Art Student's chance @ Stanford

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Background: Hi, I'm currently attending a diverse public school in California within the vicinity of Stanford and UC Berkeley. I come from a low income family and I'm ethnically mixed (Filipino/Iranian). Art is truly my foremost passion and I contribute hours of my day to express my intellectual curiosity visually as well as to refine my approach. To be honest, I was expecting a "5" on this AP exam and when I recieved the AP score for my AP Studio ART-Drawing exam I was blown away! Will this seriously hurt my chances of admission to Stanford? I completely disagree with my score for AP Art-Drawing because I truly feel that my art is accomplished technincally as well as conceptually. In other words, I don't think the AP Graders understood the profoundity of my art work and/or the precision of my skill....</p>

<p>Academic Info:</p>

<p>Rank: 1</p>

<p>Freshmen Year GPA: 4.000/4.000</p>

<p>Sophomore Year GPA: 4.333/4.333</p>

<p>Summer 2004: C.C. Chemistry A
Microeconomics A</p>

<p>Junior Year GPA: 5.000/5.000 </p>

<p>SAT II
US History: 780
Biology (M): 720 (re-taking)
Math IIC: 580 (re-taking)</p>

<p>AP EXAM Scores:</p>

<p>AP European History 5
AP US History 5
AP Biology 5
AP Eng Lang Comp 4 (ouch)
AP ART- Drawing 3 (beeeeeeeeeeeep) <---EKG Reading</p>

<p>EC's & Awards:
*Best In Show - Regional Art Association Contest
*First Place PTA ART contest
*PTA Regional Recognition
*National Honor Roll
*Who's Who Inductee
*Art Club (VP)
*Key Club (VP)
*Piano Lessons
*HS Newspaper Journalist </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>sorry not good enuf :(</p>

3

<p>Does anyone have any good advice? Should I consider withholding my AP Art Drawing Score? Please help.</p>

4

<p>Your ECs, not your art score, are probably your weak point, but without an SATI score, no one can begin to advise you.</p>

5

<p>The AP readers for the art exam are college professors and other leading professionals in their fields. They have several persons who offer their opinions and they come to some sort of conclusion with a student's artwork. The fact that you only managed a 3 is very, very bad and definitely hurts your chances. Now, colleges will not see your AP score (unless you happened to have sent it to Stanford, or it appears on your transcript), but withholding it doesn't do any good. If they see a full slate of AP scores and see that your drawing score is missing, they'll just assume you didn't take the exam at all or that you might have possibly got any score- 1, 2, 3... </p>

<p>These are experts who go through many seminars in their own free time to prepare to grade on the standards established by the College Board. Maybe one reader was wrong, but not two or three. Just consider this for a second- suppose there are two readers... and one happens to give you the "5" that you think you should've gotten, then the other would've given you a "1" for some odd reason tp have arrived at the ultimate grade. Graders rarely, sometimes never, deviate by more than two points while grading AP (any tests). Actually, if there is greater than a two point (maybe it's at two points, even!) differential, than an additional reader is brought in. There are many checks and balances and you're just going to have to accept your score- they are not wrong.</p>

<p>As is, your chances at Stanford are looking very slim. Best of luck,</p>

<p>TTG</p>

6

<p>I got a 1730 on my SAT's. </p>

<p>580W, 530R, 620M</p>

7

<p>TTG, when you said that there are "standards established by the College Board" that in itself seems contradictory to the definition of art. To imply that art has "standards" is an oxymoron. This is one of the reasons that I now believe this exam is a charade.</p>

8

<p>In addition, does anyone know if Stanford officially recognizes this exam?</p>

9

<p>Fighting it does no good. I can look around my AP Studio Art room, only look at two pieces from each student, and give them all an accurate AP grade. When you have seen a lot of art and develop an eye for it, you just know right away. I'm sure a lot of the graders don't follow the explicit orders of CB, because all hold their own views and tastes. But what you are doing is seriously not giving the graders any credit, and this is as naive as it comes. The readers aren't there to hear your theories on art, but to judge you on the quality of your art. Apparently it's not good enough. The only other explanation for your grading discrepancy is if your teacher had messed up your portfolio, if you submitted below the required amount of slides, or if you didn't submit your five pieces in the portfolio mounted. However, you may continue to question your score, but it's simply not worth anyone's time to do so.</p>

10

<p>If, as you say, "art is truly my foremost passion", and you want to be in the Bay Area, you should look at the California College of the Arts. It is an excellent school with some of the finest artists in the country, with campuses in Oakland and San Francisco. If you want to pursue more academic subjects and just do art as a sideline, then I wouldn't worry about your AP score at all. As has been mentioned, though, it is difficult to judge your chances without your SAT I's being posted.</p>

11

<p>Collegekid, There are two separate issues here, your AP art score and your overall chances for a superselective college like Stanford. You have several good things going for you: Your rank, your GPA, your art talent, your URM status. Whether these can counterbalance your relatively low SAT scores (meaning for HYSPM) is unknown. It’s definitely a long shot.</p>

