I want to go to a school for animation such as Calarts, SVA, SCAD or Ringling (in order of preference). I’m confident in my ability to build a portfolio, but my grades from this quarter are all over the map with even an E in algebra. At this point it seems I’d be lucky to graduate with a GPA in the 3.0 range. The department of character animation for Calarts has an 8% acceptance rate, so I’m a little scared to spend so much time on grades that my artistic ability starts to sag. Can anyone tell me what the usual accepted GPAs for these colleges are and how much they care? I asked one former graduate and she told me not to sweat it, but I still don’t want to lose my chances by ignoring my grades.
While a poor GPA wouldn’t necessarily keep you out of art school, it may well keep you from being considered for merit scholarships. And those are extremely important for keeping down the cost of an expensive private art/design program. You really should strive to bring that GPA up over a 3.0 for that and another reason which is that art college is . . . . College. You will be doing college-level work (both studio and academic) and your high school GPA is a big signal as to your preparedness for that challenge. Get tutoring if you need it and try to shine firs semester of senior year.
Definitely check out the online net price calculators of these schools (SCAD has one, not sure about the others) and plug in your stats to see how you do. Keep in mind that a respectable showing on the ACT or SAT may offset your GPA. Art schools like receiving good scores because they usually make those public. The higher the average, the better the school looks. So that’s one area that can help you.
Good luck to you!