Junior, 4.0/4.94, 1400 SAT, pre-law? [MD resident]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US citizen
  • Maryland
  • Competitive public high school
  • Not first generation

Cost Constraints / Budget
Cost won’t be a determining factor thanks to my parents, but obviously the lower the better

Intended Major(s)
Political science?

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.96
  • Class Rank: N/A
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1400 in October of junior year, retaking in March and aiming for a 1450

List your HS coursework

  • English: AP Seminar, AP Lang (currently), taking AP Lit and AP Research next year
  • Math: AP Calc AB (currently), taking AP Stat next year
  • Science: taking honors physics this year, n/a next year
  • History and social studies: AP Gov, APUSH, AP World (currently)
  • Language other than English: Honors Spanish 1-5
  • Visual or performing arts: AP Art History (currently)
  • Other academic courses: In a public humanities program, so program-specific courses

Awards
Qualified for national trivia competition (couldn’t attend :sob:)

Extracurriculars
Political Advocacy Club - founder/president
County-wide student legal journal - writer
NEHS - officer
Quiz bowl club
Tutor
Hospital volunteer

Schools
The only deal-breaker is that it has to be somewhat close to home, so mid-Atlantic or Northeast area. Obviously not aiming for Ivies lol, just want to start building a realistic list. As for chancing, maybe UMD (test optional) and GW? TIA!!

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Besides your stats, you need to give us an idea of the type of school you would like. E.g. small or large, public or private, urban, rural suburban, greek or no greek, etc.

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For Poli sci and close to home, you have many.

But it’s hard to say cost doesn’t matter but the lower the better.

Pre law is not a major. It’s an intention that one day I might go to law school. You can major in anything.

The obvious school in addition to UMD - assuming you are in the Baltimore / DC area is UDel. You can apply to those two and be done.

But you can add a JMU, Pitt If four hours ok and even a Binghamton.

If you want small or smaller, a St Mary’s, Christopher Newport, or Mary Washington. You have AU and GW too.

If you want an LAC, plenty of close ones abound such as Gettysburg, Dickinson, F&M, and more.

Define two things - budget (don’t say none but the lower the better - are your parents ok so ending $375-400k over four years plus another $300k for law ?

Or do they have a desired spend ?

But depending on the type of school you want (size, environment, cost), you can be done app wise pretty quickly.

And you can manor in anything for law school, including polo sci which you list as possible - and UDEL, UMD, and Pitt would all be fantastic and you’d be in at two, if not all three. Get that SAT to 1450 and submit to UMD. But you have a chance either way. For GW, it’s very different with its urban-ness. Get on their mailing list and demonstrate interest. Like UMD possible but not assured. Willing to pay in full will help. A lot !!

Good luck.

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I agree you can major in anything, and really the most important thing academically is to get the best possible grades. This can mean choosing a program where there is enough flexibility to do whatever is going best for you in college. Fortunately most Arts and Sciences programs, either when they are the whole college or when they are a major subdivision within a university’s undergrad program, have that sort of flexibility.

Then you do likely want to carefully watch costs, because to the extent you can minimize debt coming out of law school someday, that maximizes your viable choices for jobs at that point, which is really nice because a lot of the early career law jobs that pay particularly well are not really what many young lawyers want to be doing.

I’ll admit I do not really know much about Maryland’s undergraduate structure, but I gather you can do something called Letters and Sciences before declaring a specific major? Sounds promising. I assume they also would count as relatively affordable, so that sounds like one solid choice. As for chances, I really don’t know, but hopefully this is something where your HS counselor would actually have good information (they should for in-state flagship admissions at a competitive public high school).

In terms of other options, it all depends on affordability, but I do think if you are interested in politics, it can be nice to be in the greater DC orbit, which happens to also match your proximity criterion. But then there are so many–GW and American obviously, William & Mary, Delaware . . . .

I also agree that LACs can be great for people with law school interests, and suitable ones would include Gettysburg, Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Washington College, St Mary’s, St Johns if their approach appeals . . . . You could also look a little farther at Lafayette, Muhlenberg, Susquehanna, Ursinus, Juniata . . . .

Of course affordability remains a possible concern, but some of these have a decent amount of merit, so maybe that would help make some of them competitive on costs.

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If you would like to explore a little, look into Bates, which I’d recommend for — among other its attributes related to your interests and profile — its notably strong Politics major. If you like Bates, then you may like other colleges of its type.

