strategy for admission to UCLA: art/music portfolio?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
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My daughter will apply for fall 2018 admission. Talented artist (drawing/painting) and musician (singer/songwriter), but probably will want to major in something else (e.g. psych or environmental science). Good student but will probably be near or under the averages for admitted students for both GPA and test scores.

What is her best strategy for admission? Option 1: apply as a regular student to L&S, no portfolio submission. Option 2: apply to one of the arts majors in the school of Arts and Architecture, with portfolio submission. Option 3: apply to the school of Music with portfolio (recording) submission.

Under options 2 and 3, she would probably want to transfer to L&S, but might consider an arts or music major with a minor in something else. In other words, she would want the option of tranfsering to L & S, but it is not totally disingenuous of her to apply as an art or music major, because she might actually want to major or at least minor in one of these disciplines.

Thoughts?

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You can take a look at http://www.aim.ucla.edu/tables/admissions_college_fr.aspx Arts and Architecture has less than half the admit rate of UCLA undergrad overall. Music is about the same.

Now that I said that, let me take it back :wink: These stats don’t predict your D’s chances due to what is called the “ecological fallacy” (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_fallacy) Nobody knows where your specific D falls on the distribution of applicants. Maybe her talent in the arts is so great that she’s highly likely to be admitted even if the overall admit rate isn’t that great. Or maybe she falls at the other end and would have a better chance in L&S.

I think the bottom line is that nobody outside UCLA admissions really knows, and even they would have to see her portfolio to give an opinion.