My daughter and I went on a tour yesterday and she loves it. She is very, very passionate about sound design and voice acting and hopes to go to a school with a strong arts focus where she can do sound design as a major but also get involved in other project in film/acting as well. The problem is her numbers aren’t strong (I told her this was a reach school to begin with). She got a 1290 on the SAT but is going to retake it (she had gotten at 1320 on the PSAT so I was hoping it would go up not down). Her unweighted GPA is the bigger issue - a 3.01 at the moment but it should go up a little (weighted is a 4.0). During her HS career I have been very sick and during last year had to go out of state for treatment for several months. This led to a significant drop in her GPA which is making it hard for her to climb back from. She is also legally blind which has been a challenge as well. So my question is…does Emerson look at extenuating factors that may have negatively impacted her performance? We plan to have the guidance counselor explain some of this in the information that gets sent to them but I really worry my illness has taken away any chance of her getting into a school she is in love with. Thanks for any feedback.
Hello! I only got into Emerson this past December as an EA applicant, but as someone who is fresh out of the college app process, let me give you some advice! If she really loves Emerson I’d highly, highly recommend she apply Early Action. I’ve read online that Emerson’s EA acceptance rate is closer to 70%, so that would increase her chances not only of admission but also scholarships!
All schools tend to look at extenuating factors, and there’s even a section on the Common Application for your daughter to type it out.
If you google Emerson’s average SAT score, you’ll find that your daughter falls inside their averages. Even then, I’d say not to stress out too much. I didn’t get the score I truly wanted until after taking the October ACT my senior year!
While GPA might be a concern, I think that if she wows them with her essays and portfolio (if there’s a req for her major), she’s pretty much a shoe-in.
Good luck!
THANK YOU! This is so helpful. She will be applying EA. I joked with my husband after we got home that if I could go there I would. We loved everything about it. Best of luck to you.
I don’t test well when it comes to standardized tests, and got a 1220 on my SAT. My english section was really strong, it was my math section that was weaker and luckily, Emerosn doesn’t focus on math. My GPA is much better than my SAT (it’s a 3.9), Im in the top 10% of my class, and I’ve taken some of the most challenging courses my school offers. I am also a strong writer, and had great letters of rec, and also learship positions and over all good/some unique extra curriculars. I didn’t have the time to be on my schools newspaper which I explained, and still got accepted to their journalism program with scholarships and grants. My point is, if her SAT isn’t the best but she is strong in all other areas, she will be fine. Also make sure you tour, and stay in contact with admissions through emails. In any event, her SAT score isn’t even bad for Emerson, and I believe they are test optional. Research that in advance because I am pretty sure there will be other things she needs to submit in place of tests scores. Also, have her try the ACT. Keep in mind that college admissions have been getting harder and harder each year, this year has been brutal. My friend who was more than qualified for syracuse got rejected from their college of arts and sciences, scores certainly aren’t anything. Message me with any questions, as I just received my acceptance a few weeks ago and will probably be attending in the fall.
Does anyone know how Emerson manages the waitlist. We were told that the waitlist is not “ranked”. Does that mean that people come off the waitlist in random or do they go through another "section process? Does the spring admission have any impact?
@bobmor most schools that don’t rank reevaluate the waitlists canidates if spots open up