Match D26, IL resident, 3.9 GPA, 1470 SAT, Political Science

Chance Me / Match Me
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Daughter will graduate in '26. Rising senior at public high school in Chicago suburbs.

Political Science major

Approximately 3.9 unweighted GPA, 1470 SAT (will take again next month)

AP Bio (5), AP Euro (4), AP US History, AP Macro, AP Spanish Lang, AP Lang completed. Waiting on scores for 4 APs taken junior year.

Will take AP Lit, AP Music Theory, AP Comparative Gov, AP Gov, AP Environmental Science, and AP Calc AB next year, for a total of 12 AP.

Additional honors classes taken as available.

ECs: Key Club (has held several state-wide positions on state/international board), Model UN, NHS, Rho Kappa, Spanish Honor Society, English Honor Society, Chamber Chorus, Theater, DJ and student program director on high school radio station, varsity athlete. Multiple awards and commendations.

Volunteer at local animal shelter past two summers.

Excellent, creative writer, who will put a lot of thought and effort into essays.

Looking at LACs, up to 3,000 students, prefers East Coast, but considering schools in MN, Ohio, NY and PA.

Would strongly prefer a progressive, civic minded school. Artsy, quirky and diverse preferable, not interested in Greek life.

We are unlikely to qualify for need based aid and we will need merit to make attendance feasible, as we will have three in college in Fall 2026 (oldest will be in her 4th year but will be in a graduate program and does not appear to be a consideration for need based aid).

Daughter’s list so far, asteriks are schools we have visited or will visit this summer:

Reaches:
Williams*
Bates
Vassar* (plan to drive through but will not tour)
Wesleyan
Carleton*
Grinnell*
Smith*
Skidmore*

Matches:
Macalester*
Kenyon*
Oberlin*
Dickinson

Safeties:
St. Lawrence*
Bard*
St. Olaf*
Lawrence (WI)*

I have suggested she apply to no more than 4 reaches, particularly because most of them would likely not offer any money.

So far we have only been to the MN schools. She loved Carleton and Mac but was iffy on St. Olaf, although she loved their music program. She would like to continue with chorus in college.

Skidmore, Smith, Kenyon, Oberlin and Dickinson seem like places she would like, though none are easy admits. I also am curious to hear more about Bard.

Our summer plans include a trip to NY to visit St. Lawrence, Skidmore, Williams, Smith and Bard, which I hope is a “loop” that is doable in a week. Also hoping to drive through Vassar and Union if time allows.

Daughter will also visit Ohio with her dad to see Kenyon and Oberlin, possibly Wooster.

Please share your thoughts, we have found this website very helpful. I think she needs to get her list down to 12 schools.

As of now, no clear front runner for ED and not sure she will do this, though I realized it would help a lot with her reaches. Just not sure we can commit before knowing the final COA.

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I would have your family run the Net Price Calculator for Williams as I suspect it is the most generous in defining need of the schools on your list. If it doesn’t come back as affordable, then I would remove Williams, Bates, Vassar, and Wesleyan as none of them offer merit aid. If Carleton’s NPC does not come back as affordable and you need more than $12k/year in aid (National Merit plus the Strong or Fritch Scholarship…source), then I don’t see a route to affordability there either.

Speaking of max scholarships, you can either let us know the budget or you should go to each school’s website to find out what the maximum award size is. Depending on the price point you want to meet, a school may not offer enough merit aid to get there, and those colleges should be eliminated.

If your family runs the Net Price Calculator for a school (making sure to do this after the NPCs roll over to estimate costs for SY26-27) and the price comes back within budget, save the result. If your family then applies to an ED school and the offer does not align with the NPC, she can appeal with the NPC or withdraw due to cost. Additionally, having the saved NPC results helps in the spring if a college’s financial aid offer is significantly different and can help in any appeals for more aid.

I tend to chance conservatively, but below are my guesses as to your D’s chances for admission to the colleges on this list, since not everyone means the same things with reach/target/safety.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Lawrence

Likely (60-79%)

  • Bard

  • St. Lawrence

  • St. Olaf

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • Dickinson

Lower Probability (20-39%)

  • Carleton

  • Kenyon (leaning likelier)

  • Macalester (leaning likelier)

  • Oberlin (leaning likelier)

  • Smith

  • Skidmore (leaning likelier)

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • Bates

  • Grinnell

  • Vassar (leaning likelier)

  • Wesleyan (leaning likelier)

  • Williams

The schools that I indicated were (leaning likelier) I think are probably at the top of the range or the bottom of the next, but I’d rather group in the more competitive bucket because I’d prefer to set expectations conservatively and have pleasant surprises than be too aggressive and end up with disappointments.

