One in 3000: California Institute of the Arts

It's One in 3000 Thursday! Each week, We're Going to College features one of the over 3000 four-year colleges and universities in the United States. From Alaska to Atlanta, Hawaii to Houston, West Virginia to Washington, D.C., you could get your undergraduate degree from an institution in any of the 50 states and many of the territories. But which school is the right one for you? Let's take a look at the one of the top candidates, and maybe we'll see you there in the fall!

via calarts.edu

Name: California Institute of the Arts

Location: Valencia, CA

WGTC Category: Best Film Schools in LA

Website: calarts.edu

Twitter: @CalArts

Undergraduate size: 970

Average SAT: approx. 1157

Average ACT: 27

Average GPA: 3.45

Acceptance rate: 27.7%

In their own words "CalArts teaches artists to develop the skills and personal drive to reach their creative potential, question received ideas and expand forms of knowledge and experience in the world. CalArts challenges artists to create work that matters globally to the state of culture today and in the future."



If you would like to see a college or university featured in One in 3000, please let us know in the comments, or email us at WereGoingToCollege [at] gmail [dot] com.

One in 3000: ArtCenter College of Design

It's One in 3000 Thursday! Each week, We're Going to College features one of the over 3000 four-year colleges and universities in the United States. From Alaska to Atlanta, Hawaii to Houston, West Virginia to Washington, D.C., you could get your undergraduate degree from an institution in any of the 50 states and many of the territories. But which school is the right one for you? Let's take a look at the one of the top candidates, and maybe we'll see you there in the fall!

 

via artcenter.edu

Name: ArtCenter College of Design

Location: Pasadena, CA

WGTC Category: Best Film Schools in LA, Rolling Admissions

Website: artcenter.edu

Twitter: @artcenteredu

Undergraduate size: 1,824

Average SAT: approx. 1136

Average GPA: 3.21

Acceptance rate: 69%

In their own words: "ArtCenter College of Design offers a new model for art and design education in the 21st century. Our visionary approach is based on the College’s conservatory-like approach to teaching and learning; a desire for rich, intercultural and transdisciplinary dialogue; and a mandate to provide students innovative learning and making spaces."


If you would like to see a college or university featured in One in 3000, please let us know in the comments, or email us at WereGoingToCollege [at] gmail [dot] com.

9th grade. July.

Tamarind:

In between my classes, my filing job, my SAT/ACT prep course, and volunteering for Food for the Spirit on the weekends, I’ve been working through the books on the summer reading list assigned by my tenth grade English teacher. Next, I’ll be paging through the other books that will be covered during the rest of year in English class, along with those on my AP U.S. History syllabus. How to Get in College says that if you familiarize yourself with next year’s classes during summer, then you’ll have an easier fall.

It’s a lot of work, but it’s not too hard. It’s weird to think that I’m learning 9 months’ worth of Algebra in 8 weeks. And I’m totally getting it. Architecture, too. I like being able to concentrate on two subjects at a time, instead of 7 different classes. I also like meeting new people from other high schools in the area and from other colleges as well. We’re treated like adults at SVCC, because most of the students are technically adults. There are no bells ringing, no teachers asking us where we’re going. We’re responsible for ourselves.

I like college.

Lilo:

Ev. His name is Ev. He said it’s short for Everett.

I met him at the wine tasting event. He’s four years younger than me, and he’s really nice. We both grew up in Hennessey Park, but somehow we never officially met before the wine tasting. I did graduate high school the year before he started ninth grade, and he went to St. Francis while I went to HP, and he private school kids and public school kids kept to their own kinds, so our social circles didn’t overlap. Until now.

This is new and different. It’s easy. I’m happy.

Grover:

Okay, so… summer school’s not that bad. The people are cool, the food’s pretty good, and the teachers don’t get mad when you say something funny. Science class is the best. It’s not like regular class, where you sit and listen and pretend to take notes. We have books and homework and quizzes and tests and grades (somehow I’ve been getting As and Bs), but we mainly work in teams and create projects with connected parts and moving pieces. I like making stuff with other people, especially with my new friends Santino, who’s going into seventh grade at Parker West, and Divya, who’s going in to seventh grade at St. Francis. I feel like I’m learning more now than I did all last year.

9th grade. June.

Tamarind:

So much has changed in a short amount of time. I took the SAT Biology Subject Test, which I feel confident about, since I took it a week after my Biology final at HP.

I also took a practice SAT and a practice ACT last weekend. My approximate scores were 1850 on the SAT and 27 on the ACT. Decent, primarily because of the math sections, but neither of those scores is good enough for most of the top-ranked schools on my list, especially not combined with my average-ranked GPA. Big Apple University, Southern Private Ivy, and DC University all have a 2100 SAT average.

My scores would be good enough for Midwest State University, and this school I just got interested in, Medium Private University in Florida. I met the Medium Private Admissions officer at the college fair in May, and she was really nice. Since her booth was in the back, I was practically the only one who talked with her. It didn’t help that her school was out of state, too. So many of the Admissions officers from states like Kansas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, anywhere outside of California sat alone for a long time at their brightly colored tables. Even the Arizona officers looked like they were waiting for lunch.

I have to do better. I want to keep my options open to everything, including scholarships. So, I’m going to study before I take more practice tests, and I’m going to increase my scores. I’ll ask if there’s a prep course I could take at SVCC. My filing job in the admissions office and my Algebra and Architecture classes don’t take up that much time, and I might be able to get an employee discount on additional courses, so I could swing it.

