Hello! I have been dreaming of nyu Tisch since I was freshmen, and now that application time is coming up all I’ve been having is jitters about my chances. I was an excellent student my freshmen year (all As), slightly worse my sophomore year(All As except a few Bs), and worse my junior year(Mostly Bs, a couple As and a C). of course, I have been taking more difficult classes as the years progressed. However, I have begun focusing more creatively, and have been doing more filming and photography, which has caused my grades to slip. Additionally, mental health hasn’t been great, as it is for most people come their junior year. I have a very strong portfolio (in my opinion) and my senior year I plan on entering film fests and other competitions to create an even better creative resume. I am also looking into applying to other film schools, like USC. I know other schools hold academics veery high, even for separate film schools (like USC does). Would this drop in performance be detrimental to my admission chance? I have some stats listed below:
Schools im looking into: NYU, USC, UCLA, Chapman, Cal Arts, University of Texas Austin, Florida state, Pratt, Pepperdine, Stanford, Columbia, UC Berkeley
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: White
Grade: Junior (11)
School: Public
Graduating class: ~600 students
GPA: 3.6 (unweighted); 4.7 (weighted)
Rank: I am in the top 20% of my graduating class.
Course difficulty: AP World History (4 on exam), AP Computer Science A(5 on exam), APUSH (4 on exam), AP environmental science, AP Language and composition (5 on exam), courses taken through University of Pittsburgh: CHS(college in high school) Calculus, CHS Programming, CHS Argument
I also take and have taken many film classes
ACT: 32
Extracurricular: Editor and creator of my own magazine, AV club, directed personal films, part time photographer for senior pictures and weddings (photography business), Student council, Youth and Government, Mock Trial, model UN, national honors society, science honors society, volunteering, varsity golf since freshmen year, school musical, yearbook.
I have also held leadership positions in most of these clubs.
again, I do have a strong creative portfolio of a short film, and my writing is (in my opinion) very good. I think I can ace the essay and can do fairly well with the creative submission, but the academics is where I think I will be killed. I wanted to know if anyone has any insight on the way applicants are accepted into these programs, since they are not the typical everyday college admissions.
Also if anyone had any suggestions for other schools to look into I would love to hear it.
Thank you for your input!