How strict is the requirement?
Will your application not be read if you don’t have one credit of fine arts?
Did anyone get accepted without taking any fine arts classes in high school?
This is from a post regarding the same issue for an OOS applicant whom did not meet the VPA requirement. The response is from UCLA, not UCB but I would imagine their stance on this subject would be similar.
Question about VPA UC requirement:
Not to revive an old thread, but I thought I’d post this response since it’s still relevant to this application cycle:
Me:
Good day, I have a question regarding UCLA’s application requirements. As an out-of-stater attending a private school in New Jersey, I was not cognizant of the requirement that we had to take one year of an art to be applicable to the UC system. At our school, I took AP Computer Science, Intro to Computer Science, Health and Driver’s Ed and Physical Education to satisfy the High School’s requirements for “Fine Arts” as opposed to “Visual/Performing Arts.” Are those courses satisfactory for the requirement? In my free time, I do dabble in Graphic Design (Photoshop CC) and Video Effects (Adobe After Effects CC) if that opens up any doors for me.
UCLA’s Response:
Hello,
Unfortunately, those courses would not meet the VP requirement. For more information about what courses may satisfy the requirement you can go to the UCOP website http://ucop.edu/agguide/a-g-requirements/f-visual-performing-arts/index.html.
In addition, while the University of California have a set pattern of academic courses that are required for admission, we understand that these subject requirements may be difficult for some applicants to meet due to differences in school curriculum.
All applications for admission are reviewed within the context of courses available to them; if a particular required subject is not available, we will consider the application without it. We would not deny an applicant due to any one single criteria, therefore if the applicant is otherwise a strong competitive applicant but they are missing the VPA course (1 semester or the entire year) we can still admit that student.
There is no single academic path that we expect all students to follow, but the strongest applicants take the most rigorous high school curriculum available to them.
Sincerely,
UCLA Undergraduate Admission
ASUAR
Thank you for contacting the UC Application Center.
The Visual and Performing Arts requirement states that a student must take a year long or two semester long courses in one of the four accepted disciplines of Music, Theatre, Dance or Visual Art. If the student opts to take two semester long courses they must fall within the same discipline. For example, a student can take a semester of Painting and a semester of Ceramics to fulfill the requirement. If they take a semester of Painting and a semester of Orchestra they will not fulfill the requirement as the courses do not fall into the same discipline.
If your school does not offer two semester long courses that fall into the same discipline there are alternate ways to fulfill the requirement. The website included below will detail the other ways to fulfill this requirement.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/requirements/a-g-requirements/index.html
If you find that you are unable to fulfill the requirement with any of the above options you can explain the reason why in the additional comments section. Please be aware that failure to fulfill all requirement will have a negative impact on your application.
If you have any other questions please feel free to contact us again.
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I would contact UCB admissions directly for the final answer to your question. Always go to the source.
Thanks @Gumbymom