Additionally, the schools where your D stands out even more against the competition are likelier to offer her more merit aid to try and entice her to attend. So again, depending on the price point your family has in mind, that’s something to consider in how to weight the list between lower and higher probability admits.

Midwestern states tend to be more generous with merit than their East Cost counterparts.

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NY trip has a lot of schools near each other, the outlier is St. Lawrence. Easier to get there from Montreal! If you are driving from Chicago to this area, not LACs, but Case Western and Rochester are not too large, good schools.

“Would strongly prefer a progressive, civic minded school. Artsy, quirky and diverse preferable, not interested in Greek life.” - Skidmore fits this. Another option would be Clark, more urban option, might offer $.

For poli sci, Dickinson, Skidmore, Union all about 30 min from state capitals.

If you check out Dickinson, Gettysburg close by, Franklin & Marshall also.

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Helpful input! We are flying into Syracuse from Chicago. I am not certain St. Lawrence is a fit but my daughter wants to see it. Would love to get to Dickinson, but it is a distance from these other schools. Daughter is not excited about Grinnell (rural Iowa) so this unlikely is ok. Her dream school is Bates, but we have not visited. She knows Williams is a reach in all respects. I think her best application pool right now is Carleton, Smith, Skidmore, Mac, Oberlin, Kenyon, Dickinson, Bard, St. Lawrence. Maybe throw in Vassar or Wes, Mt. Holyoke, and Lawrence and or St. Olaf to get to 12 schools.

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In your OP you mentioned safeties, which I think should meet three criteria. 1) Highly likely to accept the applicant, 2) Highly likely to be affordable for the applicant’s family, and 3) a school where the student would be happy to enroll and attend for four years.

If the NPC at a school asks for academic stats and indicates a minimum amount of merit aid that your D would receive, bringing the school within budget, then that school could probably then be called a safety (if your D would be happy to enroll there).

Since you titled this as Match My D, I’m going to offer a few other schools that she may want to consider, all of which I think would be extremely likely admits for her. Two are in Iowa, in part because she’s interested in political science. Iowa is a terrific state for people interested in American presidential politics because of the early caucus here. I also added two other New York schools that might be worth considering, even though they’re a bit larger than the preferred max size. One of them (SUNY Geneseo) would be guaranteed affordable, if the tuition at UIUC is affordable for your family.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Drake (IA): About 2700 undergrads. Unlike Grinnell (and Luther) this in a city, and for someone interested in political science and music, I think it could be a great place. I wrote more about it in this post.

  • Gustavus Adolphus (MN): About 2k undergrads. About the same distance from Minneapolis as St. Olaf/Carleton. Strong academics and music.

  • Ithaca (NY): About 4400 undergrads. Larger than the desired max, but strong academics, strong music program, I think the vibe will be just right, and students can cross-register for classes at Cornell.

  • Luther (IA): About 1500 undergrads. If she’s not a fan of Grinnell because of its location, then this one might be off, too. But it has strong music and it’s in Iowa…which means lots of political campaigning by presidential hopefuls.

  • SUNY Geneseo (NY): About 3900 undergrads. This is NY’s premier public liberal arts college and it participates in the SUNY flagship match program…meaning that tuition would cost not more than it would cost at UIUC (source).

Likely (60-79%)

Toss-Up (40-59%)

Lower Probability (20-39%)

Low Probability (less than 20%)

This map shows the locations of Ithaca and Geneseo in relation to the rest of your family’s planned itinerary (and Rochester that @overlyinvolveddad mentioned).

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image1394Ă—862 203 KB

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Geneseo is my alma mater, and I was almost a political science major there. They used to have a strong program in prepping for the foreign service exam. Very small OOS population, so they found money to woo them.

Ithaca shares its namesake city with Cornell. Wonderful college town, and fits the desired social aspects. Beautiful waterfalls in the area. Seneca Falls nearby would be a great stop for women’s history.

