Oh, the woes of a high schoool senior...HALP

[sandmanda]

I am, indeed, stressing out about putting together my application and portfolio for art school. Everyone tells me to relax, but it's kind of hard with all of this uncertainty and jitters and such going on.



So here's the rub. I am working on my portfolio. I need to do 15 total. I have seven pieces complete. Four in progress. And the last four are most likely going to be figure studies. I plan (PLAN being the key word there), to be done by the end of the month (Dec. 2008 ).

My deadlines are as follows (in order of preference):
Rhode Island School of Design- Feb. 15 2009
Corcoran College of Art and Design- Feb. 1 2009
School of Visual Arts- Feb. 1 2009
Delaware College of Art and Design- Mar. 15 2009
School of Advertising Art- first come first serve, early enrollment Jan. 1

After My portfolio is finished, I am going to do the three RISD drawings in the remaining (I already have ideas for them and thumbnail sketches).



I have a 4.1 GPA weighted, a 3.9 unweighted. My SAT was 1970 (CR 700, W 670, M 600). I've taken eight honors classes in my high school career, and I am currently taking two AP courses, US History and English. I have gotten one C, in honors History sophomore year. Everything else is As and Bs.

I have taken these visual arts classes: Digital Photography I, Graphic Design I, Graphic Design II, and Fine Art I. I am taking Production Graphics and Fine Art II right currently.



I am an active student. In sports I have been in Varsity Spring and Winter Track, and Junior Varsity Girl's Soccer. I am in NHS, have volunteered at my local library very frequently since middle school, and I've been in both Art Club and Drama Club Stage/Set Crew consistently.

I work at Wendy's part-time, and I did work at an art foundation for a summer in 2007. I volunteer and help at art auctions at SICA (Shore Institute of Contemporary Art). I also have my own copy-righted character and line of t-shirts that I sell at the BIG ART SHOW, if anyone has every attended the event. (It is really fun and an awesome chance to meet great people. GO!! <3)



Now, I've been looking at all the other threads about portfolio content, and I am not completely confidant with my own stuff now XD. Other people's work can do that to you. I am going to the NPD this coming Saturday, so I am not going to ask for advice here YET in that particular area.

I am just wondering how you all think I am looking time-wise, grade-wise, and criteria-wise. What should I play-up and what should I simply mention in passing?

I will be back again with an update and portfolio pictures (I know it is hard to judge without that, sorry), but I am just so stressed and nervous that I need to get a little bit out of the way now. Forgive me? XDD[/FONT]

[Pyroclasm00]

Hey I know exactly how you feel. I've got 4.0+ weighted gpa, not sure unweighted, and 1820 on SATs. I thought I did pretty well, but you've got an even better score. That's excellent for scholarships and everything. I'm currently at work on my portfolio too, most of my best pieces are digital paintings, which MICA told me was completely acceptable for them. I'm kinda jealous of all the art classes that your school is offering. It looks like you shouldnt have any problem getting into any school you applied to, even if your portfolio isn't that great. But if it is, you can probably expect some hefty scholarship money. Just keep working on those last pieces, a month seems a little short to finish 7, so just work your ass off until everything seems acceptable.

Haha, those damn RISD drawings...I don't have any ideas about what I'm going to do for them yet. You've got thumbnails and such, so you should be good to go for that.

Please share the information you get at NPD, from whatever schools review your stuff. It's probably helpful to a lot of students at this time.

[Meloncov]

Theirs nothing that says you can't use your RISD drawings in your portfolio for other schools, so you can reduce stress a bit by combining those.

Try not to get stressed over grades. You have other things to worry about, and you could literally fail every class this semester and still be above the average GPA for art students. Obviously, something that extreme would be a bad idea for a lot of other ideas, and grades will help you get accepted, but if your average is a couple points lower this semester than previous semesters, it's not a big deal.


As for your chances, everything you listed sounds excellent, but in the end everything is secondary to the portfolio. Still, if you can get your portfolio up to the schools borderline standard, you will almost certainly be accepted.

[sandmanda]

Hey I know exactly how you feel. I've got 4.0+ weighted gpa, not sure unweighted, and 1820 on SATs. I thought I did pretty well, but you've got an even better score. That's excellent for scholarships and everything. I'm currently at work on my portfolio too, most of my best pieces are digital paintings, which MICA told me was completely acceptable for them. I'm kinda jealous of all the art classes that your school is offering. It looks like you shouldnt have any problem getting into any school you applied to, even if your portfolio isn't that great. But if it is, you can probably expect some hefty scholarship money. Just keep working on those last pieces, a month seems a little short to finish 7, so just work your ass off until everything seems acceptable.

Haha, those damn RISD drawings...I don't have any ideas about what I'm going to do for them yet. You've got thumbnails and such, so you should be good to go for that.

Please share the information you get at NPD, from whatever schools review your stuff. It's probably helpful to a lot of students at this time.




Ha, my school may look like it offers good art programs, but it has the lowest budget and worst rated art department in my county. XD It just looks good on paper that I took them all, really I feel like they didn't give me anything that would help too much. Have you heard some schools offer AP Studio Art? Talk about jealous. Wish I had that, too.

I will most certainly share info I get at NPD. Anything to help those who are in pain such as ours. XD

[emifinan]

If your portfolio is good enough to get in, your grades and extra-curriculars will help you get a merit-based scholarship (if available)



As for things to play up, I'd play up your art work :)
Talk about your process, how you got and developed the ideas, how you decided what colors, composition to use, and why you made all the choices you did. Show them your sketchbooks and how your mind works.