Lilo:

The dream board is working! I put a fruit smoothie on my board and I got a blender. I put a picture of my gym on the board and I started going to my gym again. Admittedly, those are small items, but I made them happen.

I don’t have a better career, more money, or a gentleman caller yet. But this weekend, my friends and I will be attending a wine tasting event. If I work the room right, I could knock all three of those off my list.

Grover:

Even though I passed all my classes (with a C average, but who’s counting?), Mom and Dad are making me go to summer school. At St. Francis. Since it’s Catholic school, will I have to wear a uniform? Not fair. It’s summer! This is the worst!

9th grade. May.

Tamarind:

The sophomores and juniors have a field trip to the biggest college fair in South Valley next week. I asked Miss Bliss if I could join them, even though I’m neither a sophomore nor a junior.

I told Miss Bliss that I’ve already made a list of my top 50 schools, and the fair’s only a couple miles away, and it’s not like one extra person would make a difference, and not all the 10^th and 11^th graders are going anyway. Shouldn’t HP encourage everyone to learn more about college, regardless of their chronological age?

It didn’t take as long to wear Miss Bliss down as I thought it would. She said fine.

“I’d rather have our school represented by a ninth grader who wants to be there than a tenth grader who doesn’t.”

I asked if Brimley could come along, too, which he doesn’t know about yet. Miss Bliss said if our parents wrote a note excusing us from class and signed the field trip permission slip, Brimley and I could go to the fair. My mother won’t have a problem with it, and Mr. and Mrs. Montague practically have Brimley’s lab coat and gavel picked out, so we’re as good as there.

Lilo:
My daughter is growing up fast. I was prepared to deal with dating and hormones and birth control at this stage. I did not expect Tamarind to act like a convict staging a prison break. She’s got three, actually two, years before she starts her applications, but every pore of Tamarind is screaming, “College now!”

I should be thankful one of my children wants to continue their education. The other is barely passing sixth grade.

Grover:

If my school had a field trip to a college fair, I’d be the first one on the bus. Anything to get out of class.

I have to do well on my finals. If I don’t, I might have to go to summer school, which sounds awful. Dealing with grumpy teachers while my friends play at camp? No way, man. After classes end in June, I’m not touching another book till August.

9th grade. April.

Tamarind:

So now I’m on the Math Team?

One of the members of Calculusaurus Rex got mono, so one of the alternates moved up, and Coach Taylor needed a new alternate and suddenly I’m wearing a denim blue polo shirt embroidered with a Spanish red dinosaur counting on an abacus.

Since it’s late in the school year, Coach said I probably won’t be in any of the matches, but my role is very important. I need to be prepared to step in at any time, even though there are two other alternates ahead of me. I met all the other Calculusauruses, and even though they’re older than I am, they’re super nice. And some of the tenth graders on the team are doing the South Valley Community College pre-college program this summer, so I’ll know people there.

Speaking of which, I went through a few phone interviews and one in person interview at SVCC for the jobs I applied to. I was waiting so long to hear back. I was worried that no one thought any of the skills I listed on my paltry resume would make me good enough to work for them. But someone finally offered me a job! I got hired as the Assistant File Clerk in the SVCC Admissions Office. I’m going to work really hard and be the best Assistant File Clerk they’ve ever had. I’ll only be working about three days a week total, but I’m excited.

Lilo:
How many organizations is Tamarind participating in now? Booster Club, Cinema Club, Yoga Club. Now the Math Team. Plus Food for the Spirit on the weekends. It’s too much.

Sometimes I wish my daughter would act like a normal teenager, hanging out aimlessly on the weekends.

And then I wonder why Grover won’t join any club that would have him as a member.

Never satisfied.

Grover:

Studying less does not work for me either. My grades haven’t gone down, so that’s good. But they haven’t gone up either, which was the point of my Orange book experiment.

I’m worried.

I looked at the Hennessey Park Middle School calendar, and I only have a few weeks before sixth grade ends. I need to figure this out.

9th grade. March.

Tamarind:

After many phone calls and discussions and bus maps, I’ve decided what I’m doing this summer. Well, somewhat. I’m taking two classes through the pre-college program at South Valley Community College: Algebra II (which will keep me on track to take my AP Calculus classes later) and Intro to Architecture (which will help me with my career). SVCC also has on-campus summer jobs, so I applied for a bunch of them. Now I wait and see if anyone wants to hire me.

I applied for some other jobs, too, based on their distance from Mom’s house or a convenient bus stop. So basically anything inside the boundaries of Hennessey Park. Our public transportation system is excellent as long as you want to travel within our small town. Mom and Dad said they would drive me wherever I needed to go, but they have their own real jobs during the week, so whatever I did would have to be on the weekend or weeknights. That might not work for whatever company decides to make me their employee. So I told my parents I’d come up with a plan and tell them what it was, so that I would not inconvenience them. I can take care of myself.

Lilo:
One of my friends told me about this book called Meeting Your Half-Orange, your media-naranja en español. It’s supposed to be like The Secret, except believable, and mostly about finding what you want in your life through the power of active attraction. You identify what you want, write it down, and tell other people about it. Then what you want finds you.

You can also make a dream board. I put pictures of the stuff I want in my life on my board. Better career. More money. Happy children. Gentleman caller.

Let’s see if it works.

Grover:

While Mom and Tamarind were out doing something boring last week, I read part of Mom’s Orange book. I’m not looking for a life partner, but I would like to do better in school.

One thing the book said I should try was doing less to achieve more. I can do less. A lot less. I can’t really do more. I do my homework and I study and I ask questions and I get Cs.

So, this month, for all my classes, I’ll do just enough to get by. Better grades, here I come.