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Hey! I'd appreciate any input on admissions chances and/or "fit." Planning on majoring in International Relations... UN maybe? I'm set on a small West Coast Liberal Arts College.. but which one!?!

Applied to:
1. U of Puget Sound
2. Willamette
3. Lewis and Clark
4. Occidental
5. Whitman
6. Claremont McKenna
7. Pomona
8. Stanford

Believe I can manage 1-6, and I'm still hoping for Pomona and/or Stanford.

White Male at CA public School
SAT: 730V 710M
SATII: Writing: 760W MathIC: 670 GermanR: 770
GPA: 4.0/4.37
Rank: 1/320
Awards: First Place in National Holocaust Remembrance Project Essay Contest and otherwise fluff. ; )

EC:
-- Junior State of America Lieutenant Governor (State's #2 Officer) Great Rec letter, yay!
-- Founder and President of School Model UN Club
-- Fluent in German. Attended school in Germany for one month each of last 10 years.

Any feedback helps. Merry Winter Season All!

~Kai

By Marinakitchen (Marinakitchen) on Monday, December 22, 2003 - 05:31 pm: Edit

Kai-
I think you have very good chances at all of those schools, except Stanford and Pomona (and maybe Claremont) are definately reaches. I live in Southern Ca, and I know a couple ppl now who have been accepted to several ivies and rejected from Pomona. The only thing that makes me say this is your Math IC score, which is great, but the fact that you took the IC makes me think that you didn't take AP Calc (I didn't either!), but that kind of thing is expected at Stanford and Pomona. I still think you have a great, chance though...and you're probably a shoo-in at the other ones on that list. I'm applying to L&C as well, a great back up school!
Oh yeah, and why not Reed??

By Kai2college (Kai2college) on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 - 11:36 pm: Edit

Hey all,

UPDATE: IN janruary I visited the claremont colleges and definitely fell in love with Claremont McKenna!!! The political science program seems heads and tails above that at the other schools on my list... and the kids were brilliant, cheery, and even the conservatism was all in good balance (about 50/50 and plus, the rest of the Claremonts seem liberal) YAY!

Furthermore, they just sent me a message that I was a finalist for an "achievement award" ($5,000 a year). That means they'll fly me there to visit the college again... OH MAN, I'M STOKED!!!

Right now CMC is my choice unless I get some insanely shockingly tempting offer elsewhere on april 1st. (might consider stanford or a very financially lucrative offer from oxy or whitman maybe)

My questions:

1. Does the finalist consideration for the CMC "achievement award" basically mean I'm accepted? (please say yes!)

2. Anyone know what type of financial aid do they offer? (even with a $5000 a year merit, it's still unaffordably expensive for my family)

3. I know CMC has killer poli sci + economics programs, but anyone know anything about International Relations?

Why not Reed? I certainly consider myself liberal, but when I visited I was turned off by the clash of the radical student body and the conservative, traditional curriculum. Ironic that I instead seem to be headed to a school with a more "conservative" rep.