What Are Good Fits 4 Me

Hi! It seems like you have a really good sense of what you want to do both during and after college, which is great—having a plan early on about where you think you want to be can make the decision-making process a lot easier.

When considering which schools are good fits for you, you're actually pretty ahead of the game, as you already have a preference for what you want to study (political science/public policy) and a general idea of where you want to be (somewhere in the middle of the country, likely not the coasts). You can first start creating a list by looking at colleges that meet both of those criteria—the Discover Schools tool (https://app.collegevine.com/schools/discover) could be a great place to start looking.

Once you have an idea which colleges meet your basic requirements, you'll want to set up your list so that it includes reach, target, and safety schools. You can plug in your information and extracurriculars in your profile to get some estimates of your chances of getting into the schools on your list. Keep in mind, though, that your SAT score is fairly likely to be higher than your PSAT score, your extracurriculars may change/evolve, and that you have another year and a half before you're actually applying to college. Given all that, and assuming that you continue on your path of high achievement academically and extracurricularly, your chances of getting into the schools on your list may in fact be higher than what they seem like!

When it comes to specific schools that might meet your preferences, I know that UChicago has a very strong political science program (although it's a very competitive school). I'd also encourage you to look at the highly-ranked, large, public universities in the area (Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio State, UT Austin, CU Boulder, etc.) as they typically offer all sorts of majors and are very well-regarded. Lastly, WashU in St. Louis has a great political science department, and is smack in the middle of the country, so may be another place for you to look at.

Best of luck with everything and definitely continue to stay involved—your extracurriculars and leadership experiences have a big impact on where you'll be accepted to college!