On some colleges, I have the option to say whether I would send an art supplement or not on the actual application.
Initially I chose no for all of them and sent the application, but now I’m having second thoughts, and due date is in three days. Am I allowed to send a portfolio even though I said I wouldn’t on the application? Would it harm my application if i did?
This may vary from school to school, but in my experience when you check the supplement box in the common app, it opens up another link to the school’s slide room site (which is separate but linked to the common app) or whatever site they are using to upload arts supplements. In recent years, this is how many arts supplements are managed. Some schools still do it the old way where you can mail in a CD, but out of the eight schools that my daughter considered that allowed an arts supplement, seven of them used slide room (the link opened up when the yes was selected for supplement) and one of them had their own portal.
Have you already submitted your applications? Art supplement procedures and deadlines vary from school to school. For example, Stanford sets a deadline of December 1 for applications that have an arts supplement. Most of the other schools had the same deadline for the art supplement as the common app deadline.
One other thing that was important to know, the main slide room account (which is linked to the common app account) and the “folder” for a particular school (which seemed to be automatically created when following the school slide room link that was opened up on the common app when selecting the ‘yes’ option for supplement) had to be created before submitting the common app for that school. However, the actual art supplement could not be uploaded until after the common app was submitted.
The one school that had their own portal was Princeton. It wasn’t even possible to log in to their art supplement system until the application was actually submitted, and there was a several day delay until their system registered that the app was submitted. I think that must be the reason why their art supplement deadline is January 6, several days later than the application deadline.
If this is confusing, let me know. It’s is fairly easy to figure out when in the common app, but a bit confusing to describe in the abstract.
To answer your question more directly, if you have already submitted your apps but did not check the arts supplement box, it might not be possible to submit an arts supplement. You would need to contact the schools and see what to do.
Thanks for your help! I was able to register for the slideroom for the respective colleges I am doing an art supplement for without indicating that I would do so, so I think I will send them in, and email them saying that I made a mistake on the application.