Type of high school (current college for transfers): public
Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): Asian (Chinese)
Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): None
Intended Major(s)
visual arts, studio art
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.62/4 (trying to get it up to a 3.7 by senior year ;w;)
ACT/SAT Scores: 1520 SAT (790M, 730R)
Coursework
No AP courses are offered, only “AT” (Advanced Topics) courses. Not many are available to juniors. Currently taking AT US and AT Entrepreneurship. AT US requires passing a placement test and getting a recommendation. AT Entrepreneurship requires taking two STEM courses and submitting a written statement (there is only one other junior taking this course besides me). For senior year, most of my classes will be AT level. Currently in the 2nd highest level math and highest level french.
Awards
Three Scholastic Art Gold Keys in Drawing/Illustration and Mixed Media
Three Silver Keys in Drawing/Illustration and Mixed Media
Three Honorable mentions in Drawing/Illustration
Two Honorable Mentions in poetry and short story
NYSSMA level 4 for clarinet (2019; level 5 was cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19)
Grand Prize, Guitar, Rising Talents Festival (2022)
Semifinalist, Philadelphia Classical Guitar Competition (2022, one of the top 10 competitors selected internationally)
Gold Prize, Guitar, Young Artist, London Young Musician Competition (2022)
Second Prize, “Exceptional Performer” level, Guitar, Junior Artist, World Open Music
Competition (2021 and 2022)
First Prize, Guitar, Young Artist, UK International Music Competition (2022)
Participant, Southern Guitar Festival (2022)
Second Prize, Guitar, Swiss International Music Competition (2023)
NYSSMA level 6 for classical guitar (2023, 2022 A+ rating; 2021 full score rating)
Extracurriculars
Art lessons, studio art for 9+ years
Plays five musical instruments: piano lessons (2010 4 years old – 2011), recorder (self-taught), ukulele (self-taught), clarinet lessons and school band (2016 – 2020), and classical guitar lessons (January 2018 – present)
Carnegie Mellon Pre-College Program: National High School Game Academy (summer 6-
weeks, 2022)
Boston Leadership Institute: Summer Engineering Research Program (summer 3-weeks, 2021)
RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) Advanced Summer Program for High School Students: Animation Beyond Entertainment (summer 2020)
Parsons School of Design Pre-College Academy: Digital Media Art, Graphic Design (2019-2020)
Columbia University Pre-College Program: Summer Immersion in Creative Journalism (2021)
Penn Summer High School Coding Camp (summer 2021)
AoPS (Art of Problem Solving) Online Computer Science Courses (2020)
The colleges you list (NYU, CMU, WashU) are reaches even for the top students with 4.0s, so they will definitely be reaches for you as well.
What about ECs? What do you outside of classes?
Are you looking for ideas for other colleges to potentially apply to? If so, what kind of school are you looking for (location, size, cost/budget, etc)?
You have some great ECs and seem like a really solid student, so I am sure you will end up with some great offers. Having said that, a lot of the colleges on your list are going to be reaches, so overall the list is very top heavy (for example, most of your current possibles are actually reaches). Fortunately, you do have Pratt which you have a great shot at, and Parsons which seems like a good match. If the reaches don’t work out, would you be happy at those schools? And can you afford them? What is your budget? Do you have sense of what you can afford?
probably not tbh. they’re really specialized art schools and i just have them there as safeties. Also since I’m going in as an art major, wouldn’t that make some of the schools more “possible” for me? I’m not going in as CS or something really competitive.
A good way to do a preliminary gauging is to look at the acceptance rate. Any school that has an acceptance rate of under 15% is likely going to be a reach. For anyone. And, yes, you are absolutely right that art will be a MUCH less competitive major than computer science and that should help you, but ultimately, when a school has a low acceptance rate, you really can’t count on it, no matter what your major is.
You have some impressive awards that support your interest in the arts. However, your ECs are weak especially when you parse out the pay-to-play activities. NYU and Tufts are reaches for you. The rest of your list looks good.
You may want to go into your original post and be a little less specific with some of your awards and organizations you’ve been involved with. Naming a particular nursing home where you’ve volunteered or specific names of competitions that will have a small pool of award winners would make it pretty easy to piece together who you are, for anyone who is so inclined. You could just say “at a nursing home” or metropolitan area music competition or international music competition, etc.
