okay, thank you! All juniors will meet with our counselors individually later in the year with a “Junior Autobiography” and college list. I’ll be sure to ask about that.
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As suggestions for potential additions to your list, consider Kenyon, Skidmore and Connecticut College. If you might want to add a more likely admit, look into Wheaton (MA).
Ok…I’ll amend my post to say…whenever a school requires a portfolio as the key ingredient for admissions to a BFA program, it is very very hard to “chance” a student applying to those schools.
Fact is…the strength of your portfolio will be compared to the strength of others applying that year to each program.
Did some mentor on the faculty of your portfolio school help you craft that list? I would ask their opinion.
Much like musicians auditions…the portfolio is a key ingredient.
And much like musicians, your artist teachers/mentors will be a source of information.
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GREAT lists.
Perhaps focus on some leadership role?
You’ve “attended” a lot of camps/activities.
Can you pursue a dominant role where you work people/led people, similar to “Organizer, Annual Benefit Concerts at the Woman’s Club”?
Longer commitments involving people?
Ie. 9yrs of art lessons is for your own gain, yes?
example: colleges LOVE Eagle Scouts (because it’s long-term commitment, where the scout work with the troop/people to rank up to Eagle rank).
the CMU precollege is “pay to play”, not driven by admissions.
Amazing profile:
We had a student with your similar strengths last year accepted to Harvard (1st student in almost 10 years in our HS). He was an amazing writer and artist,
but also incredibly smart (super high GPA/SAT) and captain of swim team, etc.
Good luck.
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Have you attended a National Portfolio Day yet? They can give you a very good idea of the strength of your portfolio. Pratt, Parsons, Tufts and WashU all attend.
Another idea would be to pay a private visual-arts focused college counselor for a consult. Experienced ones tend to have a really good idea of what combo of academics + portfolio is required at each of the different schools and will give you a much more accurate “chance me” than anyone here on CC can do. You can PM me if you want a recommendation.
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Your EC’s are more than fine and you don’t need leadership roles. Keep doing what you are doing.
If you apply to schools that aren’t BFA programs requiring portfolio, you can still submit an arts portfolio. In fact, you can also submit a music supplement with recording, resume (with awards) and letter of recommendation. For art, do the same of course. These arts supplements can make a big difference in admission. Ask the schools what they want and accept and how to handle supplements for both art and music.
How did you become so accomplished in classical guitar in so few years? What are you currently playing?
You could consider Bennington (where you can do both art and guitar), Sarah Lawrence, Brown, Amherst and Hamilton (which you have) for the flexibility of curriculum.
I always suggest the Colleges that Change Lives website for college suggestions. Colleges That Change Lives – Changing Lives. One Student At A Time. (ctcl.org)
Of course portfolio is the most important for BFA programs, but I also think supplements will be very important with other schools. So yeah, it’s hard to chance you. You may meet a benchmark for academics with art and music bumping your chances up.
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@olibong Consider adding another EC that demonstrates community awareness and impact. The benefit concerts fit here, but you could also put together an ensemble to play nursing/retirement homes a couple times per month. My musician kid did this for years and it was a mutually rewarding experience; the residents were always so happy to see the musicians.
If you take private lessons, your teacher should be to help you set something up. It looks like you already have a nursing home connection. That might be a good place to start.
This post has some good advice that is generally applicable to all applicants:
@mountainsoul I disagree with this respectfully, unless the OP really is driven to do this kind of thing. Frankly, these kinds of things tend to be fairly transparent in their motivation. It looks like the OP is plenty busy with authentic interests that go deep and that can contribute on campus.
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Noted. I wasn’t suggesting OP manufacture activities for the purpose of college applications. The interest in music and community service is already there. I was merely suggesting channeling already established interests into a wider impact.
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With respect to the overall acceptance rates of your choices, this site offers current information for several of them:
Put together a great portfolio. S23s classmate was recently admitted at NYU for film with similar stats. I’m sure his stellar recommendations and being full pay helped as well. He spent a lot of time on his portfolio and my understanding is that it was excellent. It’s hard to go off of the general GPA stats for arts programs.
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Hamilton’s acceptance rate was 11% last year, and gpa is on the low side for there. It is a reach at this point for anyone.
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