Admission to Animation and Computer Technology
with a $104,000 scholarship
Elizaveta had to leave the country because of the war — a difficult experience that she went through and decided to work through in her application story.
She was passionate about art and wanted to develop this side of herself through animation and computer technology, so, along with her main focus, she took the risk of submitting a portfolio.
By the time she started working, Elizaveta already had a strong academic background — a GPA of 4.0 out of 4.0, and a TOEFL score of 99. She also had a substantial creative foundation:
The diverse experience — from illustration and drawing to robotics and volunteering — spoke to Elizabeth’s broad creative outlook. But she didn’t manage to pass the SAT, and the activities so far existed as a list of interests rather than as a unified story.
The key project is Artivox. Together with Elizaveta, we developed the idea and created the Artivox project — initially as a platform where she herself posted her illustrations, and then, with the help of friends, we turned it into a mini‑club for people who find peace through creativity. The club began holding training sessions and masterclasses. Since Elizaveta is studying in the USA, we proposed a format for remote management of the club via Zoom meetings. We created a separate website for the project, and we attached a link to it in the additional documents of the application.
On the project’s website, Elizaveta wrote: “Artivox is a website that empowers artists living in totalitarian countries to express their creativity anonymously and safely. We believe that art is a powerful tool for social change and human rights.”
The admissions committee noticed this project — and specifically highlighted it in the admission letter.
Leadership and organization. Elizaveta represented her club at orientation week in college, was the president of the student union (a bridge between students and faculty regarding the school’s administrative matters), and the head of organizing the union’s events.
Creative projects. I created a short comic for submission to the Short Comics Competition and wrote an article titled “Cartoons and the LGBT Community: How Animation Shapes Public Opinion.”
Elizaveta received an offer from Simmons University — responses from the other universities she applied to are still pending.
The financial aid amounted to $104,000, which covers 60% of the tuition cost.
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