Another social match, safety academically, would be SUNY-New Paltz. In the Woodstock area, only 15-20 minutes from Vassar.

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Among these you are considering throwing in…(I believe only) Wesleyan has no supplemental essay so it’s easy to add with the click of a button if you don’t mind paying the application fee.

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I’m confused about the financial aspect.

If you need merit (I totally get it with multiple tuitions to be paying simultaneously) and aren’t going to get any need based aid-- take those “need only” schools off the list RIGHT NOW. No point in falling in love with Williams if it’s out of reach financially. Ditto some of the others.

The wish list is quite realistic in terms of vibe, culture, academic programs-- so NO need to pad it with schools which you won’t be able to afford. Drill down on the ones that are within range.

agree that Clark is an excellent addition.

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If she loves Bates and Skidmore, I would look at Conn College, which offers merit and is a similar vibe (those were my daughter’s final 3), while being less of a reach.

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I had the same thought. I have seen a lot of kids get excited about an admission offer that it turns out their family cannot afford. That ends up way more distressful than simply never applying, and additional rejections are not fun either. So applying to a Reachy school you cannot afford is a lose-lose situation.

I don’t actually think this kid really NEEDS to apply to a lot of places–they have a pretty well-considered list without the need-only Reaches. But if I was going to add more, it would be to add more colleges with robust merit programs, because sometimes a college that wants you bad enough will really step up to the plate with a nice offer.

This is a pretty handy first cut resource, which I understand was scraped from Common Data Set entries:

In my ideal world they would do the math to subtract the last column (Average Merit Award for undergrads without need) from the second column (Cost of Attendance OOS), but you can do that yourself.

So like near the top, Allegheny is a really nice LAC that in my circles appeals to kids like the one described. It has a $31511 average merit award (w/o need) in the last column, $74190 OOS COA in the second column, and that nets out to $42679. That’s not any sort of guarantee, and indeed it is looking backward not forward, but it is pretty promising.

Another like that is Kalamazoo, another really nice LAC that has crossover appeal to kids I know who like Macalester and so on. $76740 COA, $37159 average merit award (w/o need), net COA $39590. Again, pretty promising.

Someone else mentioned Gettysburg, which is a great choice for people interested in Political Science or Public Policy, including because it is a DC orbit school, and because of the Eisenhower Institute:

$28897 average award, $86450 COA, net $57553. Not as favorable as Allegheny or Kalamazoo–again as another poster noted, there is a pretty discernable pattern in terms of location and merit/net COA–but still pretty good by East Coast standards.

But again, I don’t really think this kid needs a ton more of these. Like St Olaf is already a good choice–$75890 COA, $26209 average merit, $49681 net COA. Lawrence is also a VERY solid choice–$71697 COA, $33316 average merit, $38381 net COA. But the kid was “iffy” on St Olaf, so maybe some more competition in that part of the list is warranted.

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We don’t exactly know your budget, but it seems to me that Bates will be costly for you…like the other schools that don’t give merit aid.

I agree Conn College is an option. Fairfield University might be worth looking at. Denison in Ohio is a possibility but I’m not sure what your cost will be.

American University is a good choice for poly sci majors…and they do give merit aid. Your student would need to show interest to this school for consideration, and it’s larger than 3000 students.

When someone says political science, I always think colleges in or very near state capitals should be considered. SUNY Albany might be an option worth looking at. While larger, University of Delaware. It doesn’t feel huge.

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My D23 is a double degree student (voice/written arts) at Bard/Bard Conservatory. She loves it! Feel free to DM me if you have any questions.

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I agree that it’s too many similar schools, and some are not realistic financially. We were in a similar boat 6 years ago with our older daughter, a 2020 high school graduate in the Midwest (her stats were a little higher and she attended a very rigorous selective admission small public school, but overall a pretty similar profile and she was also interested in music). She also strongly preferred a LAC, but we could only afford those that gave merit. We also realized we wanted her to be within a one-day drive (which she didn’t mind). So, we narrowed down our list to 7 schools: 6 LACs and our state flagship as a safety (for her intended major+financially). The LACs mostly overlapped with your list: Grinnell, Macalester, Oberlin, Kenyon, St Olaf + Knox (as a safety). None of them were reaches (Grinnell was a solid target for her stats/her school record then, but it’s different now), and she was fine with that. She got into all of them with generous merit (chose Kenyon and received a top-notch education but would probably do great in most of the other ones).

