My son has .5 credit in visual/performing arts, not the full 1 year credit. He took extra math and science courses instead of an art type course. Will he still be able to be admitted or will he automatically be denied?
Have him send an email and ask admissions. Is there no way to get that 1/2 credit? A night class in community college, maybe?
He could I suppose but he doesn’t really want to. Minnesota is the only school he is applying to that has that requirement and he really doesn’t like fine arts.
I guess I’d call admissions to find out if it’s automatically denied if you don’t meet the minimum coursework requirements. If he’s not going to take another semester of fine arts, it’s kind of a waste of the application fee if it’s just going to get tossed out.
I found this in the FAQ under the U of M’s policies:
"Could a student be admitted without having met all of the high school preparation requirements?
Yes, it is possible under extenuating circumstances. A student who is missing a high school preparation requirement is not automatically disqualified from consideration for admission. However, admission to the University is competitive and all other factors being equal, the student’s application would not be as strong as the application of a student who has completed or exceeded all of the requirements."
https://policy.umn.edu/education/highschoolprep
So, I guess they don’t throw it out, but he’d better do a lot of explaining in the special circumstances portion of his app. I’m not sure “I don’t like Fine Arts” should be the focus of that explanation though. 
Per Britannica: “Traditional categories within the arts include literature (including poetry, drama, story, and so on), the visual arts (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.), the graphic arts (painting, drawing, design, and other forms expressed on flat surfaces), the plastic arts (sculpture, modeling), the decorative arts (enamelwork, furniture design, mosaic, etc.), the performing arts (theatre, dance, music), music (as composition), and architecture (often including interior design).” Is there nothing in there he could in which he could grab a class? Music appreciation? Improvisation?
@ILMomof2 My S20 had to make the call on the UMN requirements this past spring. He had taken .5 credit digital photo class as a freshman and did decide to register for an intro to clay (.5 credit) class in the spring. MN is not his #1 choice at this time, he could drop the art class if he gets into the #1.
Maybe registering for a spring class would be an option. Admission knows that he plans on completing the required course, but if he decides against UMN he can drop the course prior to starting.
Some universities won’t even look at the application if something’s missing (UCs are notorious about that and there’s no exception for the arts requirement.)
Keep in mind he’s likely to have an arts requirement to graduate college, too.
This is what I would do if you’re serious about the school. As long as it’s on his SRAR to be completed spring of senior year you’re good and he’ll probably know before then if he was accepted to the school or not. Of course, if he gets accepted and decides to go he’ll be obligated to complete that course, so he should pick something he would be willing to take. but as pp pointed out, there are so many that qualify, he should be able to find something.
He is taking a course called Contemporary Lit next semester which is described as “This course is a survey of post-modern literature with an emphasis on discussion and argument. Focuses on the global and multicultural nature of contemporary society through various styles and genres: poems, essays, short stories, plays, and novels.”
So possibly that would count. I wonder if he can email admissions to ask. This year he is taking 4 AP’s which are year long courses, a year long programming course, PE which is required for 4 years here, and English courses which is the contemporary lit next semester and advanced composition this semester. So he would have to take it at the community college. Nobody in my family is arts oriented and to be honest we are terrible at anything related to the arts so he would probably get a low grade if he did take something.
It’s pretty difficult to be terrible at ceramics…
The U will allow the 1/2 credit missing and still have chances of being admitted. Had a friend who didn’t meet the fine arts requirement, called and explained and everything was fine. He was admitted to the honors program too. I would just make sure your child has met all other requirements and has a decent ACT and GPA to counter act that missing 1/2 credit.
@Henxnr - A chance, sure, but if her son really wants UMN why take the risk if it can be avoided easy enough? A few of the colleges are crazy competitive especially for out of state applicants. CSE had 14,000 applications for 1200 spots last year. I’ll bet a lot of those denied had high ACT scores and GPA, they just can’t accommodate them all, so it gets down to small differences and I would imagine meeting the minimum course requirements would be part of culling the herd. But, if he’s applying to CLA with a 35 ACT and a 3.9 GPA…yeah, lacking .5 credits of Fine Arts probably won’t matter.
Contemporary Lit is an English class not a performing/visual arts class. Discussions/arguments is a normal part of an English class – it is not a performance.
Agree that calling the college makes sense. But looking at the common data set UMinn says that a year of performing/visual arts class is REQUIRED (not just recommended) https://www.oir.umn.edu/sites/oir.umn.edu/files/cds_2018_2019_tc.pdf. If he seriously wants to attend the college then I don’t know why he would not take another semester of performing/visual arts to meet the requirement. I can’t speak for UMinn in particular but most colleges don’t accept preferring other classes as an acceptable reason to not fulfill required HS coursework. HS is meant to provide a well rounded education – the time for specialization is in college and grad school.
FWIW my S has zero interest/talent in the performing and visual arts yet he managed to get through one year of chorus to fulfill his requirement. Certainly your son’s HS has options he can avail himself of. By second semester senior year the grade in the class won’t matter very much.
Where did you find that stat? I can find stats for the whole university but not broken down by college.
I found it actually.
The stat I can’t find is how many applications they accept. A lot of accepted don’t attend, but I can’t find how many that normally is. Half? More?
http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/8082/screen/19?school_name=University+of+Minnesota±Twin+Cities
Check out that website. You can look at different schools. It says for Minnesota 2018:
A. Number of undergraduate applicants to the engineering college:
14,457
B. Of those in (A), how many were offered admission?
4,799
C. Of those in (B), how many were enrolled in the fall?
1,152
@ILMomof2 - Thanks. I wouldn’t have guessed they offered admission to that many.