Hi!
My junior is getting ready to visit colleges and make a list of where to apply
We are in CA and she likes the idea of NY or MA
Interested in film, dance, theater, theater tech, choir & studio art
Also interested in languages (Spanish, French& ASL)
Any thoughts on what to take away or add?
CalPoly SLO-Theater Arts
CSU Chico -Musical Theater
UCLA-first choice School of TFT
second choice College of Letters & Sciences languages
UC Berkeley Languages
UCIrvine- Theater or Film
UCSC TheaterArts or Film
UCSB College of Creative Studies-Book Arts
Sarah Lawrence Theater or Film
Bard- Theater Film or Languages
Hampshire College design your own major-prob Film and Dance
Smith College
Wellesley
NYU
Barnard
Scripps
Reed
Univ of Puget Sound
SFSU? Film?
She has 4.5 gpa so far and has done like a decade of theater and dance. Top 10% of her class. Central CA public high school. She loves to sing and loves to make art. Very interested in set painting, costumes and other aspects of theater production. Loves nature and baking. As CA resident the UC and CSU are amazing options. Guessing she would like a fairly alternative and artsy environment. She is open to a city such as New York City or Boston. Probably a school that would give access to multiple interests better than something super streamlined.
Thanks- I love to hear abt options at CSU- it’s takes just a second to click on the box on the CSU app to add a campus and majors.
Other ones I’ve heard about are CSU Northridge (theater & film) and CSU Fullerton for musical theater though that one I think is renowned and only accepts a few students per year. A few friends are musical theater majors at Chico State so we can ask them about the program.
Why a second choice at UCLA if she can’t study what she wants ?
I put in WUE schools - 9 of which came up. At the CSU level where you are in state, CSU Channel Island, Stanislaus, Bakersfield and Chico. UNM is another that came up.
Ithaca would be another to look at as well as Purchase.
Second choice for UCLA bc the UCLA College of Theater Film & Television (TFT) is world class and I believe only accepts something like 3% of applicants. As she gets to submit a second choice for UCLA she could select College of Letters & Sciences- Languages which would have a much higher acceptance rate. She could also apply to first choice TFT Film and Second Choice TFT Theater but that seems unwise as both are extremely difficult to get accepted into.
Re SAT, No SAT scores yet but she will take it twice this spring.
Re Budget, hoping for public but could do private if it’s a totally amazing opportunity.
I guess my question is - why would she want to go to UCLA if she didn’t get into the TFT? Why have to major in something that you don’t want to major in?
I’d rather go to another school - say Arizona - for something I want to major in than UCLA for something I don’t want to major in.
Oh I see. Because she is interested fairly equally in lots of things and we are assuming that TFT is not possible to get into. At her school a handful of valedictorians get into UCLA each year but nobody gets into TFT.
This is why a school like Sarah Lawrence is on this list, she could have access to film classes and film major or theater classes and theater major, and she could even try both and decide the major later. At UCLA you can’t be in the TFT theater productions if you aren’t a TFT major or minor.
But to clarify, she is very interested in learning languages and that is a major of interest to her.
OK - but if she wants to be in theater or a theater tech, she can do it elsewhere - and languages.
I’ll just use Arizona because it’s easy - wouldn’t one rather do theater and language there than just language at UCLA.
You have lots of schools - but I wish you luck and mentioned a few others up stream you might look into. They might be “easier”.
Someone earlier today mentioned financial difficulties at U of PS - so I found an article that talked about possible cuts in 2022, but you might want to check deeper.
I worry other than Chico and UPS - you have no safeties.
Unweighted GPA 4.0
“GPA 10-12” says 4.52
Not sure how to figure out the UC or CSU.
If I recall they get capped after a certain amount of weighted courses.
We are in the Bay Area (public school), and a lot of our theater and arts oriented kids ED to NYU Tisch and seem to have decent luck (my daughter’s year sent 4 to NYU and one to UCLA’s TFT). If ED to NYU Tisch is an option, that might be worth paying for. I follow a friend of my daughter’s from elementary school who is at Tisch, and she’s been on stage in nyc theaters (small ones but still) for 2 years now.
We also see a bunch of kid studying film, dance, theater at Chapman and LMU. Chapman’s Dodge school is renowned and worth looking into for a creative kid.
In NYC, look at Fordham in addition to NYU and Barnard.
Use GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub to calculate your three UC-recalculated GPAs. For CSU, it is the same as the weighted-capped UC one, except that if there are any college courses, they count double (as two courses with two grades).
SFSU is a CSU that is not impacted except for nursing, so it will admit at baseline CSU eligibility (a-g courses completed with a 2.5 recalculated GPA for California residents) for non-nursing applicants.
NYU, Emerson, Syracuse or Wesleyan. All top film schools. Emerson is in Boston but not much of a campus. It’s very urban. Reminded me of NYU. Both are very well known for film and arts. I’m assuming theater is also strong. Plus fantastic cities for college students.
The only concern about Emerson is that they only offer arts. If you wanted to explore other majors/minors it would be tough. I doubt the offer language classes. Maybe they have cross registration options with other Boston universities?
Would add Wesleyan and Vassar. Barnard offers everything on the list, and Columbia’s language program is first rate. Barnard and Columbia now share one registration system.