<p>I'm a rising senior and I'm finally sitting down and evaluating what my plan for the future is. I'm a fairly indecisive person, so as I'm gearing up for applying to college, I've realized that it probably wouldn't be smart to go to art school (think SCAD, SAIC, etc). I'm very passionate about art and photography, but in case I'm not in a few years, most of my choices are flexible in that regard. </p>
<p>My top schools, in no order, are:
University of Michigan, School of Art & Design
Michigan State University
Carnegie Mellon University
New York University
RISD
University of Chicago</p>
<p>My GPA is 3.3 unweighted- I had a rough go of it the first two years. My ACT is 28 and I'm retaking it in September. I was also granted an independent study for digital photography through my high school.
My extra curricular activities include the following:
Art Club member (two years)
Photography Club president (one year) & member (two years)
Gay Straight Alliance president (one year) & member (two years)
5 classes at the Cranbrook Summer Art Institute in the areas of Alternative Photography, Digital Photography, Darkroom Photography, and Videography (about 450 hours of instruction total)</p>
<p>I know my GPA is lacking, but I'm curious as to what my chances are based on the other things. Thank you!</p>
<p>OH! Also, what are some other schools I could/should look into for photography majors?</p>
<p>Hi Clair,
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to assess the odds of getting into various college art programs and the list you present has got ‘long shot’ written all over it. Things that help you: your summer work at Cranbrook (nice!) and Gay / Lez Pres (admissions darling this year). Here’s my estimate of your chances (I’m assuming that you have a killer portfolio):</p>
<p>University of Michigan, School of Art & Design - less than 5%
Michigan State University - No idea
Carnegie Mellon University - less than 5%
New York University - 2%
RISD - 5%
University of Chicago - 0%</p>
<p>UChicago doesn’t care about your major so there isn’t a bump for strong portfolio and your GPA/ACT are way under their averages.</p>
<p>A top heavy list like this will likely bring heartache in the Spring. The good news is there are plenty of colleges with terrific art programs that are much closer to your scores.</p>
<p>Please look at: U of Iowa, Virginia Commonwealth, Ohio U, U of Arizona, U of New Mexico, Arizona State, Syracuse, St. Johns (NY) and many more. All of these have terrific photo programs and your chances of getting in are much higher. (About 30 - 50% or so)</p>
<p>Does your HS use Naviance? If so, fire it up to get a better understanding about what scores were needed for kids from your school to get into the above list of colleges.</p>
<p>BTW, you say you don’t want to go to an art school so why put RISD on your list? :)</p>
<p>Sorry, I know this isn’t the news you wanted to hear but it’s better to know this now than in April.</p>
<p>To be honest, I think it would have sufficed to just say, “I’m not too sure those schools are good choices.” I don’t think listing them off was necessary. </p>
<p>Within the past few weeks I’ve been leaning more towards art school.</p>
<p>How did you get these numbers? They seem made up to me. I’m not saying that it’s more likely I’ll get in (I knew it was a stretch) but I just don’t see any credibility there. </p>
<p>I’ve looked at RIT and their program focuses mostly on ad/business/product photography, and I have literally no interest in that. An instructor of mine is from there and, while she boasted about it, she didn’t think (based on my work) that it would be a good fit. </p>
<p>I’ve been looking more and more into the college art programs and if I was to go to a liberal arts college (even U-M, and the only reason I’d get in is because of family ties dating back to the 19th century), I’d major in Art History and go to a place like RISD, CalArts, Pratt, or Cranbrook Academy of Art- which is a big choice for me now- for grad school. </p>
<p>I don’t want to fall in love with art schools because I simply cannot afford them. With my mother’s income- or lack thereof- I know I’ll get some assistance, but there’s just no way I can really afford RISD or CalArts or NYU for four years. After doing research, grad school is a maybe. </p>
<p>Either way, I’m still looking. Blah.
Thanks, I guess.</p>
<p>I should also mention that my GPA will be re-weighted when I graduate. I’ve taken 4 AP classes and those are weighted on a straight 5.0 scale at my school, and since I’ve gotten A’s in them, it’ll significantly boost it. Think 3.7/3.8, at least according to my brother who loosely translated it.</p>
<p>Don’t be discouraged, there are tons of great places for you. I am just giving you the cold reality of this difficult game. The estimated chances I gave are based on the school’s historical acceptance rate (ex. RISD = 9%) and then I backed them down based on how many 3.3 GPA / 28 ACT students have been accepted by those schools. My estimates could be off a little but they aren’t off by a lot.</p>
<p>By all means put some of these on your list but just know they fall into the reach category. I would recommend finding 6 or 7 schools like those that I mentioned in my last post as your target schools, add 3 safety choices and maybe 2 of your reaches. That way you’re likely to have some good choices in the Spring.</p>
<p>You’ve added new financial data to the search. This is really important as you do your research into which schools to add to your list. For example, I love RISD but they are not very generous with financial aid AND it’s a reach school so I’d just delete it. An infinitely better reach choice for you would be a school like USC - Roski. About the same odds to get in as RISD but VERY generous financial aid and a very good art program (not as good as RISD but still very good). If you hit your reach you want to be able to pay for it.</p>
<p>I’d start by looking at your state school art programs first. Also, depending on your state there are sometimes deals to be found in neighboring states with regards to be classified as ‘in state’.</p>
<p>Next, I would search Google for things like ‘most generous financial aid colleges’ and see if any on that list have good to great art programs.</p>
<p>From that list of schools I would then go to Naviance to get an idea what your chances for each school might be.</p>
<p>Finally, I would pick 3 safeties, 7-ish targets, and 2-3 reach schools.</p>
<p>I’ve been using Parchment for chancing. It’s the site my school uses to send out transcripts and they rely on it heavily, so I’ve just taken to using it. Sorry for getting so defensive-- I didn’t quite realize how snappy my reaction was. </p>
<p>With all that said, I’ve actually drastically changed what I want to go into. I’d like to be an English teacher (secondary education)! I’m really excited about it, and a few of my own teachers are really supportive. My parents are on board and it makes the pressure of getting into school much less intense. </p>
<p>My current list is as follows:
University of Michigan (reach)
Oberlin College (reach)
Kalamazoo College
College of Wooster
Michigan State
Grand Valley State University </p>
<p>I’m also applying to NYU, but that’s a mega-reach. I’ve sort of become much more aware of my tiny little place in the world, and for whatever reason I’m now comfortable with the idea of living a low-key, quiet, “normal” life. I’m still applying to NYU, as a little part of me still wants to go into film/photography, but I’m prepared to go with the flow-- if it’s meant to be, it will be! I plan to minor in Cinema Studies anyway. </p>
<p>Hell, I’m 17. This could change in three weeks! Actually, it probably will. It’s what I’ve been thinking of for a while now. Just thought I’d share a bit of an update and thank you for your time and responses! Much appreciated.</p>
<p>clairbutlerfilm, if you are interested in Cranbrook for grad school, you should spend time developing your point of view and narrative. Where you go to school for undergrad will be less important than what you gain in your art during your undergrad years. You certainly can explore other options while continuing to work in photography, just in case you change your mind again!</p>
I plan to minor in Cinema Studies anyway. </p>