taking a gap year vs transferring

#1

Hello I’m a senior in High school and I decided to pursue art as a career pretty late (mid junior year) so I don’t have a portfolio made for college. I really have nowhere else to turn to for advice

I have two options

  1. take a gap year, work my butt off for a year, solely focusing on mastering fundamentals and create a really really great portfolio (let’s just assume that it’ll turn out really nice) and submit for next fall term

2)Go to community college and raise my gpa, and work on portfolio and fundamentals while juggling school work too. (Then transfer)

additional info: I have a bad high school gpa, and I know that in some art schools, grades are important (as to getting scholarship not just getting accepted)
Also I’m financially unstable so without a lot of scholarship, I can’t go to an art school.

Or option 3) I could do take a gap year and then go to community college and transfer.

I’ve been really anxious and conflicted about this matter and would appreciate any kind of advice. Thank you so much!

#2

I went with a local community college and recently transferred 50 credits into a very expensive school in another part of the country. That saved me tens of thousands in tuition, and in living expenses.

If you’re going for a fine arts associate degree at the community college, you should have at least a few assignments that overlap with your portfolio needs, so you make progress on two things at once.

You’re right about the GPA, I’m at a large non-profit school and they give out decent scholarships based on grades alone.