<p>I’m a 16 year old rising senior, and I’m really worried about getting into the colleges I want to. I want to pursue a career in animation, or something of that sort that involves art and technology/computer science. That is why my first choice would be CMU’s undergrad program for a bachelors in computer sciences and fine arts…
I know I have the art skills to match that of their expectations, but my grades aren’t a good representation of my abilities. When I was a freshman I was going between parents for custody and didn’t really feel stable enough to keep the best grades so I got pretty much straight Bs. Sophomore year, I became clinically depressed and started seeing a therapist, while my mom fought for full custody. Once again, I got straight Bs (except for my art classes because art helped me get through my depression). However this year, I’m a lot better, and with my mother so I was able to get mostly As this year, which is my true capabilities. However all through highschool I took as many advanced classes as possible:
Freshman year:
(GT)Geometry—B
(GT) English 9—B
(GT) Biology—B
(GT) US Government—B
P.E—A
(standard)Fundamentals of Arts—B
(honors) French 3—B
Sophomore Year:
(GT) Chemistry—B
(GT) Pre-calc—B
(honors) French 4—B
(GT) Fine Arts—A
(GT) English 10—B
(AP) Psychology—B
(AP) World History—B
Junior Year:
(Honors) Engineering principles
(AP) Studio Art 2D Design—A
(GT) Symphonic Winds—B
(GT) Physics—B
(AP) Calculus AB—A
(AP) US history—B
(AP) English Lang & Comp—A
Classes I’m Signed up for Senior Year:
AP Studio Art-Drawing
AP 3D Design
AP Statistics
AP Calc BC
AP English Lit
AP Econ
(last period is an AP independent study to work on artwork)
AP Scores:
Psychology 4
World History 3
Calc AB 3
US History 3
Studio Art 4
English Lang and comp 3
I know my scores aren’t too impressive, but I feel like I had spread myself too thin…oh well.
SAT score: 1920 (630 math, 620 reading, 670 writing) I plan on taking it again in october and shooting for 2100-ish.
My school weighs our GPAs on a 6.0 scale…getting an A in standard classes being 4, honors 5, GT/AP 6, so my weighted GPA is a 5.0, while my unweighted is a measly 3.33 
For extra curriculars and such, my work has been displayed in various art shows, I will get the National Ap scholar with honors award as a junior, I am a member of the NEHS, Mu Alpha Theta, and NAHS. I am also the Vice president of the NAHS, and this senior year I will be the President. I was on the Badminton Team for 2 years, and Spent 6/7 months after school twice a week this junior year painting a large mural in my library, and this senior year I will be painting more murals throughout the rest of the library and school. My original design has been featured on the Ecology Club’s T-shirts, and I designed the shirts for the class of 2015.
I’m really passionate about art and REALLY want to go to CMU and become an Animator, but am I too much of a longshot? 
what can I do to help my chances?</p>
<p>Oh I forgot to add that my class rank is top 8% (18/223) and that I volunteered over the summer between sophomore and junior year at a retirement home, playing piano for the seniors once a week.</p>
<p>For Hopkins and CMU i think your SAT score is around their 25 percentile so raising that would be extremely beneficial. Also, CMU’s comp sci school is incredibly hard to get into for anyone. If you did an extra curricular involving animation or comp sci this would help out a lot. Also do SAT 2s. CMU comp sci requires i think 2 sat 2s one of which must be a math and many other colleges either require them or strongly recommend them</p>