I’ve been waiting to do this just to see if what would be said. I’ve already mentally prepared myself to take it all with a grain of salt, so I’m ready~
Aspiring Major: Graphic Design, Digital Design, Digital Media, Media Arts, etc. (varies by school… essentially an art major)
COLLEGES I APPLIED TO:
- UCLA (heavily impacted by submitted portfolio)
- UCSD (minorly impacted by submitted portfolio)
- UCD
- UCSB
- UCI
- CSU Northridge
- CSU Long Beach
- San Jose State University
- Cal Poly Pomona
- San Diego State University (Already accepted as an early admit for my high grades!)
What do you think of my chances? My stats aren’t the best. Definitely not. But they are what they are. I think there is a bit of positive weight in my extracurriculars and essays though. I don’t particularly have a dream school, so… Here!! Any feedback on how to improve my chances is welcome~
UC GPA: 4.085
State: California (In-State, thank god)
Gender: Female
School: Competitive Public School
Ethnicity: Asian (Canto Chinese)
- Daughter of an immigrant (Mother was born in Hong Kong)
- Daughter of a UCLA admit who then transferred to CSULB to graduate
- Daughter of a USC graduate
ACT: 32
- English: 35
- Math: 31
- Reading: 32
- Science: 29
- ELA: 30
- Writing: 9
AP
- AP Computer Science (Score: 4)
- AP English Lang (Score: 3)
- AP US History (Only took this for a semester of this because the teacher went on maternity leave so they just disbanded the class)
- AP 2D Design (Score: N/A)
- AP English Lit (Score: N/A)
- AP Environmental Science (Score: N/A)
SENIOR YEAR CURRICULUM
- AP Lit Comp
- AP Environmental Sci (what do you think would happen if I got a C first semester??)
- AP 2D Arts
- Commercial Art
- Economics / US Government
- Musical Theater
COURSEWORK OTHER THAN A-G
- Advanced Dance Classes
- Culinary Arts (a required class for me since I transferred into my high school from another district)
VOLUNTEER
- Folded origami decorations to decorate senior homes and children’s hospitals (Over the course of 2 years)
- Ran my local public library’s summer reading program, built visual sets and displays for thematic reading weeks (3 months, over summer)
- Student Photographer for a chamber of commerce, captured special events and ribbon cuttings for different business openings (1 month)
- Serving meals to financially unstable preschools, represented Catarina’s Club (2 weeks)
WORK EXPERIENCE
- Skate Guard for a ice rink at a local fair (only lasted for a month since it was a seasonal fair)
- Background / Extra work in various commercials and film (companies like Facebook and Disney)
EXTRACURRICULAR
- Helped write and self publish a children’s educational book on Hawaii. Designed puzzles on the back a well as designed/managed the book’s website for online purchases and events. I went to many book signings and book fairs to promote it with my mother.
- Rotary Interact Club: Provided volunteering opportunities to develop leadership while teaching the practice of ‘Service Above Self’ (Member in 10th grade, publicist in 11th grade, president in 12th grade)
- I currently run a youtube channel that has me direct a team of over 30 people over the internet. We post audios weekly, combining elements of art, writing, voice acting, video editing, and audio engineering. I started planning this in 10th grade, launched it in 11th grade, and we currently now have almost 10k subscribers!!
- School musical cast member (SUPER grueling. Practices after school Mon-Thurs. 3-6, and then Saturday 10-4. These hours only increased as the show came closer) during 9th, 10th, 12th grade
- Helped create visual novel games for a company called Anomalis. I designed concept art, edited audio, wrote scripts, did voice acting, and eventually became the leader voice acting director for the small company.
AWARDS HONORS
- Animator of the Year 2018 (Art award at my school. I don’t know who else or how many others I was competing against, but only one student gets this a year… obviously)
- “2018 Best Children’s Picture Book: Softcover Non-Fiction” from the American Book Fest for the Hawaii book I published with my mother
- Certificate of Merit (GPA Award)
- Mustang Scholar (GPA Award)
- Bright Spot Award (for my ensemble role in my school production of “9 to 5” in my sophomore year, the MACY awards which is a huge award show for high school musical theater, recognized me as someone who stood out despite my minor role)
UC ESSAYS
- Leadership Experience: talked about a conflict I resolved in my Youtube channel’s team. One of the members was trying to take advantage of me because we were close friends and I talked about how I handled the situation. I talked about self improvement and learning to handle situations (especially friends) maturely in a professional seetting
- Creative Side: talked about my experience in game development and the myriad of different creative mediums I get to utilize such as voice acting, design, digital art, writing, etc. I explained the process of creating a certain piece for a certain game that I worked on. And the enjoyment I was brought for being able to bring together all of my passions in one place
- Academic Subject: talked about creative writing and how I discovered the art of roleplaying, which is basically like writing a novel with other people. I talked about how writing is never a solo project, and how I wanted to discover way to turn any medium into a group activity
- Greatest Talent: talked about how I helped my shy friend gain the confidence he needed to start posting his singing on the internet. I pride myself in using my own abilities and artistic talents to promote others and show off how special they are. I created an animatic for his singing cover and helped him gain popularity by capturing viewer’s attention with my art and social media expertise
I know I said I wanted to be an art major, but you can chance me academically without the impact of a portfolio for the schools UCLA and UCSD since I don’t think I’m allowed to post my portfolios on the internet ^^; Thank you so much!!