<p>I really dont know how to be concise about this but Ill try!</p>
<p>In 2005, I graduated from an inner-city high school. (Stats: 4.25 GPA, 1340 SAT, 27 ACT.) During high school, I took community college classes through the PSEOP program. As it was an urban school, we didnt have much in the way of good college counseling. The high school pushed for us to graduate high school and maybe get the graduates enrolled in community college at most, get enrolled in the state university in our city. So since the counselor just kept pushing the state schools at me and didnt really listen when I said I wanted not in this state, I decided that Id just do it all on my own. Being a first generation college hopeful (out of immediate and extended family) and not having any family friends in a college, I didnt know what I was doing. I went online, compared my scores with College Board and all those other sites and decided that I could probably get into Barnard, Smith, Columbia, NYU, American U, and Brown. They all summarily rejected me.</p>
<p>Although I did have good extracurricular (or so I thought!), I was never overly-invested in any one thing since Ive never felt that I had any talent at anything. I did some random summer volunteering during the summers. A lot of my time (not by choice) was taken up with church activities since my family was really religious. As far as high school extracurriculars:</p>
<p>NHS: 10th-12th, served as historian for 11th
PTK: 11th-12th, it's honor society for CC, I did pretty much nothing with it since the club wasn't active, but my name was/is on the roll
Broadcasting Club: 10th-12th, was a 'lead anchor' for 12th grade
Robotics Club: 11th, all I really did was make a team banner for one of their competition
Big Brothers, Big Sisters: 10th grade, big sister
Drama Club: 10th-12th, we did a couple of plays but nothing particularly important, a Christmas show (performed during the school day) and a couple of "scenes productions" (also during the school day)</p>
<p>Its been really hard for me to find out what Im interested in, because I just dont feel like I have an innate talent for anything. So after graduating HS (#14/~200), I worked and I took acting classes at the CC, along with choir, poetry, biology, math, etc to see if I could find a place where I fit. I've also been in the CC choir, PTK, and drama club during this time, though the drama club was mostly about raising money. This fall, I'll have my associates degree.</p>
<p>After watching tons of Project Runway and wondering if I could do that, I started learning how to sew this semester from tutorials on the Internet. I remembered that I used to draw little fashion figures and clothing designs when I was bored in classes. And I also remembered that in all my years of wanting to fit in with the theater kids, the most fun I had was getting the costumes together. Ive decided that Id really, really like to do theater costuming. Ive had a lot of fly-by-night ideas, things that I think might work but that I never stick with. I really, really think Im going to stick with this one, though, since it makes so much sense to me and since its something that I really like doing and learning about on my own.</p>
<p>If you read this far, heres my point: I have no actual theater experience so I obviously dont have a portfolio. Does this completely disqualify me? Im a beginner. It seems like colleges want you to be intermediate-experts in your chosen field before you get there. Im going to be taking an intro drawing class this summer since I know that will be important, plus Im going to be taking actual sewing lessons (though not through a college or anything).</p>
<p>What schools have a costume design major or a theater major that specifically focuses on costume? Ive found a lot of schools that have theater design but then only offer 2 or 3 costume-related courses at the school. Im not really interested in lighting and scenery, though even I were, I still wouldnt have a portfolio.</p>
<p>Id prefer a school that is in the New England area and preferably in an urban/moderately urban/eclectic area. I also like Chicago, Milwaukee, and D.C. area. I dont hate Pennsylvania. I live in Ohio and Id like to get out. I would preferably like to start school in January 2009.</p>
<p>I visited Smith College last November and its absolutely 1000% perfect for me. Since Ive just decided to focus on costuming, Ive been looking at Smiths site. It looks like the theater major is geared towards performance and you have to submit a special talent form which, in my case, would be blank. Plus, I didnt do very well this semester at CC (taking an anatomy lecture, anatomy lab, math survey and a writing-intensive history course) and will probably be retaking 2 of the classes in the fall. So Im not sure how admissions would be with that, especially since in November, the Smith admissions rep told me to take a couple heavy academic classes to prove I can balance a 40+-hour work week with a full-time class schedule. (Turns out well, not so much.)</p>
<p>In conclusion: is there any hope for me? I'm 21 right now, so I feel like time is running out because I have no experience in anything except data entry (which, by the way, not something I want to do for the next 40 years). Any suggestions at all are welcome. Most of the resources on the Internet seem to be for theater performance or general fashion, not theater costume design. Or am I googling with the wrong phrase? Sorry to be so long!</p>