferences. Preferably in the western half of the US, but I’m open to going farther if there is a good match. I’d like it to be reasonably close to a city, but not right in it. I don’t care about weather as long as it isn’t super hot/humid.

Social Life- Active, but not crazy (primarily focused on academics). If there is skiing nearby, that would be a bonus. Frats are fine as long as they are fairly small and don’t dominate the school.

Athletics- I’ll run wherever I end up going, but I think I would be able to run on the teams of some D3 schools. If cross country could improve my chances at certain colleges, I’d be happy to apply.

This is my list of colleges right now:

UW Seattle- (in-state)
Claremont McKenna (denied ED 1)
Tufts University
Georgetown University (I might apply, but my odds aren’t good)
Carleton College
Pomona College
Colorado College
Grinnell College
Whitman College
Occidental College
Macalester College

Please suggest any colleges you think I might be interested in. Thank you!

2

You might want to consider a few liberal arts colleges in the East:

https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html

3

U Denver is worth a look as a safety with possible merit aid. IR is very strong there, and you have a great city with access to skiing.

I think you have a good list. What about Willamette?

4

UChicago (hard to get into, but best economics program in country)
USC (great undergrad business)
Michigan (great undergrad business)
Emory
Northwestern
Lehigh

5

Yes, I think you have a good list. I’d also second Denver.

I’d suggest you look at Holy Cross. It has excellent academics and is strong in your areas of interest. It’s terrific preparation for law school. Wachusett Mountain Ski Area is not far from campus. Many other ski areas are accessible for weekends. It is a commuter train trip into downtown Boston.

Bates and Colby in Maine might also be good fits. Top LACs near skiing. Colby, in particular, is strong in your areas of interest.

You might also look at Dickinson, if you haven’t already. It’s strength is in your areas of interest.

6

@wa2424 you have a really strong profile, sorry you didn’t get better news from CMC. You will definitely have some great choices this spring.

I like your list- you have a good mix of reachy types as well as matches and likelies. I would encourage you to consider Lewis & Clark if you are looking for another likely since it fits your criteria well and offers a strong global curriculum for IR. Did you also consider Scripps since Pomona is still on your list and you seem to like the consortium? Just curious.

7

Thanks for the help everyone! University of Denver seems like a great safety.

@TTG I looked into Colby, and it seems really great! The only problem is that its too far away from home/ too remote for me. Are there any similar colleges that are in more urban/suburban areas?

8

Regarding your preferences for setting, you could read through these articles for appropriate academic matches:

http://www.newsweek.com/25-most-desirable-suburban-schools-71867

http://www.newsweek.com/25-most-desirable-urban-schools-71889

9

There’s a lot of schools in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic that would fit your academic interests. Not too many are in suburban/urban areas; two that could fit would be Trinity and Bates.

Have you already been talking with D3 coaches as they have a limited # of tips they can use and they do have roster limits? To give you a frame of reference, on the top NESCAC teams they’ll be looking for a 4:20 1500 (which is the same as your 4:40 1600) as that’s the NESCAC Championships qualifying standard (1st place ran a 3:50 and the top-20 were all under 4:07), but you’ll want to get your XC time down to a 15:45 to be competitive at a top D3 program like Bates - Trinity isn’t as fast.

10

@chembiodad Thanks for the help! What are some schools in that area that aren’t urban/suburban? To be honest, location isn’t the most important factor to me.

11

In terms of graduate entry into highly regarded law schools, College Transitions includes Amherst, Hamilton, Middlebury, Pomona and Claremont McKenna as the liberal arts colleges among their top-20 schools. Georgetown, from your tentative list, is also included.

12

You have Pomona, but what about Pitzer if you like the Claremont schools?
Maybe Trinity University in Texas? Grinnell is really rural–not sure that fits with your preferences. Beloit or Lawrence more urban. Oberlin or Denison in Ohio would be welcoming to such a runner/student.

13

@wa2424, A number of your schools are listed. Holy Cross is an excellent suggestion. Wesleyan is another college to consider.

Great Schools for Political Science/Government Majors

Amherst
American U
Bates
Bard
Bowdoin
Bryn Mawr
BYU
Carleton
Claremont Mckenna
Clark U
Holy Cross
Columbia
Connecticut College
Davidson
Dickinson
Drew
Franklin and Marshall
George Mason
Georgetown
George Washington
Gettysburg
Gonzaga
Grinnell
Harvard
Kenyon
Macalester
McGill
Princeton
Scripps
Stanford
Swarthmore
Syracuse
UC Berkeley
UCLA
U Washington
Vassar
Wake Forest
Yale
Source: Princeton Review

Wesleyan and Colgate might be of interest.

