<p>Dear Fellow WashU Hopefuls,
I am rising Senior looking to apply to The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts with a concentration in Photography.
I was wondering if any CC members could give me an idea of how much of reach this would be, considering my "decent" stats.
I spoke with the Assistant Director of Admissions when she visited my school a few weeks ago. I love that Wash U has so many opportunities to explore all sorts of fields and that their art degrees are more interdisciplinary than other schools I have looked at.
Here are my stats and a little information about me:</p>
<p>3.5 UW 3.79 W
(This doesn't include 2 photo classes taken at colleges and 3 social science classes accredited by local state college which may boost these stats a few points) I have always had a rigorous Honors/AP schedule
1920 SAT (retaking this weekend)
Internship at Art Council and another one with Photographer/Production Company
Participation in over 100 community service hours
Member of Specialized Political Science Program at my school (9th-12th grade)
2 National Photography Contest Wins in past year</p>
<p>I am engrossed by photography, but do not have much experience in other areas of art such as drawing, painting, and ceramics. But, from what I hear, WashU's art program prides itself on being able to "teach anyone to draw", I am definitely interested in exploring this!</p>
<p>Do you think that my Stats will kill my chance at being accepted, even with a possibly killer essay and portfolio?</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for your time!</p>
<p>Let me start by saying that I’m in the school of Engineering and Applied Sciences, so I don’t know much about the art school. If anyone who knows more than I do would like to step in, please do so. However:</p>
<p>A few things that you mentioned bother me. For starters, your GPA isn’t outstanding. Even though you’ve taken five college courses, two of them were for photography which means they probably won’t factor into your decision very much. Therefore, you might want to assume the worst and consider the GPA boost that those classes gave you, void. Your SAT is also quite low for Wash U standards–the 25th percentile is about a 2085. Try your best to do well this weekend on because that 1920 will be a big turn-off to adcoms, your excellent photography skills notwithstanding.</p>
<p>Just as a bit of advice, I wouldn’t say you have “over 100 community service hours” because that sort of gives the impression that you think it’s a lot of hours, when it isn’t particularly very much. I would give a more exact number of hours, if possible: “I have 130 community service hours” would be more appropriate, at least in my opinion.</p>
<p>Other than that, you really don’t have many extracurricular activities. That’s not going to work in your favor.</p>
<p>If you apply early decision, I’d say there isn’t a great way of knowing whether or not you’d get in. However, you never mentioned that you’re applying ED so I’ll assume you’re not: I don’t give you a great chance of getting in. There’s always a chance, but I don’t believe it’s very good. As I said, I don’t know much about Wash U’s art school policies. Hopefully someone can provide some insight.</p>
<p>I’m also an engineer, but I actually have a lot of insight into the art school- photography in particular. For what it’s worth, the photography department is INCREDIBLE. All of the professors are just amazing.</p>
<p>RaVN is right- your gpa is a bit low. As for SAT, you might want to also try the ACT. For some (myself included), an ACT score might be equivalently higher than an SAT. It also goes both ways, but it can’t hurt to try to take the ACT. Also, send it in automatically (for time constraints) since if it is worse than your SAT score, they will only look at your SAT.</p>
<p>However, if you’ve won national photography contests, you must have a decent portfolio. Go to portfolio reviews to clean it up, and make sure to send in a really strong portfolio.</p>