Hello, my 16 year old son is highly motivated for art college. He is gifted, to say the least and with that “gift” comes learning differences. He is currently doing his high school online from home. Most if not all art schools realize the artistically gifted often times have learning challenges as they are usually right brained dominant. With average grades from a private online h.s. and probably average SAT score, does he stand a chance at applying to an Ivy league college? Thank for your help !
Dear Patti, I highly doubt that he would be accepted into any Ivy League colleges with average grades and average SAT scores. There’s simply too much competition. With ten times more applicants than available seats, these schools have their pick of students who are artistic AND have high grades and scores. But more importantly, why would you want to send your son to an Ivy League college? The pressure cooker environment does not sound like a great fit for a fragile student with learning challenges.
It sounds like your son is most motivated for art. I would suggest exploring colleges with strong art departments as well as art “institute” type schools that offer a BFA with a foundation year. For the latter schools, the portfolio is the most important component of the application, even more so than the results of standardized tests. If your son is interested in this path, make sure he focuses on creating a portfolio.
@pattib845, I agree with @Westchestermom. My wife is a gifted (and pretty successful artist) who has a high IQ and dyslexic. My son is gifted in many things including art. Very high IQ and severely dyslexic. With average grades and scores, no real chance. Plus, fine art is a tough profession and the economic conditions are actually getting worse. So, I would encourage someone going into art (if that is what your son does) to avoid accumulating debt. My wife went to RISD and has sometimes taught there. My son is also really good at academics (there is a strain of folks gifted in math on my father’s side) and completely driven (I told him in 2nd grade that he was very smart but that, because of his dyslexia, he would have to work harder than everyone else for the rest of his life to show his talent.) After lots of struggles, he did quite well in HS and fantastically on standardized test scores and got into elite schools including Ivies. We selected his college in large part on the fact that there were no distribution requirements and lots of support for kids with LDs. He worked incredibly hard there as well. But, to get there, he needed top performance in school – he had no foreign languages because he doesn’t do well with them, for example, and had to be better than a top candidate in some dimensions to get in.