Thats what they care about the most, although grades like that certainly don't hurt.

[Pyroclasm00]

it has the lowest budget and worst rated art department in my county.

Lol sounds similar to my school, except mine won't even look good on paper. My school offers drawing I and drawing II as about the only art classes, and drawing II was just added two years ago. Idk about other schools, but our art classes have become slacker classes, or the classes you take to get an easy A. Most stuff I end up teaching myself on my own. Some of the more well endowed schools in my area even offer 3D graphics and animation classes. Eh. Oh well.

I'll be attending NPD on Sunday at MICA, so if it's cool I'll post here what I find out as well.

[rpace]

You sound like a quality student, and would probably do well in any school (need to see the work, of course), but here's some advice of the sort you really aren't asking for.

Honestly, the best thing nearly anyone could do would be to take a year off from school after graduating.

Get a different job, any job, volunteer some more, paint and draw on your own or take some good drawing and painting classes, experience some of the real world, save some money, spend some money, travel. Don't be in such a mad rush to get on with things. With all your time eaten up by so many activities you may just want to decompress for a bit and do nothing so you can hear yourself think.

A good art school isn't like high school and you'd do well to shake off as much of the residue of that environment as possible before starting.

Unless to absolutely HAVE to start college next September, set yourself new portfolio deadlines for 2010. That gives you nearly a year to mature as a person and an artist as well as make it more likely your portfolio will get you into the school you really want to get into.

[jackpot_anjr90]

I'm actually in the same position as you but it seems like you're in great shape. Just a few things I can tell you about RISD that may help before you go to NPD.

They LOVE observational drawings!!!! Actually, they WANT observational drawings!!! Among the artwork I brought with me to NPD I had about 12 figure drawings that were all timed and while the rep from RISD liked them, she said it would help a lot to put observational drawings where I'm not restricted by time. They also don't like photo referenced drawings.
The 3 drawings that are required can be either realistic or abstract. Since my portfolio consists of mostly human figures (either timed or from my head), I'm making my 3 drawings realistic just to show how I do with observation (FINALLY finished my bike yesterday :)). Those 3 drawings are a chance to show something you don't necessarily show in your portfolio, so how you approach them may depend on your other work. I'm going for the Dec. 15 deadline though.

Different schools like to see different things though...sometimes depending on what major you're applying for. RISD was the only school that told me I should put more observational stuff.

[Pyroclasm00]

Jackpot, or anyone else who might know: How receptive is RISD to digital paintings? I've been doing still life paintings and self-portraits from a mirror for a while, which fill up most of my portfolio, except everything was started and finished in photoshop. I figured it would be ok as long as they were from direct observation. MICA told me this would be all good for them, but they said other schools such as RISD will want to see traditional work instead. If that's true I gotta start doing some more drawings instead of digital work.

[Meloncov]

Jackpot, or anyone else who might know: How receptive is RISD to digital paintings? I've been doing still life paintings and self-portraits from a mirror for a while, which fill up most of my portfolio, except everything was started and finished in photoshop. I figured it would be ok as long as they were from direct observation. MICA told me this would be all good for them, but they said other schools such as RISD will want to see traditional work instead. If that's true I gotta start doing some more drawings instead of digital work.

The RISD rep I talked to loved my digital work.

[lady nerevar]

i feel your pain man. just a little question for you, where did you find the SVA deadline? the only info i can find says december 1st (which would really suck).

[Chief]

Dec 1st is only the early action deadline for SVA :)

[lady nerevar]

thanks tons! :sungod: any idea where it actually says deadlines on their website? its horribly inefficient to navigate :/

[Elwell]

SVA has rolling admissions for most departments. However, there are deadlines for financial aid, scholarship applications, etc, and some smaller departments close for the year as the class fills up. Call the admissions dept. with any questions, and order a catalog, all the info is in there.

[Téa_Passer]

You sound like a quality student, and would probably do well in any school (need to see the work, of course), but here's some advice of the sort you really aren't asking for.

Honestly, the best thing nearly anyone could do would be to take a year off from school after graduating.

Get a different job, any job, volunteer some more, paint and draw on your own or take some good drawing and painting classes, experience some of the real world, save some money, spend some money, travel. Don't be in such a mad rush to get on with things. With all your time eaten up by so many activities you may just want to decompress for a bit and do nothing so you can hear yourself think.

A good art school isn't like high school and you'd do well to shake off as much of the residue of that environment as possible before starting.

Unless to absolutely HAVE to start college next September, set yourself new portfolio deadlines for 2010. That gives you nearly a year to mature as a person and an artist as well as make it more likely your portfolio will get you into the school you really want to get into.


I'd go with this advice, too. You gotta think of art school as a place where you can grow as an artist rather than where you get a degree. If you want to grow as an artist, take a break, learn things on your own, draw, experience, read about artists, think about far future and where you wanna be in 10 years, give yourself time to develop on your own as a person and as an artist. In that time you'll see what you really need from an art school, what questions to ask the professors, and thus you'll get the most of your art education. Go to art school with an open but selective mind. Of course if you already got all that, go for it!

You might also consider going to a community college to get all the required core curriculum classes out of the way.

[sandmanda]

Thank you for all the advice, guys! You all have been very helpful!! Thi afternoon I will be postinga new Thread about my NPD, plus my portfolio and what was said about it.

[Maxine Schacker]

Good luck! If you really want this, one way or another you'll find the way to get the skills you need. Be sure not to allow "rejection" (if that happens) to undermine your faith in your ability to learn and grow.