<p>@zkinfamous, you need to know that one doesn’t go to Tisch with the intention of also majoring in business at Stern. You can’t do both at NYU. I’m not sure about architecture but I’d have my doubts on that as well simply because that’s also a field that demands a certain amount of (maybe this isn’t the right word), “studio” time. I’m not sure the majors are compatible for a dual major because of the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day. Research it vs. assuming it can be done.</p>
<p>Your description of what you seem to be looking for to me screams “look for a great school with a theatre BA” and not at all, look for a theatre BFA. With that in mind, I would highly suggest not limiting yourself to LA and NYC. You can have wonderful college experiences at schools that will fit your needs and then move to LA or NYC if you want to. Studying there now sure has certain benefits for actors (and a boatload of additional expenses), but if you don’t really know at this point that you really want a career in acting never mind if you would like studying acting “all in” which many people discover they really don’t. And meanwhile there are amazing schools with great architecture programs too that are not in either of those cities. Stay open.</p>
<p>Since you did ask about resume building for college acceptances and then mentioned several schools that are known to care about GPA, I’m a bit confused by your GPA math that you are using to figure out where you expect to be when you apply. I guess I never thought about replacing earlier grades by retaking the classes in high school. Didn’t know that was a thing. Can you do that and still graduate on time and present a rigorous course load that would also matter in the application to some of these more academically focused schools? Time spent retaking also means time not spent moving on to other advanced classes which also will build your application. I assume you are getting good advice on that.</p>
<p>But do know if you are already a junior, it’s really hard to move the needle on your GPA in big swings like you could have last year because every year that goes by means that average is calculated by more and more classes in the denominator. (Example. If you had a freshman year GPA of 3.0 and the a sophomore GPA of 4.0, your cumulative average goes up a whopping 0.5 points from a 3.0 to 3.5. But if junior year your GPA is also a 4.0, your cumulative average only goes up .166 points to a 3.66. And so on…</p>
<p>So even if you get 4.0’s this semester (where you said you are at 3.6 now but let’s assume 4.0) and every semester beyond that through senior year (of which… last semester really won’t count because you’ll already be admitted or denied at that point but let’s assume it does count), you can’t go from a 3.16 to anything better than a 3.58 not that is anything to sneeze at just understand the math.</p>
<p>Anyway, in summary, I think you need to cast a much wider net than what you are talking about. This is coming from someone with a daughter in the BFA at Tisch right now and a son who got into USC last year and came this close to picking it… literally deciding just before the May 1 deadline and it was painful to let it go. I know enough about both of those schools to urge you to cast a wider net. I also don’t think you need to necessarily do a summer acting program at NYU to figure out whether or not you want to go all in for acting. A good program local to your region can do the trick too and you are lucky to live near some exceptional ones. All the best!</p>