Hi,
Any suggestions would be welcome for a student with an average GPA and not much of a portfolio. A decent campus would be ideal.
Thanks so much!
I don’t know about BFA, but Temple has a test optional application I believe and good film program
If the student needs a portfolio to gain admission, in many cases, the SAT score isn’t all that big a deal. Why wouldn’t the kid beef up their portfolio…and submit the SAT scores?
If a portfolio is required…your kid’s will be compared to the others in the applicant pool. The students with stronger portfolios could get the edge.
Pitzer (part of the Claremont schools) is test optional and has a strong arts and humanities program (I’m not sure if it is specifically a BFA or BA. Might be a bit of a reach for average GPA, but I don’t think they require a portfolio.
“average” GPA means different things in different places - here on college confidential the joke seems to be that the average kid has a 3.98/17.3 weighted GPA. What do you mean by average?
3.5
And what is the SAT or ACT score? Why are you looking for test optional schools?
not testing at all–test averse
She should try…once at least. She might be surprised.
If she is really looking at test optional schools…the only choices you have are the fairtest.org schools.
For those possible areas of study and for test optional, I recommend Bennington College.
James Madison University in VA is test optional, has an auditioned BA in Theatre, a creative writing minor, and also strong film program in SMAD program.
There is a lot of crossover between Theatre & SMAD, some students who choose to double major.
An audition is required for theatre, but SMAD does not require a portfolio review at the time of application. The student might be best served to audition/ interview for Theatre (recommendations are made to academic admissions of students desired in the program), and if admitted com as a Theatre major, and add SMAD as a second major.
I teach at JMU, please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Here’s a long list of test optional schools, or those that deemphasize testing.
http://fairtest.org/university/optional Note many are top schools.
It’s absolutely fine not to take the tests. A test-optional application is in now way inferior to an application with testing scores, and the schools so not penalize an applicant.
That said, if he needs merit aid, even the most test-optional schools might need a score.
Columbia College Chicago comes to mind. Google it!
If he wants a BFA program and does not have a portfolio, or much of one, he would want to apply to schools that have students enter their arts program after a year. In other words, auditions after freshman year. I believe CCC is in that category.
Alternatively, he could go to any college or university for a liberal arts BA in theater (if offered) and avoid an audition or portfolio.
I would think that a school with acting for theater would also be good for acting on screen. Many of the best movie actors and actresses had traditional acting training.
I’m a little curious. Writing for screen or theater (or anything) is not an easy career, not at all. In fact, it’s a desperately hard career. I know a number of people who have been successful at it (as well as a number of people who tried and didn’t succeed). Out of maybe a dozen successful people, only one was someone about whom it might have been said when he was a senior in high school “he doesn’t have much of a portfolio.” And that one exception is someone who works exclusively in non-fiction journalism, who came to writing somewhat by accident a couple of years after graduating from college – he wouldn’t have dreamed of getting a BFA – and who graduated from Harvard. (Not that Harvard is a magic credential, but more like this was a really smart, ambitious, hard-working kid who could pretty much do anything he put his mind to.) Everyone else was writing up a storm when they were in high school. They needed to figure out how to pare down their portfolios for college applications.
I would be very suspicious of a kid who said he wanted to get a BFA in writing, but hadn’t written much. And I would be even more suspicious of a BFA writing program that would accept kids who didn’t write much (unless the little they did write was of extraordinary quality). Not writing regularly on your own, for yourself, without any assignment or compensation – that should usually disqualify a kid for a writing BFA.
Why not give us some context- where does the interest in screenwriting come from? As JHS notes- writers (in any genre) tend to write. Tons of writing- of all kinds. The good college level (and graduate level) writing programs take highly motivated and skilled writers and make them better, and help them learn technique which is specific to different industries. But they aren’t good places for kids who want to learn to write— but haven’t already experimented with lots of different types of writing (or at least done a deep dive- student newspapers, poetry competitions, etc. all of which would support a portfolio).
Again- acting. The strong acting programs may guide a student in one direction (musical theater for example) while giving a strong base across the board- classical theater, dance technique, swordplay and other forms of stagecraft, voice and dialect training, etc. You don’t go to college to learn how to become a movie star- you go to college to hone your craft, learn the technique behind a wide range of genres, and get exposed to as much professionalism as you can (student productions, showcases which talent scouts attend, etc.)
So help us understand what’s behind your request and we can probably be more helpful.
Thanks Blossom, JHS and everyone else. Will respond asap!
To offer a different perspective, a growth/gap year taking writing or acting classes might be a way to test the waters a bit. In life, people often change careers, and just because there’s not a portfolio to date doesn’t mean the talent’s not there. It takes some people longer to figure out their passion, there’s all kinds of paths out there.
The closest thing I can think of to what the OP wants is a joint playwriting/screenwriting program at SUNY Purchase.
https://www.purchase.edu/admissions/apply/index.php?major=Playwriting+and+Screenwriting
SUNY Purchase is not on the fairtest list of test optional schools. It has the program…but the applicant seems to need a standardized test score for consideration for admission.
@jonri this applicant will not be taking the SAT or ACT according to the OP.
My kid is in an MFA Acting program (Brown) and admission to that program was intensely competitive. There is one playwriting student and one directing student in her class of 14. The competition was even greater for those two sports than it was for acting. The same is pretty much true of BFA programs. I don’t think a student without a portfolio or some other examples of his/her writing ability has much of a chance. I would second the suggestion that the student take a gap year and put together a portfolio or enroll in classes related to his/her interests.
There are colleges where a student can try out these fields without a portfolio or audition.
I mentioned Columbia College Chicago, which does not audition for entrance but later.
Someone mentioned Bennington, which encourages students to try out new areas and is well -known for both writing and theater. There are many more.
I know someone at Dickinson who did acting.
You do not have to attend a conservatory type program for these areas of study. There are countless schools.
Just look through the fairtest list and google some of them.