<p>Unless the school requests or infers that it desires one or more large group pieces, I believe you are safe in submitting portfolio pieces for solo or small groups for undergraduate admission. Try to have no more than one solo piece. The quality of the applicant’s work is more important that the number and composition of instruments. It would be most useful if the pieces give signs of the composer’s own voice. Do the pieces indicate potential that can be cultivated at the particular school? What do the pieces say about the applicant’s grasp of theory? In the interview, the composer may be asked to defend some of the choices made in the compositions. How adept is the composer in talking about the work submitted? The schools are different in what they want to see from each applicant and as admission results have indicated, quite often at the interview stage it comes down to how the composition faculty and the applicant gel.</p>