Hello everyone! I’m new to College Confidential.
This summer I am going to a well-accredited program called CSSSA (California State Summer School for the Arts) as a second-year to study piano performance. My teachers there are USC alumni and at CSSSA, I will get the chance to play for one of the USC Keyboard Studies professors! I’m so excited AHHHHH (feel free to message me if you have any questions about CSSSA!)
My goal school is USC, but I’m planning to audition for the following schools: UCLA, UCSD, UCI, UCSB (all the SoCal UCs, basically), SDSU, SJSU, CSULB, CSUN, Cal Poly Pomona, Chapman, Pepperdine, Boston University, Berklee, and USC. (That’s my ridiculously long list so far. It needs to be trimmed down, I know.)
Intended major: Piano Performance
Demographics: Chinese/Taiwanese female, Northern California public school
SAT (new): 1370 with 7/5/7 essay (planning to retake in August, aiming for a 1400+)
SAT Subject Tests: Biology (720), Math 1 (650)
APs: Chinese (4); waiting on Lang, Music Theory, Biology
AP classes by graduation: Chinese, Lang, Music Theory, Biology, Gov, Econ, Lit
Unweighted GPA: 3.1111
School Weighted GPA: 3.4722
State GPA (unsure if this makes a difference in apps): 3.5455
UC/CSU “a-g” GPA: 3.8636
My school doesn’t report class rank.
My classes freshman/sophomore year were mostly regular classes with some honors sprinkled in, and I took AP Chinese my freshman year to complete my language requirement early. Junior year (this past year), I took AP Biology, AP Lang, US History, advanced concert choir, Spanish 1 (for fun) and Honors Algebra 2. I know my GPA is weak, as I messed up pretty bad my freshman and sophomore year, but I got a 3.8 (unweighted)/4.3 (weighted) my senior year.
Extracurriculars (extremely performance-based): piano lessons since kindergarten to now, accompanist to many various ensembles/solo instrumentalists, CSSSA, flute student teacher in church, flutist in church woodwind ensemble, school musical my freshman year, award-winning show choir my sophomore year, chamber choir and concert choir my junior year, part-time organist at a church, EAOP student at UC Berkeley (summer college prep program that offers SAT prep, enrichment classes, etc.), Stanford Phoenix Scholar
In my senior year, I’ll be my school’s jazz band pianist and a member of my school’s revamped Link Crew.
I’d appreciate your honest opinion. Thank you so much!