Chance a nervous Junior for UT Austin, UCLA, Pomona and Duke

Demographics
Asian male, no financial aid

*US domestic *
Top private school

Intended Major(s)
Art History

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.94
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): (We don’t do weighted)
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1550

Coursework
AP Spanish, History, BC Calc, Physics, Chemistry, Lang

Awards
Published in three art magazines
Scholastic Art and Writing Gold Key
Won second place at a costuming contest (competed against adults)

Extracurriculars

  1. Drama Guild President
  2. Lead/tech crew/ensemble in 5 theater productions
  3. Intern at a museum, helped with curating an exhibition
  4. Art and Fashion History Club President
  5. Helped to organize events and design merch and pamphlets for a different museum
  6. Improv Club President
  7. Painting Club President
  8. Volunteer teaching group guitar and piano to kids
  9. Taught art and theater at a summer program (9th-12th grade summer)
  10. Lead actor (paid) in a short film on Youtube (10k+ views)
  11. Worked at at a restaurant as a waiter for one summer
  12. I also run an (unpopular) Youtube channel where I make song covers on the guitar!

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)

Essays should be ok, hopefully? Unsure about LORs, but my teachers and I are on good terms!

Schools
UT Austin, UCLA, Pomona College, Duke

Reaches for all. No one can chance you. Look at the UVA thread. Kids like this are getting turned down. For UT are you top 6%? Even then is it an attainable major…likely is but you can research. The UCs are test blind btw.

What is your long term goal ? Many schools have adjacent majors like historical preservation. The major will be an easier in at some schools as it won’t be popular.

Like any student you need a balanced list. While you have no cost issues, you do need to find out if your parents set a budget given this major will likely lead to a low paying outcome.

Pomona is smaller although a part of a consortium. UT is huge. How did you develop your list ?

Great list but where are your targets and safeties ?

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Yeah, I’m aware they were all reaches. I left targets and safeties out of the post because I thought chance me posts were usually just people’s reach schools? I’m kind of new to this whole chance me thing.

I suppose safeties/targets would be:

Bard
Reed
Oberlin

Around 50% of the graduating class at my high school gets into top schools, so I’m hoping I will be able to too.

I’m aware there’s a huge difference in size for Pomona vs. UCLA and UT Austin, location is what matters more to me. I’m trying to also pursue on camera acting and voice acting more professionally in college, hence the California and Texas schools. There is a huge voice acting industry in Texas, plus UT Austin’s art history program is pretty highly ranked.

I’m still just starting out trying to figure out where I want to go, so any suggestions for schools would be nice!

Long term goal currently is to become an art conservator and an actor. My parents don’t really care what I study as long as I go to a “prestigious school”. (Eventually they will probably pressure me into studying finance or something.)

I agree, those are reaches for all. You definitely stand a shot, but I’d look at additional schools that are likelier. These schools are either in very desirable locations for the arts and/or have strong art history programs that accompany them (most of these are AND, nor or).

California

  • Chapman (likely)
  • Loyola Marymount (likely)
  • U. of San Diego (likely)
  • U. of San Francisco (extremely likely)

Georgia (Atlanta is often called Hollywood south)

  • Emory (lower probability)
  • Oglethorpe (extremely likely)

Illinois (Chicago area)

  • Lake Forest (extremely likely)
  • Loyola Chicago (extremely likely)
  • Northwestern (low probability)
  • U. of Chicago (low probability)

New York

  • CUNY Hunter College (likely…also, apply for the Macaulay Honors College)
  • Fordham (likely)
  • SUNY Purchase (extremely likely)

Texas (wasn’t aware this was a good spot for voice actors…but I’ll take your word for it!)

  • Rice (low probability)
  • Southern Methodist (likely)
  • Southwestern (likely)
  • Texas Christian (likely)
  • Trinity (toss-up)
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Are you a resident for tuition purposes in Texas or California?

If you are a resident of Texas, and your class rank is in the top 6%, UT Austin is a safety for admission to the campus (if art history is not a competitive major, then it is a safety overall if it is affordable). Otherwise (i.e. not a Texas resident or not in the top 6% of class rank), it is a reach.

UCLA, Pomona, and Duke are highly competitive for admission. Probably Pomona and Duke somewhat more so, but note that UCs do not use SAT scores, so you will not have that in your favor at UCLA.

“Chance me” type of posts are best used when you are unsure of how to classify colleges as reach/match/likely/safety for you. Some posters do find out from replies that what they thought were match/likely/safety for them were actually reach.

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Do you happen to be a projected National Merit Semifinalist?

If you are CA resident, then UCLA’s admit rate was 9.2% for 2022 and if OOS it was 8.9% so as noted a Reach school. Art History is in the College which does not admit by major.

Also note that projected OOS COA for the UC’s Academic year 2023-24 is around $72K/year.

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I am posting too late at night, but this whole exercise is silly. OP, you are asking the internet for chances at reach schools. You obviously are a highly qualified candidate. More importantly if you really go to a “top private school” where “Around 50% of the graduating class at my high school gets into top schools,”, then you don’t need us- you have an extremely experienced admissions team backing you. THEY will know 10X what any of us know about your chances.

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We don’t have “an extremely experienced admissions team”. Most of the people at my school are rich enough to get their own out of school counselor, but for those of us without private college counselors, we get little support. One of my friends didn’t even get any help from the counselors for his essays.

Seems like it is not one of the usual “top private schools” which have dedicated college counselors who have extensive knowledge and connections that allow them to give each student a more detailed chance for each highly selective college that most others would say “reach for everyone” (though such knowledge tends to be biased toward private colleges over public colleges).

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Since Duke is in your list, have you done any Duke Summer Program? My daughter is a Senior ands did a course and got connected with the Professor who turned out to be the Director and he wrote a LOR. You have impressive stats for UT.

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“Long term goal currently is to become an art conservator and an actor.”

I say this with gentleness and kindness: please, not another hopeful actor to California.
A lot of them wait tables, bartend and work part-time jobs that allow them to go to auditions for many years.

As for becoming an art conservator, I know that in California, those wages aren’t great to support the rents, and cost of living that you pay out here. There are only so many positions in the museums and libraries. Plus you probably need more than a bachelors degree.

I have a high school friend who specifically does this job. She was a volunteer, while in high school, in a local art museum. She earns very good money, but she’s been doing this for more than 30 years, and has had extensive travel to international museums and met with private collectors. There are museum techs that work with her who don’t make as much. People don’t leave these positions, especially in California.

So, if you really plan on studying this major, at those colleges, then you need to find out how much your chances are, for getting into a university, that can cover both the art history study, and television and film study.

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