What are my chances? (CMU, USC, etc.)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am going to be applying for some art schools and art universities, and I am pretty concerned about the universities because of my grades.
I moved from Korea to America at the end of January in 2016, unprepared.
So, I spent my 2nd semester Sophomore year and a whole Junior year here.
That probably means that I am going to be in an international student when I apply for college. (I still need to check.)
I live in CA and still figuring out residential stuff.

My GPA except my grades from Korea is unweighted 3.6, and weighted 4.03.
For Honors classes, I took Algebra 2, Chemistry, and English 11.
I took precalc/trig during the summer at a community college.
For AP classes, I took APUSH and Calc BC.
I am planning for four more APs senior year, but I’m still thinking about it.

I took the ACT, and the composite score is 30.
I took it twice, this April and June, but both turned out to be 30.
April: English 32, Math 34, Reading 21, Science 31, Writing 10
June: English 32, Math 36, Reading 22, Science 30, (I didn’t get the writing score yet)

I am going to take the TOEFL test two weeks later.

CMU
USC
NYU
Stanford
Yale
UCLA
UC Berkeley

I have some more colleges in mind, but how would be the chances for these?
My very first college I’m aiming for is CMU school of arts, but I know that they look at grades, and I’m very worried about it.

I don’t have many extracurricular activities.
I have two years of school leadership experience, no internship or job experience, and did some regular community service.

2

I think your GPA is okay and you have some AP classes and community college classes so they will be fine. The ACT is a little on the low side, so maybe you can try retaking it again? (Third time’s the charm!) It doesn’t seem like you have a lot of substance for you application so far, so you definitely need to shine in your essays.

I think USC and UCLA are targets, NYU is a target or low reach, and the rest are reaches.

What are you planning to major in anyway? If your school leadership experience ties in with your field of interest, then you may have a better chance at getting into a reach school.

I’d appreciate it if you could chance me back! http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/2000649-chance-me-low-rank-common-ecs-cornell-harvard-wharton-etc.html#latest

3

The acceptance rate for international applicants is generally lower than it is for domestic applicants.

That said, I will be very honest with you. Even if you were applying as a domestic applicant, your chances of getting admission into these schools is very small. Your GPA is low, but that is not my major concern. Your ACT score is kind of mediocre (retake and strive for 34+, if you get 36s on everything except reading, you will only need 28 in reading), but this is not a major concern either. What concerns me is your lack of ECs. Your volunteer service and leadership experience will help, but I don’t think they can overcome your average academic stats and lack of other ECs. As of now, Stanford, Yale, and USC are out of reach due to lack of ECs. CMU, UCLA, and UCB are out of reach due to academic stats. NYU is a reach, but I think you at least have a small chance of getting in there. Good luck! I would appreciate it if you could chance me back here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1995754-chance-me-low-gpa-rank-cornell-rice-wash-u-ucla-etc-p1.html Thanks!

4

I want to major fine arts. Not drama or music, but like school of art.
The leadership experience is from media arts program, and I worked a lot with design stuff.
Thanks for your great comments!

5

I didn’t know that… I should probably figure out if I’m international or not asap…
I see. I don’t think the next ACT will improve that much from June’s score, so I decided to focus on the portfolio.
Do you know if the schools have different standards for art? I heard that some schools mostly care about just the portfolio, but some care about grades first.
Also, would you have any ECs you would recommend I could do during summer? I’ve been to a camp last year, but not this year, cuz I kind of decided to do art recently and needed lots of portfolio work…
Thanks for the helpful comments!