I have read all past discussions about art portfolio on prep school admissions and they were very helpful. I would like to add how it worked positively for daughter. She is a homeschooled 12yo Asian girl needing FA. She applied to one JBS as a 9th grader for 2016 and is already accepted. She plans to apply for BS for 2017 as a repeating 9th grader.
Daughter has a polished art portfolio with about 20 pieces, mostly made in 6 community college studio art courses that she has taken. Half of them are 2d drawings, designs and a collage. The other half are sculptures. She has no painting. All pieces has 10~50 hours of hard work, if not more. She got accepted into a juried art show for college students, and another juried show for adult artists. Please pm me if you want the link.
This Summer, I contacted about 10 boarding schools and 4 junior boarding schools. We have visited only one local school. I put her free Carbonmade portfolio link into inquiry form or emailed it to admission office and/or art department. I received encouraging responses from about half of the schools, from admission officer and/or art department. Three schools among them sent us multiple emails from multiple people strongly encouraging daughter to apply. Two school’s heads personally called me, and one of them said he put daughter’s name on his highly preferred list. Most of them haven’t seen her grade, test scores, and application yet. A BS and a JBS wanted her for 2015 saying that they still have FA fund for 2015.
So it seems portfolio can be a real hook, if it is of high quality.