What are my chances for RISD and Carnegie-Mellon?

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
1

I will be a senior in an international private high school next year. I was wondering about my chances for acceptance for my reach schools. I currently have a 2.7-3.0 GPA (I’m not entirely sure, however; it could be higher than that) and a 2170 SAT score. My art school counselors say that my portfolio is good enough for RISD (didn’t ask them about CM).

My low GPA is due to the fact that I moved schools 7 times and moved countries thrice. Also, I was bullied throughout pretty much my entire life until recently. I don’t know if it is possible to explain this, or if I should. And I should mention that my high school is a high-ranking one equivalent in reputation to the best American boarding schools (around 5-7% of students get accepted into Ivy Leagues each year) so it should help a little?

How will my low GPA and high SAT score balance out? Should I give up on these schools entirely? Thanks!

2

@sosmith here is an entry on the RISD admissions blog that we noticed last year when my daughter was applying to art college. You might want to talk to admissions or your high school counselor and ask them if the low GPA should be mentioned and why. I would think that most ADCOMS would want the back story, especially if you are on a role academically (and artistically) this year.

http://welcome.risd.edu/post/101264172915/gpa-and-your-risd-application

3

Sorry for the late reply, but thank you so much! I was accepted at RISD, surprisingly (I didn’t apply to CMU). I guess they really do look at everything.

4

Congrats, @somith! Are you planning to attend?