Well, that’s a valuable piece of information that was not clear. If your father is on board, I don’t see an issue. Good luck.
Thanks! As far as I can tell, my dad is controlling, critical and arbitrary with his “disciplinary actions” but strangely he doesn’t care what I do as long as I’m over 18. I think he just wants to get me out of the house.
I’m very sad to hear that. Look for schools with good need-based aid. When it comes time to apply, please feel free to PM me your essays if you want any advice.
Thank you so much for your offer. I’ll be sure to take you up on it soon. 
I hesitate to tell middle-class applicants to apply anywhere ED since it precludes them from comparing fin/aid packages. You have two things going for you in the RD process as far as Wesleyan is concerned, 1) Texas is an underrepresented state/region of the country and 2) you have an aptitude or interest in one of the country’s most respected academic departments, the Wesleyan Film Studies dept. It’s not as production oriented as the program you describe at USC, but, the alumni network is sterling. You need to work on your essay and get some great recommendations.
OP, why are you not applying to UT Austin? It has a top cinematography dept. My S looked into the art dept and I remember that they admit based on portfolio, so perhaps it’s the same for Moody. They also have a semester in LA, I thought I read somewhere.
—circuitrider: Thanks for the advice! So I take it that I should just apply regular decision to my shortlist…
Also, thanks for the insight about Wesleyan.
—goingnutsmom: UT-Austin was on my shortlist for a long time. But in the end, I decided that the annual cost of attendance, which was over $15,000 /with financial aid/ (higher than any other college on my list), in addition to the high living cost in Austin was too much. The huge number of people enrolled also deterred me because it means the school can afford to give less financial aid than I need.
Also, I am far from the top 7% of my graduating class, and unless there’s a zombie apocalypse that takes out 25% of the students at my high school, I won’t be an automatic admit to UT-Austin. According to the Freshman Student Profile, only a small percentage of the students admitted are out of the automatic admit range. So my chances of being admitted in the first place aren’t great.
^Yes, I noticed that you were out of the auto admit range however, Moody acceptance may be by portfolio and recommendations but not sure.
While it’s great to apply to the highly competitive schools, having some other options would be a good idea too.
Moody actually doesn’t require any materials beyond what the Admissions Office requires of all applicants.
I realize that I don’t have a lot of diversity in my college shortlist. However, my brothers are already saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in debt. My dad is at least a hundred thousand dollars in debt. There’s no affluent extended family member to swoop in and save me from the cost of college. It’s either this, community college (which is full of many people and faculty who don’t give a crap about their education) or nothing. 
Given the low margin of error you’ve given yourself (need-based aid or bust), you really need to double down on the number of women’s colleges. Smith definitely belongs on there. There’s no rule against applying to both Scripps and Pomona. Bryn Mawr is a great school with the same academic standards as nearby Swarthmore and Haverford, but, because of its single-sex status, less popular than their Tri-co partners. I don’t know your religious background, but, given the name of this thread, single-sex status may even be a selling point.
Alright… The only thing I’m concerned about is spreading myself too thin by applying to too many colleges. Also, my family income is a couple of thousand dollars above the poverty line and I’m afraid I won’t be able to afford to apply to so many in the fist place.
So do you think there are any on my list that I should cut? Or should I just add one of the colleges you mentioned? Would the list resulting from your suggestions give me a good shot of being accepted to at least one of my target/reaches?
If your family is lower income, look into asking for a waiver of application fees. You can ask directly or you can talk to your college counselor for advice on it.
Also, if you are applying through Questbridge I’m pretty sure application fees are waived for participating colleges.
I was rejected from the Questbridge College Prep Scholars program, so I don’t think I will apply to the National College Match program …
My GPA and class rank is very low (wholly because of my math scores, but low nonetheless). I don’t I would be considered for more than a few minutes anyway.
But I will look into fee waivers with my counselor. Thanks~