This is what we do NOT do (For CS Anim premajors):

Sometimes I research the CS Animation program just because I'm curious about how it's progressed and how the reqs have changed. 

I really need to help more premajors on r/byu more, but life is busy and I spend most of my Reddit time shitposting anyway. 

However, I want to make one comment clear from this thread. This person is WEAK, and their ancestors are weak: 

In my experience, it's important to not only consider the acceptance rate but also recognize who you're competing against. When I applied to the program, the most eye-opening class for me was the intro to 3D modeling. We were told this course would be the biggest factor in determining our chances of getting in.

At the time, I had never done any 3D modeling before, but many of my classmates had parents working at Pixar or other major studios. They were producing Pixar-level work in an intro class. That was when I realized I simply couldn’t compete with people who had been doing this since they were nine.

Just keep in mind that your skill level going in needs to be relatively high.

They are right about one thing: Tons of people in that class were producing extremely high quality work. And my work was complete and utter garbage. I had opened Maya once or twice before that class, and that was it. 

But does that mean you lay down and take it? Give up and quit just because you're not at their level and you MIGHT not make it in? 

No. 

You rage. 

Every single day, you work to improve your skills. You push your skills so they GET to that level. Either you get there, or you die trying. There is no middle ground. If you follow this person and just accept defeat like that, that instantaneously, you are weak and your ancestors are weak. 

What are you going to tell the people around you? Your children, if you have them? Or friends and family? "Yeah, it was too hard and everyone else was too good, so I just quit?" Ew. No. Gross. That logic, and I would've quit cross-country my freshman year of high school. Hell no I was not going to do that. 

What are you going to do when something hard happens in your life? When you lose someone you care about or have to do something really challenging? Are you just going to lie down and be swallowed? If you quit at something you didn't enjoy anyway, good. But if you quit at your passions, you are going to quit at everything else in your life. 

Either you get in, or you don't. But if you don't, apply again. Take all the graphics classes in the CS program that you can, volunteer to help on the senior projects, even if you don't get in. Or transfer to U of U EAE. Do art for 1-2 hours every single day. Do the same with coding. Go through the Graphics CodeX and Real Time Rendering. And whatever you do, get the education that you need in order to achieve your goals. 

It doesn't matter the exact path. What matters is that you do NOT do what this person did. You FIGHT. You MAKE yourself good. You started later, oh fucking well, you are starting NOW and you are going to DO IT. Acceptance or not, you are NOT dropping out unless they force you out. 

Pardon the French. 

Don't let a bunch of hard classes weed you out of what you came to BYU to do. 

Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 

Or against the very competitive premajor in this case. :P

Break down the open road,

And fight back the undertow. 

Bring in the ember glow,

And go where you want to go. 

Maybe I'll ride,

To save my life.