Even with only 7 schools, it was still quite exhausting to complete all the applications especially since she also applied to some talent scholarships (in music, theater, and creative writing). If your daughter is planning to apply to any music scholarships (e.g., at St. Olaf or Kenyon), this involves extra essays, a music resume, etc., in addition to audition recordings. I would definitely recommend trimming your list, and the financial aspect is a good criterion for elimination. Best of luck–I’m sure you’re daughter will do great and will have some attractive options.

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She will not be applying for a music scholarship, but I agree she needs to trim her list. Kenyon and Macalester are the two I like best for her at the moment, although we have not seen Kenyon yet.

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For good reason! They really seem like great fits for the kid you are describing, and have merit.

But just to briefly follow up on my proposed use of that CDS average COA and merit data:

Macalester you get $20034 average merit (w/o need), $86952 COA OOS, so net COA $66,918. This is higher than the colleges I was looking at before, and while obviously individual results will vary, this is reflecting I think some basic truths–namely that between a great location in the Twin Cities and generally being a highly desirable sort of LAC, Macalester does not necessarily need to be quite so aggressive about merit offers to get the students it wants. More so than a peer on the East Coast would, but maybe less so than a lot of other good non-coastal LACs.

OK, then Kenyon is $87590 full COA, $16670 average merit, so net COA $70920. Again, Kenyon is coming out higher than the ones I noted before, actually higher than Macalester too. I think in their case the reasons are a little different, but the bottom line is similar.

Again, I cannot stress enough I am not saying Macalester and Kenyon would be bad choices for the list. But still, if merit might be a consideration, this is a reason to at least also apply to some colleges where the net COA after average merit is significantly lower. Not that you necessarily need to take the lowest COA offer, but it is nice to end up with options to consider.

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For schools that are likely to offer more merit, I like Bard, St. Olaf and Lawrence for her. I agree that it may not make sense to visit Williams. I do think we will keep Smith and Skidmore on our tour list. St. Lawrence seems like a good candidate for merit, but I am concerned about how isolated the school is and am not sure it is the vibe she is looking for. There seems to be a lot of negativity about this school on CC, as having a party culture and cliques. It is a bit out of our way for our trip this summer.

Also thinking I will encourage her to limit her list to 10 rather than 12 schools, as this will be enough work getting through the applications.

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I think your plan is shaping up well. I would note, though, that Bard apparently has very little in the way of merit aid–it looks like maybe around 10 kids total in a class, give or take, get some sort of merit scholarship.

But if, say, you end up fine with just St Olaf and Lawrence being the two more-likely-admissions/more-robust-merit options, that could be reasonable. It really just depends on how much it might mean to you to get to a lower net cost of attendance.

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Your D’s profile looks strikingly similar to my S26’s, with similar interests and preferences (LAC, poli sci, music but not a major, not Greek-heavy). Their college lists look similar, too. I would add to previous suggestions that you look at Conn College, which does offer merit (my D23 had a nice merit offer there, though she ended up going elsewhere). It’s one of my S’s top choices among his target schools. Beloit College is worth a look, too. My S is also considering Lafayette and Union as targets, though he’s unsure about whether they’re too Greek-heavy for him. I also recommend Mount Holyoke (which my D considered very seriously and is generous with merit) as well as Bryn Mawr. If you’re willing to consider West Coast schools, check out Occidental and Scripps as targets that offer some merit (though Oxy’s awards are not very generous, and Scripps hands out very few merit awards). Lewis and Clark might also be a good target to consider.

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Yes, they both were among my daughter’s favorites (even thought their locations can’t be more different).

Some of these colleges are pretty generous with need-based aid, too (even for families who are far from low-income), so you may want to apply for both and see.

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You should add Gettysburg to the list (full disclosure, Gettysburg alum here who majored in Poli Sci). Very strong major there with great proximity to DC and strong alumni network. Also, generous merit scholarship likely attainable (Lincoln Scholarship) with her profile. Close to Dickinson, so worth touring both but I think Gettysburg is stronger in that major.

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