@moonpie the PSAT results haven’t even come out yet!! Delayed due to some reporting issue at College Board. Your daughter didn’t miss anything except frustration there! I heard the new March SAT will take awhile to score as well due to rescaling the test so yeah, summer or fall might be a good idea if she doesn’t need to take subject tests (most art students don’t unless they are doing architecture or something . . . .). Will her class be sitting the ACT with writing? My D2’s class took it last year but it didn’t include the writing portion on theirs. Most art colleges will require the essay from either ACT or SAT. As long as she submits scores from one test with essay she should be fine. Most schools will take the highest composite from one test and the essay from the other if need be.
She can do the writing with this sitting in the Spring, it’s optional, but will go ahead just in case she gets a good enough score to be one and done! And yes, she didn’t need the subject test scores for the reason you stated. Honestly, most of the schools we’ve been to say if she maintains that perfect GPA, she should get academic scholarships as well as art (if she is good enough). I saw the stuff about the PSAT stuff on the 2017 parent board! So frustrating! I think we will wait on the SAT just because we know we get the ACT free in the spring : )
@moonpie I agree with you about getting academic scholarships with that GPA. Both my art kids have been given scholarship money in part due to their academics. We saw at NPD a few years ago how high achieving some of these kids were - involved in sports and/or music, AP, etc. in addition to putting together an amazing portfolio! Your D will fit in well at art college.
Just found out yesterday she was accepted to our state’s Governor’s School for the Arts! Huge honor here, over a 1000 applicants for about 200 spots (about 30 for visual art actually make it). I’m super excited and proud!
We visited Columbia College Chicago and SAIC last week. SAIC is still on the list, I think my daughter is on CCC’s list LOL! They were very impressed, and the faculty was extremely generous and kind, but she doesn’t think it’s for her (except she could continue her music along with her art there).
Junior year winding down! Just AP tests left, and then one end of year test, and final concerts. She did enter a local art show, for fun, and one of her oils won first place. Kind of nice, because it wasn’t her art teacher or someone she knows judging her work, but professional artists. Spent yesterday looking at art scholarships, and trying to prioritize where she might invest her time and effort. Have any of you done YoungArts. Congressional Art, Scholastic competitions? Just wondering if these are something we should pursue? Some of the scholarship money is pretty hefty! @Mamelot@taxguy@YoHoYoHo@Madaboutx@GrnMtnMom@honestmom@gouf78 you’ve given such great advice already, I hope you don’t mind me tagging you!
It’s a great idea to pursue competitions when possible. At the very least it demonstrates passion about and pride in your work. My D1 participated in the Scholastic contest but was never chosen as a finalist. Still it was a great experience to shoot for something ambitious. Great training for the real world! And you are correct the scholarship money can be very good. D1 was more interested in the feedback rather than the money but it’s clearly another source of funding for the super talented student. For some reason she opted not to try for YoungArts.
My D entered YoungArts and Scholastic and found that they were very worthwhile, both in terms of experiences and scholarship/prize money. The work she entered for those competitions in her senior year was the work she was preparing for her college application portfolios. She was fortunate enough to get the week in Miami for YoungArts. Coming from just a regular old public high school not very invested in the arts, she found that week to be wonderful. Not only did she meet and work with other amazing young artists, but she was able to meet outstanding mentors, including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Rita Moreno and others. The recognition made her feel somewhat validated in her passion for her art. Scholastic, too, was worthwhile, and though there wasn’t an associated week with peers (more like a couple of days), a couple of the schools she applied to gave her a nice extra scholarship in recognition of her achievement. These competitions came at the right time for her; they forced her to really focus on the work she wanted to include in her portfolio.
Thanks, @GrnMtnMom! Very helpful!!! We are a regular high school family in a somewhat rural area (but outside a big city). Here, it’s FOOTBALL and ALL THE SPORTS, even though their choirs and bands are nationally competitive. The art program… I’m not sure about? The AP teacher LOVES my girl, but doesn’t seem to know where to direct her outside of AP art, I’m having to research it all on my own. She does take a group class with a local artist who specializes in oils, and that’s who encouraged her to enter the local competition. She will go to Governors School in June for the whole month, and hoping it will be the amazing experience everyone says it will be!
@moonpie let your kid’s AP art teachers know about the National Art Honor Society if your school doesn’t already have a chapter. Some colleges will also give scholarship money for membership in that. And the kids get to wear a special cord at graduation. I think an educator would have to get the chapter going. My D1’s school was looking into this right around this time her junior year and began it in her senior year so she (thankfully!) qualified. She received either $1,000 or $2,000 of additional merit aid from MICA as a result (she didn’t attend there so I can’t remember the exact figure).
Thanks, @Mamelot ! I’ll send this to him now! I know they have “art club” and Zoe is an officer, but not sure about NAHS! Thanks!!! She turned her AP art portfolio in Friday!
Update: D3 is still at Governor’s School for the Arts (in our home state). It’s been a month long experience of learning and being pushed and exposed to new things. She’s been there the whole month of June, and comes home Wednesday! I can’t wait to see her and what she’s created! Hopefully some stuff for her portfolio! She ended junior year with straight A’s and is in the top 10% of her class of 500. ACT was good, but wants to retake for “great” (i don’t think she needs to re-take, but she does). So… now, how do we organize senior year? Specifically, she has a few sketchbooks, but how do you send those to several schools? How fast do they come back? I know each school has different portfolio requirements, but several require actual sketchbooks to be sent. When did your kids apply, get accepted, get scholarships? Just trying to get a timeline in my head!