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William and Mary would be good. But as an OOS student, it might be a harder acceptance…perhaps someone else can comment. WM has a presence in DC, and students can do their studies there for a semester. At least.

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It comes down to OP’s budget which is in undefinable - the proverbial cost won’t be determining but the lower the better. W&M is expensive with virtually zero merit chance for OP. W&M appears tougher for females than males, at least acceptance rate wise.

If costs matter (and I think OP needs to have that parental discussion and zero in on a desired #), JMU, UMW, or CNU will be better assuming they fit OP’s desires as admissibility and cost are all superior.

Most every school has either a DC semester/summer or utilizes American. That’s not proprietary to W&M.

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With the OP’s credentials I would think they are competitive for W&M. But it is a hard enough admit OOS it should probably be considered a Reach. However, I would definitely suggest considering them as a possible Reach, unless the cost would be too high (they are cheaper than comparable privates without merit, but expensive for OOS).

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Thank you for the responses so far! I did talk to my parents and they said we have about $210k saved. Some other factors: I’d prefer something with access to a city even if it’s not in the city, medium or large in terms of population, and I don’t care about Greek life either way. Near DC would be the better but as long as it’s in the Northeast / mid-Atlantic (due to family) that’s okay.

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American University…but you must show a lot of interest in this school if you apply.

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Please see my initial note. All would work except maybe Pitt - about four hours and St Mary’s.

Ps - if you spend less, you have money left for grad school.

Good luck.

But based on your note - if you mean medium to large population of school - you can apply to UMD, UDel, and JMU. If you wanted another you could add GMU or UMBC or Towson.

If you meant near any level of society medium or large - you can look at Mary Washington, CNU, and American.

Or for small schools in society, Dickinson and Franklin & Marshall supplemented with the previous paragraph.

Given your profile, you can build a varied list of a few schools that meet your school size and city size list - and be done very quickly. Just wasn’t sure what you wanted ‘medium’ or ‘large’ - but if it’s the school, those 3 schools I noted up top would be enough to give you affordable opportunities -plural.

You should go visit and confirm they are what you desire.

Good luck.

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You need to keep costs low because you need to save something for law school. If that 4.0/4.96 is out of a potential 5.0 weighted GPA, then you have a very high GPA. Keep it up! That is fantastic.

Over Xmas break, do a trial test of the ACT from their website. Some people are better-suited to the ACT than the SAT. My kid’s PSAT was nothing special - I don’t think they even got a commendation. But they did the practice ACT and thought that they could more easily prep for that, did a lot of self-prep, and got a 36 in one shot. So it’s worth checking out. If you can get a high standardized test score, it might put you in the running for merit money.

Obviously, U Md college park. Honestly, you cannot afford the private colleges without significant fin aid. They’re close to 90K/yr, so you’d need them to give you like 40K off per year - and unless your family meets the school’s criteria, you’re not going to get that, maybe not anything. They’ve saved enough to comfortably cover you for U Md, with maybe a little left over.

Sure, apply to other schools, but you’ve got to consider the finances. Look into whether or not you’d qualify for fin aid anywhere by running their net price calculators. Push that standardized test score higher. But U Md is a great option for you.

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That was just what I was thinking when I saw the $210,000 number. UMD is a very good university. Being in-state should make it affordable. Hopefully if you get your bachelor’s degree with some $$ left in the bank, this can be used to help you with law school.

Someone from Maryland with an unweighted 4.0 GPA might think that they did not need quite this high of a high school GPA to get into their in-state flagship. However, having a 4.0 in high school suggests that you are very well prepared to do well at UMD or another university. To gain admissions to a good law school your university grades will matter a lot, and being very well prepared to do well in university is going to help you quite a bit. You great results up to now are definitely going to continue to help you going forward regardless of where you attend university. If you qualify for merit aid then this can again help you quite a bit in helping to save some $$ for law school, or for any other graduate degree.

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When you apply to UMD CP, make sure you do so in the early action round. They accept about 90% of their incoming class in the early round!

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Thank you all for the help!! Happy late Thanksgiving :slight_smile:

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Take a look at George Mason University and its net price calculator. You may qualify for up to $18k in merit scholarship.

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Yes, George Mason is worth a look. They have a reputable 3+3 BA-to-JD program which not only saves you a year of study but also a year of tuition. That not only saves a year of cost but replaces it with a year of earnings at a lawyer’s salary.

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Here’s my advice. Law school is ridiculously expensive, so it’s good to save as much of that savings as you can to reduce debt. Therefore, I recommend UMD. Plus they have a top ranked law school.

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