<p>What should I do to make my application better?</p>
<p>I applied to a handful of art schools for this fall and though I got into all of them, I didn’t get enough financial aid to attend anywhere. So now I am trying to figure out where to go from here.</p>
<p>I have a 3.3 GPA, I know this could be better. It used to be a 1.7, and I had many, many W’s and a few F’s and D’s. I have made up the majority of these bad grades and some of the W’s. I feel that I did not effectively explain the circumstances that led to my absymal performance at that point in my life in my optional essays, and obviously will be doing so in my next attempt at transfering. </p>
<p>I am a member of Phi Theta Kappa, but can’t do much with them because I work 2 jobs- one 40 hrs, and another that is 10 hrs a week. I am also in my school’s honors program. I have volunteer hours with a few galleries in Austin and I have 200+ hours with Girls Rock Camp Austin. I also worked at the largest university art museum in the country for 4 years before switching to my new job in insurance. I have published articles on national news sites and participated in many group art exhibitions. At points in the past I ran a gallery with a friend and helped start a literary & visual arts magazine which I was an associate art editor for. At my past cc, I was the photo editor, and later the entertainment editor for the cc’s newspaper. </p>
<p>I had recommendations for the assistant dean of the art program at my cc and from one of the curators at the museum where I worked. I have an associates degree from another cc in Visual Arts with a 3.2 GPA. I am working on a second aa in anthropology with honors. I am planning to take at least a half-load of clases this fall and don’t forsee doing badly in them. If I do a full-load I can probably boost it to a 4.0 GPA. </p>
<p>Right now, I am looking at schools with strong Native American Studies, Art History, and American Studies programs. I would also like schools with decent Studio Art programs that allow a non-majors to take classes. My dream school would be Dartmouth, since they have all of those options and are very good to NDN students, obviously Yale or Stanford would be great too since they have all of the qualities I want. I know my GPA keeps me from competing for these transfer spots.</p>
<p>I took my SAT/ACT in fall of '02 so it is no longer accepted by these schools (a shame because I had a perfect score on the CR section.) I have to retake it if I want to entertain applying to ivy league or competitive LACs. Do you think if I did well on my SATs I would have a shot at any school that would meet full or almost full need? The problem for me with most schools is not getting in, but paying for them. I just barely earn more than could qualify me for the Pell.</p>