Carnegie Mellon Communication Design

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello! I am currently a high school junior hoping to major in graphic design in college. At this point, CMU is my first-choice school. What are my chances of being accepted into their Communication Design program given the following:</p>

<p>--SAT scores: 680 reading, 680 math, 770 writing
***I've only taken the SAT once to get a baseline score without any studying or getting a good night's sleep, and I intend to study and improve these scores for the June SAT.</p>

<p>--GPA: 4.0 unweighted, approx 103% weighted (my school only gives the unweighted on a 4.0 scale, weighted is a percentage scale)</p>

<p>--Class rank: 4 or 5 (several people have changed spots and we have gained a few new students, and I have not checked my updated rank yet)</p>

<p>Some of my current grades:
--AP English Language& & Comp.: 100%
--AP Economics: 99%
--Honors Physics: 96%
--Honors Spanish IV: 95%
--Calculus(not AP): 100%</p>

<p>Classes Scheduled for Next Year (senior year):
--AP English Lit & Comp
--AP Spanish V
--AP World History
--Drawing & Design I (since I need to take a "studio art" class)
--Project 18/Political Action (basically a class that teaches you about local gov't and offers community service opportunities)
--Yearbook II (since I'll be EIC)</p>

<p>Other Things:
--I am on my school's yearbook staff and will be Editor-in-Chief/Creative Director for next year's (2013) book
--I am a member of Spanish Honor Society and National Honor Society
--I participate in my school's gifted/enrichment program
--Outside of school I offer my design services for free to community organizations and local bands. I have done campaign signs/shirts for local school board candidates, album art/posters/shirts for some local bands, poster/logo designs for school events, and am currently working on the branding/website of an upcoming charity organization</p>

<p>--My Portfolio: I know this is a big part of applying to any art/design program. I also know that process work/sketching and observational drawing are required elements of a portfolio, but they are not included in this somewhat outdated version of my portfolio. In the first piece (my personal logo) my name has been whited out for privacy reasons. Just ignore that.
<a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26936035/NEW%20PORTFOLIO%20THING.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26936035/NEW%20PORTFOLIO%20THING.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I know that this is probably a lot of info to sift through, but I'd appreciate it if someone could tell my what my chances are of getting into CMU's CD program. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Some things I forgot to add:
–I placed third in the Western PA region on the National Spanish Exam (Level 3) last year.
–I also intend to run for more leadership positions when they become available senior year (probably President of Spanish Honor Society and VP of Project 18).</p>

3

<p>Bump. I’d really appreciate some feedback.</p>

4

<p>Bump again…</p>

5

<p>bump once more…</p>

6

<p>Wow… I want to do comm design too! CMU looks like a great program and I wish you best of luck. I don’t know much about how they do admissions but your stats look strong, just a little more on the SAT and they might want SAT IIs too. Maybe some more art experience outside of school as a job or internship. You can ask websites or magazines or bloggers if you can intern over the summer, to show individual efforts. What other programs are you considering, out of curiosity?</p>

7

<p>I just looked through your portfolio, and it’s really great! I am thoroughly impressed and also jealous :slight_smile: Definitely explore other media (you know, some painting, a 3D piece, some non-computer stuff), as it’s good to have experimentation in art portfolios.</p>

8

<p>Thanks for replying! I’ve been searching for internships but I can’t find anything. Being the yearbook EIC, I’d need to find something relatively local so I could still make it to meetings, etc. that we will have over the summer. CMU is the only school I have visited and know that I definitely like, but I am also looking at RIT, RISD, and Pratt. What programs have you been looking at?</p>