“Vassar, Carnegie Mellon, Tufts, USC, Cornell and Penn.”
To really answer your question, especially about the schools above, it would be good to know if she’s applying to the dept or college of Art in those schools where portfolio will be a part of admissions or a different school where it would be more grades/rigor/test scores based. If it’s the former, she’s probably ok dropping calc if it’s being replaced by another math course. But as lookingforward mentioned, if she’s not liking stress in h.s., most of the schools on her reach list are very stress inducing. CMU, Cornell, Penn can be intense, even for art majors.