Female, White, at a large arts-designated public school, doesn’t qualify for financial aid
Major: Political Science/Public Policy
GPA: 103.7/100 Decile 1
SAT: Test optional (1340)
Honors Program at High School
Coursework: APUSH 5, APWH 4, AP Psych 3, AP Lang 4
Rest of classes were Honors/Advanced
Senior Year- AP Gov, AP Lit, APES, AP Calc AB, and AP Bio
(In school) Extracurriculars:
Coordinates a student teaching program
Section Leader of the most advanced concert band in school
Section Leader of Marching band
secretary of NHS
Made an opportunity bulletin for internships/jobs for my school
1st chair for Spring Musical Pit
1st chair for student-made production pit
Out of School
Interned at a state-level government official’s office through a selective program (paid)
Summer program for voting advocacy (3% acceptance) (paid)
Hosted Voter registration event at High School bc of that program
All-Expenses-Paid Korea study tour program (Super selective)
Senior fellow position at a nonprofit’s youth policy research fellowship
NYU High School Law Institute
Interned at Lawyers Association
Interned at local non profit
College Fly-in at Trinity College
My absolute dream schools are Barnard, Cornell, Columbia, and Macaulay Honors College (Hunter)
I’m also applying to Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, American University, GWU, Rutgers Honors College, Binghamton, Trinity, Fordham, NYU, Tufts, and a bunch of other SUNYS and CUNYs
I’m just curious if anyone has any predictions or advice on my overall college list. Thank you to everyone who answers I really appreciate this!
So most of these schools are $80K+ - your family doesn’t have issue spending even though you can go to fine schools for the major for much less?
You’ll have a good shot at some of the schools - Bing, Rutgers and other SUNYs/CUNYs - the rest will be hard but AU and GW, make sure to demonstrate a lot of interest. Trinity and Fordham should happen too.
I think you made a terrific list. Great schools at all different levels of selectivity and cost. You will be able to reach your goals from any of these. I predict you will have a variety of really appealing schools to choose from when all the results are in.
Congrats on all your accomplishments, and best wishes! Let us know how it goes!
One general observation is you seem to be focusing on the Northeast Coast, which of course many people do, but as a result it makes a lot of those colleges somewhat harder for admissions. So I wonder if you would be willing to look at academic peers in different areas.
Particularly given your interest in Barnard and Macaulay, I wonder if you have looked into some of the non-coastal LACs that are very good for Political Science. Macalester leaps to mind as an urban school (in a great location in Minneapolis/St Paul) with a really strong Political Science department and a long list of formal interdisciplinary programs:
With your interest in DC schools, and what looks like an affinity for not-so-huge universities, I wonder if you have considered William & Mary, again also very well known in Political Science–or as they call it, Government:
Finally, I note many of the core Big 10 universities have very good Political Science programs for undergraduates. That includes Rutgers, but I wonder if you have explored the other ones.
Edit: Totally forgot to mention why I think of W & M as a DC-area school. They are close enough to be in the greater DC orbit, they have a satellite campus in DC known as the Washington Center, and they have a specific Semester in DC program which includes an internship:
Yeah it was a diversity fly-in bc of my ethnicity.
In terms of price, my family can’t afford anything over suny tuition, so i’m hoping to get merit aid and appeal for money. (not too confident that will work)
also cornell in applying to their SUNY school so it’s a bit cheaper.
I’m just not sure which schools are exactly worth the price.
probably around a 97? my school doesn’t give me my UW GPA. What does TO stand for? I would honestly only consider rutgers if i got in to HC since im out of state.
Test optional, students who get into Rutgers honors college have incredible stats, from our HS sals and vals, my 3.9+ 34 act didn’t make the cut. There are less competitive honors programs.
I’d add many colleges have DC Semesters. My daughter just did one via College of Charleston and interned at a think tank.
The college housing - they were in a rowhouse, etc. and all the homes were owned by one company and each of them is rented to a college program or some are shared amongst several colleges.
So I think OP can find a DC program at many schools.
So you don’t qualify for aid - why apply to Barnard, Cornell, Columbia, Tufts and frankly BC, BU, NEU, AU, BU, NYU.
The first have no merit aid and the BC and later - you won’t get to SUNY cost.
Seems like you need to redo your list - to at least have a chance at the cost you seek - or you’ll be at a SUNY.
At least schools like Rice, Vandy, WUSTL have the “possibility” of full merit.
Perhaps you qualify for aid? Cornell won’t come near a SUNY cost btw - and that includes the contract colleges.
The point being - if you need to be at SUNY cost and don’t qualify for aid, then applying to schools where it’s impossible to get to SUNY cost (like Barnard) makes zero sense.
I’d be shocked if you didn’t get into Binghamton. My 2023 had lower stats than this (97 unweighted, less APs, less ECs) and got in. She applied as an English major, so that is a little less competitive than many other majors. She got zero need based nor merit aid and total COA (we are in NY) was about $30k/yr. Good luck!!
ETA she was waitlisted to NYU. Hopefully you have a good shot there!
