Excellent colleges for chemistry and social sciences

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1

Hello: My senior is interested in a double major - social sciences (policy/ international relations/ political science) and chemistry (as a science i.e., not engineering). I would appreciate any advise/ information on two things:

  • names of colleges that you would consider “excellent” for a double major in the above (other than the public and private Ivies and Stanford, MIT).
  • what makes the college “excellent” in your opinion for these two majors.

Some info about my child:
Preferred college location: Urban setting
GPA: 4.0 (top 1% in a class of >500)
APs: 14 (two 4s, rest are 5s); two university math courses for high school credit
ACT: 36 (writing is a 9)
Subject SAT: 800 (Math 2, Chem)
ECs: 1 science related EC and 1 humanities related EC, both pursued since grade 9, decent spike in the humanities related EC (nationally ranked). Leadership positions and community service related to these two activities. Both activities are related to intended double major.
Demographics: Asian male from Florida with undecided career goals.
Finances: EFC = COA (based on some NPCs I have run). Not totally convinced a degree is worth $300K but will consider paying full price if the college has a solid reputation when it comes to quality of education and employment prospects.
Thanks for any information you can share, whether directly or indirectly related to my query.

2

Welcome to CC! I edited your title slightly since public policy, IR, and poli sci are social sciences rather than humanities.

There are relatively few undergraduate programs in public policy. I provided a more or less complete list, along with the numbers of graduating majors, in a post about a year ago.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21743562#Comment_21743562

The “Inside the Ivory Tower” ranking of undergraduate schools for a career in IR may also interest you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_the_Ivory_Tower

Johns Hopkins, Chicago, USC, and Tufts have very solid programs in chemistry as well as the social sciences.

Is he interested in liberal arts colleges? Macalester in Minnesota immediately comes to mind for his interests. Pomona and Claremont McKenna are worth a look too, although they’re in the suburbs and quite a hike from LA.

3

For chemistry, you can look at ACS approval as a baseline standard: https://webapplications.acs.org/Applications/CPTASL/app_list_search.cfm . Of course, each chemistry department may have additional electives and offerings beyond the baseline.

For political science, you can look up department web pages, faculty rosters/profiles, and course catalogs/schedules to see what each offers.

Regarding the “undecided career goals”, are there any potential goals that he may be deciding between?

Do the Florida public universities look good for you and him?

4

GW has a new degree, a BS in International Affairs, which encourages a double major with a science (BS in Chemistry for example).
The IA degree is comprehensive and requires many courses. Prior to the new BS degree option, it was difficult to double major in IA and a hard science and graduate in 4 years. My advice is to look carefully at the required sequence of courses at all schools considered.
Your son would most likely be offered a sizable merit scholarship if he shows a genuine interest in attending (GW freezes tuition for 10 semesters which is nice for planning).

5

Based on your son’s decided preference for an urban environment, he may want to consider schools from this article: https://www.newsweek.com/25-most-desirable-urban-schools-71889.

If its humanities intensive core curriculum would be acceptable, why not Columbia?

6

A large core curriculum that does not overlap with one or both majors may crowd out the ability to fit both majors into 8 semesters of normal course loads.

7

That is an interesting combination, one that might lead to a fine career related to environmental policy (or something like that). Any of the schools on the “Ivory Tower” list (see @warblersrule’s post #1 above) should cover his social science interests well. I’d focus on schools that also have (a) STEM strengths and (b) locations rich in internship opportunities. Tufts and JHU come to mind. Also UChicago, Columbia, and Georgetown (although the latter may be a bit weaker on the STEM side, and UChicago/Columbia have heavy Core requirements). URochester and GWU are less selective than any of those. State universities (like Minnesota or Pittsburgh) generally offer much lower sticker prices, even for OOS students, than selective private schools.

8

As a safety: University of Delaware - solid chemistry program (think DuPont) and a unique interdisciplinary policy program https://www.udel.edu/apply/undergraduate-admissions/major-finder/energy-environmental-policy/

9

Thank you all for your informative and thoughtful responses. I will research the suggestions to figure out if they should be on our list.
@warblersrule LACs never came up in our discussion but I suppose they are worth a look. However, without an aid package, I would not consider paying a fancy price for them. Heard of Pomona but not the others. Appreciate the links.
@ucbalumnus It is undecided for now especially since we support him taking time to zero in on a career choice. UF is our top choice for in-state, the downside being it being a small university town.
@txstella GW would be worth a look, given the information you shared about the new degree and the scholarship opportunity. GW was not on our list earlier.
@merc81 I checked the list and noted the costs. Amazing how costs have ballooned over 10 years! The issue with Columbia is the core curriculum. Son is not a fan.
@tk21769 That is an interesting suggestion. I will discuss the environmental policy suggestion with my son as a possible career option.
@ChillDad Added to our research list. Good point about possible DuPont collaboration.