What schools require actual sketchbooks? Every school my kids have applied to require that you upload images of your sketches to Slideroom. A few might have a “home test” (RISD, CU, Parsons and I’m sure others) but you can arrange to have those returned I think.
Re: timing, my D1 applied EA when offered. For a couple of schools that meant getting merit scholarship offers before Winter Break. Early Action is typically a Nov. 1st deadline. So my D1 made sure to start working on her applications as soon as they became available and hit the October Portfolio Days (we live in Minnesota so she was able to attend one at MCAD in Minneapolis and then the following week a larger one in Chicago). Two schools that D1 applied to - MICA and RISD - had Early Decision (binding) and D1 did not opt for that because she really wanted to be able to compare offers. MICA ended up offering her a special Early Action deadline in mid-January so she had some scholarship information from them by early Feb. (I think).
D1 still needed to wait till she received financial aid awards in Feb/March before she could make a final decision because we knew that MICA could possibly include additional merit aid in their FA packet. She was able to visit everyone one more time and come to a decision by Mid April, a good two weeks before National Decision Day. This year the FAFSA will be available on Oct. 1st so it’s possible that your D’s schools can send the FA letter early and you can wrap up the decision process sooner. Best to check the websites for EA vs. RA deadlines and for Accepted Student Day events as those become available.
D2 applied mostly to university programs but her first application was to SCAD (and after visiting in Aug. it was her #1 and remained so throughout the admission process). She applied Sept. of senior year and was accepted later that month. She received an academic scholarship later in the fall and further scholarship money in January once she submitted her portfolio (for some reason she waited till mid-January to do so). D2 was able to wrap up her decision and commit to SCAD in March.
Our experience has been that art school regular deadlines can run about a month or so behind most other college deadlines. Not unusual to see a deadline sometime in February with a decision in March or April. Early Action has the advantage of allowing for an early decision and merit package. Same with Early Decision but that will be a binding decision so you would have to withdraw other outstanding applications if admitted.
Exciting time! Good luck to your D - bet you will be thrilled when you see her summer work!
Very helpful @Mamelot ! Similar to my other 2, looks like it will be a VERY busy fall! CalArts requires actual sketchbooks to be sent. That’s her #1 (but she hasn’t visited yet, so that could change). Also… maybe they upload now, as well? Have to look at that!
@moonpie - Ah. OK well that will change some things! And of course if she’s doing animation then the sketchbooks are crucial. Hopefully CalArts is the only one requiring originals! Your D will have to read through the portfolio specs of all her colleges of interest and figure out which of those sketches she also wants to send to other schools, then get those images done early on. That way she can send off the originals and still have what she needs. I’m sure they will return them . . . won’t they?
I was probably a bit OCD about this whole thing with D1 but I actually read through all the portfolio requirements myself - well before she even went off to precollege! - just to make sure she wouldn’t be overlooking anything come application time. She was our first college applicant, as well as our first would-be art student. Poor kid! LOL.
Replying to @moonpi above’s Q re contests etc…my D1 took part in the Congressional Art Awards (altho I believe art was picked/submitted by her school’s art supervisor), work submitted (and some won) for tons of other art shows and also member of Natl Art Society via high school. We made sure to put ALL of this on her resume and if we knew the “statistic” (ex “800 pieces submitted, 100 chosen for juried show”) we made sure to include that in the description so if it wasn’t something that had national/name prestige the colleges at least got the sense of the level of competition/accomplishment and it wasn’t necessarily her teachers picking things.
And yep, I was like @Mamelot and felt totally OCD helping my kiddo through the application and portfolio process too - it felt like a part-time job this last year!! I’m currently riding a wave of joy that she’s graduated last week and going to her 1st pick!
And that’s good to know re sketchbooks cuz S2 wants to apply to art schools too and is eye-ing CalArts. Thankfully he’s a rising sophomore so I at least get a little breather!
She has several sketchbooks, all have different themes though… real life, characters, human figures. One of the classes she has taken at Governors School is called “sketchbook bootcamp”. It’s been eye opening. She’s had to work so hard, and be pushed in different directions, been great for her! She’s had to do things she’s never done before and explore different artists and media. I’ll be so glad to get her back!!! She’ll be home for 2 weeks, then off to be the art counselor at a summer camp for 2 weeks… then Senior year starts one week after she gets back! Ack!!! @Mamelot and @ArtAngst they do return the sketchbook, but I think they keep it for several weeks!
I heard the new March SAT will take awhile to score as well due to rescaling the test so yeah, summer or fall might be a good idea if she doesn’t need to take subject tests (most art students don’t unless they are doing architecture or something . . . .). Will her class be sitting the ACT with writing? My D2’s class took it last year but it didn’t include the writing portion on theirs. Most art colleges will require the essay from either ACT or SAT. As long as she submits scores from one test with essay she should be fine. Most schools will take the highest composite from one test and the essay from the other if need be.