Hello,
I applied and was accepted to International Education Policy / Comparative Education programs at Harvard, Columbia (T.C.), Oxford, and GWU. I think your profile is great, but given the fact that most highly selective programs are not just looking for the summa cum laude, I recommend you research the curriculum of each school and ID the professors you admire (read a few of their publications) and connect where they are and where you want to be.
My experience was similar to years except I work in Peru and had at least four years of international work experience within the field of internationale education, counseling, and immigration.
Truth is, my BIGGEST recommendation is for you to ask yourself why you wish to apply right after graduation vs. taking a year or two to get MORE experience in the field.
I also definitely suggest focusing on FUNDING PLANS because as it was in my situation, getting admitted to all of the above was awesome BUT finding that they could not offer me the aid I needed to study was not.
So, plan ahead and never believe that there is a clock somewhere that is ticking against you. There isn´t you can only get better IF you look for the right direction and start building your application from now.
Recommendation letters are a major factor and given your academic strengths you should have professors willing to help you build this bridge to graduate school.
Statements of Purpose are also crucial. I cannot stress enought the qualitative factors over the quantitative ones.
That was my case. My GRE was just slightly above average. And none of my schools held that against me.
-Kelly
LIMA, PERU