Every college has its own requirements. Some want observational art - a landscape, for example, or still life - as well as more personal art and the results of a specific exercise. Others want just one genre. Cornish College of Arts, for example, requires 10 pieces, including five observational and five others that form a single, related set. The requirements are very different at Hartford Art School, which wants to see 15-20 pieces, half of them drawings, or at the California College of the Arts, which suggests using a summer art institute program to help build a portfolio of, in their case, the 10-15 required pieces.
Some want the actual artwork. Others want slides or CDs. Deadlines differ. The one constant is that a student never has as much time as he'd like, so it's essential to start planning early, and to map out those deadlines and differing requirements on paper. An Excel spreadsheet is a great tool for keeping track.
But the big questions, says Kavin Buck, director of recruitment for UCLA's School of the Arts and Architecture, come in the selection of specific pieces for inclusion in the portfolio. Don't, he says, do it alone: "Young artists are usually their own worst critics. Students tend to edit pieces based on their own personal aesthetics and not on what the colleges are looking for in an artwork."
Instead, get guidance from an AP art teacher at school, talk to admissions counselors at the schools that most interest you, and bring your preliminary portfolio to events such as National Portfolio Day, where college reps can give you advice on what to include.