<p>I don’t have direct experience with AP art, but my son, who is a talented artist, had a similar frustration with the IB art program. It is very difficult to quantity and grade creativity. My advice is don’t send the AP score. Instead put together a beautiful slide portfolio. Follow the college’s instructions for this. You can find it on their website. Basically you want to include a wide range of media, including drawing from life. Make sure the slides are professional quality.</p>

<p>You should also assemble an art package. This should include your slides; a resume that lists your accomplishments, classes and grades, awards, and a short personal statement; a recommendation from an art instructor; and an essay on why art is your passion. This is what the art department will look at to evaluate you.</p>

<p>If your art teacher thinks your AP grade is unfair, let him/her help you appeal it. If not, let it go.</p>

<p>I’d also strongly suggest that you look at other less selective schools. As I said you have a lot of positives, but Stanford is a reach for just about anyone. I’m not that familiar with colleges on the West Coast that have strong art departments. On the East Coast/Midwest you should look at Skidmore, Vassar, Conn College, Hamilton, Kenyon and if you are female, Smith. For more selective, Wesleyan, Williams and Brown. Except for Brown, these are all small liberal arts colleges. I think they would be a good bet for you because they tend to focus on the student's whole persona, not just his/her statistics.</p>

<p>Colleges need artists just like they need football players and scientists. Don’t be discouraged. Get organized.</p>

12

<p>the plain and simple thing is your SAT score is too low. I know it sux but stanford wont accept it. Sorry</p>

13

<p>I disagree that your SAT score is too low...I think that the fact that you are of an underrepresented minority and from a low-income household but that you have managed to do well in school and take AP classes is a major leg-up and Stanford will definately consider that.</p>

<p>I totally agree that the graders on the AP may have been unfair because no one can define art give or it a grade. </p>

<p>I agree with Fermata that you should look into art colleges if you think that you definately want to follow a career in art.</p>

<p>Applying to any college is going to be a risk because it's really hard to determine what the admissions people are thinking.</p>

<p>I hope that you try for reach schools but don't be disapointed is it doesn't work out.</p>

14

<p>I don't believe the op is a URM.</p>

15

<p>I'd just like to defend once more that art can be given a grade, amateurs and those whom don't understand art should not give an opinion. I don't want everyone to rush onto his side and comfort him, while back at home the OP keeps complaining to everyone how he got screwed over on the AP exam two, three, ten years from now. I like momrath's suggestion, "If your art teacher thinks your AP grade is unfair, let him/her help you appeal it. If not, let it go." If you noticed, the OP hasn't mentioned even asking his art teacher for a second opinion, or hasn't mentioned what the art teacher had guessed his exam score would be (common practice, since they are generally the last persons to see the portfolios before they're shipped off- perhaps his teacher didn't want to break the bad news?).</p>

<p>I'll add the OP's statement- "I truly feel that my art is accomplished technincally as well as conceptually. In other words, I don't think the AP Graders understood the profoundity of my art work and/or the precision of my skill..." </p>

<p>I'm sure a lot of people here are giving the OP credit for the 'conceptual' aspect of his artwork, but on the exam there are provided lines for one to explain what their topic was about and it is recommended that you should direct the readers to specific pieces. In terms of technical merits, I don't think anyone can argue that a knowledgeable person who has studied art can identify which works are well-executed and which are not- in fact, that's probably the only objectivity that may exist in grading art. And for the OP to think that his artwork is "too profound" for college professors in art and AP studio art teachers nationwide is downright arrogant. I know it's cute to try to help out the downtrodden artist, but I'll remind you that there are thousands of more students out there who got 4's and 5's (me being one of them).</p>

<p>I'm sorry I had to do this, but as a History of Art major I simply could not let it go.</p>

<p>I'll add that unless the OP is applying as a studio art major to Stanford, the university does not accept art slides as "extra's" for applicants in other majors. Congratulations on all your accomplishments in the academic fields, best of luck-</p>

<p>TTG</p>

16

<p>Filipinos/half-Filipinos--especially from California--are not underrepresented minorities. Yes, Mixed Asians are racially diverse, but they are not underrepresented in top colleges in any way (and yes, I happen to be half-Filipino!)</p>

17

<p>TTG I appreciate your caustic comments and your staunch defense of the infallibility of CollegeBoard. Before jumping to further conclusions, I place high value upon the opinion of my art teacher. She has studied art for over 25 years and has graduated from Oxford University. She stated that my portfolio was one of the best she has seen in her carreer. Prior to shipping my portfolio she predicted that I would receive a score of a 5.</p>

18

<p>Then I guess if she had seen my portfolio, I dare say she might've called it "one of the best I have seen in my career +1." Thousands managed to get a higher grade this year... <em>shrug</em></p>