<p>My daughter is a rising senior at a rigorous high school in southern California. She has not taken the most rigorous course load at her school, but will graduate with three APs (English, Environmental Science, and Spanish). She has always been outstanding at Spanish and English, and average (B+/A- student) in History, math, and science.
Her unweighted GPA is 3.6 and her SAT score is: 630 on CR, 620 on M, and 650 W. Her extracurriculars all revolve around art and photography, as she has won statewide and national awards in both. She is also a member (but no leadership position) of her schools Young Democrats club and Debate team.
We are full-pay for any school (willing to pay upwards of 60k), so money is not a concern. She wants a big school that is liberal leaning. So far, her list is:
UCSC
Pitzer
UCSD
She is also considering applying to UCLA because both her father and I went there, but I think it would be a long shot, considering her GPA and SAT scores.
Any suggestions for additions to her list would be greatly appreciated. She is not dead-set on California, but I dont think she wants to stray too far.</p>
<p>What major is she looking at?</p>
<p>She is undecided right now, but she’s very interested in English, Spanish, and art (visual art and photography). We’re unsure as to whether she wants to pursue a bachelor’s of fine arts or if she just wants to get a BA in some more useful subject and take art/photography on the side.</p>
<p>How about U. of Colorado at Boulder?</p>
<p>If she has an exceptional portfolio she might be able to get into a program like the design media arts at UCLA [Design</a> | Media Arts](<a href=“UCLA Arts: School of the Arts and Architecture”>UCLA Arts: School of the Arts and Architecture)
I know that for a few of the arts programs you need the minimum UC requirements and admission depends more on your portfolio. Most of my experience has been with music, but you might just check it out.</p>
<p>UCLA is still worth a shot, and it’s one of the top for art. UCSC and Pitzer are good fits for her, but also let her know that UCSB’s college of creative arts is excellent. There are plenty of liberal/hipster types there too. Also take a look Occidental (especially strong in film/photography). If you go to the Discussion Home link to left, scroll down to majors and you will find another link to “film/visual arts major” threads. There are lots of people there that know loads of info. about the best schools for certain art concentrations. Son plans to dual major in photo (heading to UVa this fall), and physics, or english, or psych…just doesn’t know yet. I also have a daughter who’s a rising junior and already heading down the same artsy path – she’s hoping to find a school with a strong Japanese program that’s equally strong in art.</p>
<p>Pitzer is not a big school. It is quite small.</p>
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<p>She might consider Scripps College in addition to Pitzer. Scripps is very good for the fine arts, and has solid academics as well.</p>