14

Tufts is a great school in an urban area outside of Boston - 15 minutes from downtown Boston, so it has a city vibe but doesn’t have a traditional quad campus feel as some city streets cut through the campus.

The NESCAC schools are all great - there’s 11 in total. The ones with the highest avg. SAT/ACT scores (all 1400+ SAT / 33 ACT avg.) are, in order - Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Middlebury, and Wesleyan.

Amherst and Middlebury are top-10 Nationally ranked D3 teams so may be hard to run for as they recruit heavily and fill slots in ED; Williams is a top-30 Nationally ranked D3 team so also an uphill climb separate from admission.

Our DD is a freshman that runs xc/track for Hamilton. Her team wasn’t as fast as other schools that she was accepted to/could have run for like Bates, but Hamilton did qualify two female runners for D3 Nationals this year. That said she was a scorer all xc season so that made her feel great and her recruiting class was good so she knows they’ll keep getting stronger - and most importantly she felt that it was the best school that she was accepted to (she had a good academic profile - 35 ACT, 750-800 SAT 2’s, 3.8 UW/4.2 W GPA with 8 AP’s (AP Scholar with Distinction)). There are lots of Chicago and West Coast students at Hamilton - have you looked at it?

15

These aren’t great skiing options, but William and Mary and Richmond seem to otherwise fit your interests very well. William and Mary is very strong in those areas of interest. Robert Gates, James Comey, Jon Stewart, and Jen Psaki are all alums. It’s in a small town, adjacent to the historic area, with a moderate number of coffee shops, delis, restaurants, and pubs easy walking distance from a very beautiful campus.

Richmond also has a beautiful campus in a nice suburban area close to downtown Richmond (RVA), which his become a very popular destination for college students and young professionals in recent years. The nightlife area, The Fan, is very fun. Both are the right size and nice places. You seem like a strong candidate for both, and I’d definitely put Richmond in the match range. Good luck!

16

William and Mary and Richmond are D1 schools so running would not be possible.

17

OP, our DD is a Gov major and Economics minor - she’s interning for a Congressman now and next Summer, so on her way to Capital Hill. Hamilton has great Poli Sci and Econ programs - as @merc81 noted, its a top-20 feeder to the top law schools and also sends a lot of Econ grads to Wall Street (the Co-COO at Goldman Sachs is an alum).

18

@Chembiodad Hamilton sounds like a great choice, I’ll be sure to look further into it! What do you think my chances of getting in would be?

19

Our DD’s both found Hamilton to be a great mix of really smart, diverse, caring students and a very supportive faculty with a beautiful campus and buildings. They both were accepted to a bunch of similar schools, and in the end both chose to attend, although they are studying totally different things - Gov/Econ and Neuroscience.

The median Accepted Student scores for the Class of 2021 are:
Middle 50% testing ranges for accepted students:
New SAT: 1420-1510
Old SAT: 1430-1540
ACT Composite: 32-34
So, I think you have a good chance.

Here’s some videos that are great representations of Hamilton College - it’s a 1900 acre campus with 130 buildings so it feels big for a 2000 student LAC.
Hamilton As Home: https://youtu.be/7uEVIBgZR3Y
Hamilton A Promise: https://youtu.be/9MJ9PrxzNEU
Hamilton The 1st 200 Years https://youtu.be/OqpTWexocv4

PM me if you want the contact info for the coaches as they are very accessible.

20

@wa2424 Using student-level data provided by LinkedIn, the following colleges and universities send the highest percentage of graduates to “Wall Street.”

Amherst
Baruch
Boston College
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Georgetown
Harvard
Middlebury
NYU
Princeton
Rutgers
University of Michigan
University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania
Wake Forest
Wellesley
Villanova
Yale

Source * College Transitions*

Top CEO producing institutions adjusted for student enrollment.

Claremont McKenna
Dartmouth
Princeton
Holy Cross
Lehigh
Yale
Harvard
Davidson
Colorado School of Mines
West Point
Kettering
Stanford
Cornell
Williams
Wesleyan

Source *College Transitions *