<p>I also will be applying next year.</p>
<p>YuhikoJay is right, it’s all about your performance on the hometest and your creativity.</p>
<p>I’ve spent an insane amount of time researching it(honestly…it’s almost embarrassing).
Anyhow, it’s good that you have good grades. While they aren’t necessarily going to be looking at that for admittance, it will REALLY help you on the hometest. I have noticed that many of the best(and admitted) hometests have something intellectual or philosophical about them(I’d be more than willing to link you to some good ones). And the average ACT range is a 29-33, so that means people who get in are not necessarily failing their classes and are just good with art.</p>
<p>Between now and when you apply, I think you can do a few things:</p>
<p>Read philosophy books. In every question, if you want to do well, you have got to be damned philosophical about it. And philosophy is interesting! It can help shape the way you live your life and of course your art(as it should).</p>
<p>Allow your academic pursuits to inspire your artistic endeavors. Perhaps you can center your hometest around some scientific phenomena you’ve learned about(such as this girl did: [HOMETEST</a> HOMETEST HOMETEST](<a href=“http://www.tazl.com/cooper.htm]HOMETEST”>http://www.tazl.com/cooper.htm)) It will help you to push your creativity and make your hometest more complex.</p>
<p>Try the summer program at SAIC! I live very near Chicago(just a quick train ride in) and am familiar with the school(I know so many people who have gone there/have visited myself). It’s a fantastic school and it’s considered “where kids go if they don’t get into Cooper”. It’s very conceptual and they’re generalist with their curriculum(like Cooper). The only real difference is the size(much larger) and the cost(extremely expensive 
). Other than that, by the time you graduate Cooper kids and SAIC kids end up making very similar stuff. I’m hopefully doing the Advanced Projects class, which is the conceptual class in the summer program. I’ve only heard good things about it(some in that class specifically have applied to Cooper as well). You should look into it!They offer portfolio based merit too. :)</p>
<p>LOOK AT AND BREATHE CONTEMPORARY ART AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!
If you live in a large city, see if you can get into a class at a museum! And go to museums every week if you can. As I said, I live near Chicago, so I am lucky enough to be a part of a very intensive weekly program(like Coopers Portfolio Prep, except not so much about art making… more just critical thinking/interpretation) at the contemporary art museum here. If there is no class, GO VERY OFTEN(for me, every week). You should start TALKING to others about art through critical interpretation in relation to contemporary issues and concerns. It will expand both what you think of “as art” and what you can do with your “art”. But when I say go every week, go every week. Digest every piece you see multiple times. Each time you look at work, you generally notice something you hadn’t noticed before. I’ve been both spiritually, visually, and intellectually inspired by work in the process of just talking it out. Go to as many galleries and experimental art spaces as well. 
</p>
<p>NOW, if you don’t have access to galleries, here are some good sites to get your brain churning:
<a href=“http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/[/url]”>http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/</a>
<a href=“http://www.vvork.com/[/url]”>http://www.vvork.com/</a>
<a href=“http://www.artfagcity.com/[/url]”>http://www.artfagcity.com/</a>
<a href=“http://artforum.com/[/url]”>http://artforum.com/</a>
<a href=“Hennessy Youngman - YouTube”>Hennessy Youngman - YouTube;
<a href=“Artinfo.com”>Artinfo.com;
<p>Create an artistic identity, but be FLEXIBLE!
By this, I mean, have some kind of focus(which can be extremely broad), intellectually in your work, but try and think of experimental ways you can express it. Again, you can really learn about what you can do and how you can push yourself visually/artistically by really just spending all your time around the contemporary art world. You don’t want to come off as “too tight” to Cooper.</p>
<p>Sorry this is so long. I sure hope this helps! As I said, I can link you to a copious amount of hometests that were accepted and that are phenomenal. :D</p>
<p>BUT ULTIMATELY:
You don’t know if you will be accepted. NO ONE DOES.
No matter HOW MUCH time I spend thinking and thinking and experimenting, at the end of the day, the acceptance rate is still about 3%. Even though I want this extremely badly and have spent so much time researching it, I don’t think I deserve to get in. No one does. I’m sure I’m not the only one with this obsessive dream who has thought so hard about it. They either want you, or they don’t… it’s a journey nonetheless, but allow that thought to expand you rather than make you feel pressured and depressed if you don’t make it. 97% of people don’t. But they still survive…they still make art.</p>
<p>Que sera, sera. We’ve both got a year until we find out. Just live as fully as you can in that year and let it happen. :)</p>