With respect to your list, are you applying for B.A. in art or a B.F.A. in arts? Which of the programs require a portfolio for acceptance? If a program requires a portfolio, and you have a strong one, then that will help you a lot. I’m not an expert on the arts, but I know @compmom is great with music. Perhaps she might have some insight, or know someone else who does?
As I said, this is not my area of expertise. But to be honest, I’m not sure if you have a safety in this list. Almost everything looks like a reach to me. I suspect that Pratt and Parsons may be portfolio-based, in which case it’s extraordinarily difficult (if not impossible) to chance you based on what we know here.
Do you need any help brainstorming ideas of schools where you would be highly likely to be accepted? Also, do you want to continue to study music as well as pursue an art degree?
I don’t know about the others, but your chances at Carnegie Mellon will be heavily dependent on your portfolio. If you are able to attend an information session there, they are very upfront that fine arts admissions are evaluated differently than non-arts admissions.
There is no great way for anyone here to evaluate your chances because we can’t see your portfolio, and I certainly am not qualified to evaluate it even if I could.
You may want to go into your original post and be a little less specific with some of your awards and organizations you’ve been involved with. Naming a particular nursing home where you’ve volunteered or specific names of competitions that will have a small pool of award winners would make it pretty easy to piece together who you are, for anyone who is so inclined. You could just say “at a nursing home” or metropolitan area music competition or international music competition, etc.
I didn’t realize I had the exact places listed… now I can’t edit the post anymore ;-;
With respect to your list, are you applying for B.A. in art or a B.F.A. in arts?
B.F.A. I go to an intensive art portfolio school for 8 hours a week and am working on my art portfolio, which already has 20+ artworks in a variety of mediums. I’m also planning on submitting to YoungArts.
do you want to continue to study music as well as pursue an art degree?
I don’t really want to study music. Classical guitar is just an extracurricular
I’ve notified the mods of your inability to edit your original post. Although you didn’t request any, these are some other schools that are think have likelier odds for admission that you may want to consider:
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
Alfred (NY)
Bard (NY)
Hampshire (MA) – I believe you can also cross-register for classes at Amherst, U. Mass, Smith, etc.
Marist (NY)
Nazareth (NY)
SUNY Brockport
SUNY College at Oswego
SUNY New Paltz
SUNY Purchase
U. of the Arts (PA )
Wheaton (MA)
Likely (60-79%)
CUNY Hunter
CUNY City College
Fashion Institute of Technology (NY)
Fordham (NY)
Toss-Up (40-59%)
Skidmore (NY)
Lower Probability (20-39%)
Low Probability (less than 20%)
Excepting Pratt & Parsons, I would probably put most of your original list of schools in the lower probability or low probability categories, with Smith possibly going in to the Toss-Up category, disregarding the strength of your portfolio, which is likely to be very important, at least for some of the schools.
Thank you for taking the time to make this! Just to clarify - you say the schools on my list are low probability but is that mostly due to my GPA and EC’s or because of their acceptance rates?
In chancing, I will usually start off looking at the school’s admission rate and then increase or decrease a student’s odds based on their test scores and sometimes GPA (depending on how much I know or have a sense about the GPA distribution at a school). So for most of the schools listed here, I considered them one category less competitive than their admissions rate (i.e. a boost of 20%).
In terms of the schools on your own list, apart from Pratt & Parsons, they all have very low admit rates. Except for Smith, I’m pretty sure their admit rates are all below 20% (and some are in the single digits). Most students applying to those schools only apply if they think they have a legitimate shot. Except for someone who won an Oscar, Pulitzer, Nobel Prize, or Olympic medal, I probably wouldn’t rank anyone’s chances as higher than “lower probability” on my own chancing chart. There are some individuals with greater knowledge in niche areas that can swing someone’s chances significantly, but I’m not one of those people.
Additionally, talk with your school counselor. They may also have a good sense of where students with a similar profile have attended college. What’s your approximate rank in class (top 5%, 10%, 20%, 50%…)? Does your school send a lot of students to the schools on your list? If your school is considered a “feeder” to one or more of the schools on your list, then that may improve your odds slightly.
