Struggling parent looking for some advice. Our DD is a rising senior and is very stressed over the entire college process; from SATs, ACTs, APs, Essays, creating a college list, picking a career, etc, etc. Her passion is art, but knows the return on investment of an Art degree may not be the best option for her future career success. I've tried to be supportive of her desires, but also agree that the statistics are not too encouraging when it comes to a generic Fine Arts degree from a public university. I'll get to the specifics on finances in a bit, but for now here are her stats from a strong public HS in mid-size city.
GPA 3.91 W-GPA 4.31
SAT 1310 (M-590 CR-720) Will take again in Oct
(Fresh)AP Euro History
(Jr) AP English Comp - 5
(Jr) AP Japanese - 5
(Jr) AP US History - 5
(Jr) AP Enviro Sci - didn't test
(Jr) AP Studio Art - didn't submit portfolio
(Sr) AP English Lit
(Sr) AP Biology
(Sr) AP US Gov't
(Sr) AP Studio Art - will submit this portfolio
ECs are pretty weak as she struggles with a mild form of Asperger's (social anxiety). She's not one to put herself out there when it comes to leadership roles and is much happier just working on her art. She does run track and cross-country, but is mostly heart and not talent in these areas. She has quite a bit of international travel under her belt and has been host to several international exchange students.
Her number one desire would be to go to a top-tier Art school such as RISD, SCAD or Pratt. Unfortunately, our finances will only support 20K/year towards her college and the cost of these schools is too much for our family. The lack of merit scholarships, and the fact our EFC is considerably above 20K, simply puts these colleges out of reach.
Over the past several months she has looked at some alternative majors including environmental science, microbiology, biochemistry and landscape architecture, only to come back around to art for what she wants to do.
Where to go from here is the question. She'll eventually figure out that RISD and the like are sadly out of reach. Unfortunately, at this moment I don't have the heart to squash her dreams. Any advise is appreciated.
↧