<p>ACT: Aiming for a 32
Take in mind I go to a private school that's quite known to colleges, but doesn't have tracking. Most of our regular courses are considered honors or AP depending upon the course.
Freshman Year:
English 9
History 9
Mandarin 3
Art Foundations
Chem
Geometry
PE</p>
<p>Sophomore Yr:
Bio
Mandarin 4
English 10
Euro History
Drawing and Painting 1
Algebra 2
PE</p>
<p>Junior Yr:
Adv Bio
Mandarin 5
Pre Cal
English 11
US History
Drama
PE </p>
<p>Senior Yr:
Film Studies (Indepedent)
Stats
Mandarin 6
Human Bio/Envioronmental Sci
Political Intersections of Vio+Non Vio/History of American Music
Shakespeare/Women's Lit
PE</p>
<p>ECs: Actor in plays most for all four years
Cappies Club
Film Club
Thespian Troupe
JSA
SAGA (will be leader)
Sits on an out of school theatre admin council </p>
<p>Summer Work/Camps/Internships: Main Street Admin Intern for a summer (4 weeks or so)
Theater Company Intern (last summer and this summer)
Cross Country China Trip with school
Theater Camp (since 9th grade-plan to do one this summer)
Syracuse Summer College (Intro to Film)
Two summer math courses to prep for upcoming year at my school </p>
<p>A very close friend of mine got into Tisch and USC so I speak from experience:</p>
<p>WORK ON YOUR GPA/SAT (this is uber important). He had something in the high 80’s/low 90’s and at least an 1810 SAT</p>
<p>Your extracurriculars are good</p>
<p>He got in for film production. You seem more like an actor/audition however. If you were a film maker (I helped my friend with his), I’d stress film quality over actual screenplay. They want to see that you can properly shoot and edit a film so take things like lighting and sound quality into mind. Again, you’re an actor so this is probably irrelevant since you’re auditioning. </p>
<p>@osanilevich to your surprise, I’m going for film and only recently figured this out. I’m actually in film makers club too. I’m definitely looking into getting a DSLR, an editing software and other sound equipiment. Thanks!</p>
<p>@soze I realized that, but remember NYU Tisch does rely on artistic portfolio as well. Not to mention- the courses at my school are rigorous compared to most schools. You can’t chance admission on SAT scores alone. I know my college essay will be good as I’m already working on that. Also, I might take the ACT which will prob be the better score. Emerson’s average SAT score for last year’s freshman class was in 1300 range. </p>
<p>@flickgirl13 I’ll see if I can help because I’ve applied to a few of these schools this year.
First, youre a junior right? And are you including writing in your SAT score? Because if you’re a junior and that’s your SAT score for all the categories then you have time to get it up, and you’ll need to for these colleges!
First, Emerson’s average SAT average is around an 1800 (the one you’re looking at is for math and critical reading). That being said, I was accepted (today actually) to Emerson and their production major with an SAT 1660 and GPA 3.4 (average is 3.3) and a huge resume and portfolio (seriously it was huge because I did film and theatre like you).
I was only in the 27% of my class (a very competitive school but trust me colleges don’t care about that) so I know that my resume/portfolio/references helped me out hugely.
I was accepted into Emerson, University of Texas at Austin, DePaul University, Hofstra University, and the University of North Texas (and their film schools) All of which are tough to get into both their film and the school. However, I was denied by NYU.
So if your main goals are to get into NYU/UCLA/USC then you’re going to need to largely increase your GPA and SAT. School’s like Emerson, Chapman, and Loyola Marymount will need those grades but will be lenient if you have a strong portfolio/resume because all of my acceptance letters have mentioned how impressed they were with my films and resume. Also, I HIGHLY recommend looking into University of Texas at Austin, I visited it today and I was very impressed with what I saw - plus Austin is rapidly growing in the film industry.
So basically:
Get your GPA and SAT up massively for those top schools
But it is crucial to build that resume, make some films and make connections for the letters of recommendation because that will make you stand out.
Hope I helped!</p>
<p>Also, all of these schools do look at your portfolio and reviews holistically (like you mentioned about NYU Tisch) but even if the film school accepts you and wants you if your SAT isn’t high enough the admissions office will deny you. (Happened to me)</p>
<p>@TexanFilm PM me! I may take ACTs too, so that score might be the better of the two. I have a teacher for film at school, who has taken me under her wing. Also, I’ve had two playwriting teachers, who could also write great letters of rec as I’ve worked with both of them for three months. </p>