<p>Hi. I'm planning on doing scea next year and I'm not an very artsy person but I love history and have created "art" (it's not like paintings or drawings or normal art, I guess) that shows my love for history. Should I submit this? I wouldn't be scared of them comparing it to anything because I don't think many people will do this, I just don't want them to think it's silly.
Any advice is welcome! Thanks.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ves.fas.harvard.edu/aboutves.html[/url]”>http://www.ves.fas.harvard.edu/aboutves.html</a></p>
<p>Harvard offers a degree in studio art, so quite a few students submit art portfolios of very high quality. It’s difficult to tell without seeing your art, but submitting an art portfolio that is not of high quality (“I’m not a very artsy person”) might be spelling doom for your application.</p>
<p>Although Harvard doesn’t give advice about what to submit, or not submit, Yale does. I would assume the same advice would apply to Harvard: <a href=“http://admissions.yale.edu/supplementary[/url]”>Supplementary Materials | Yale College Undergraduate Admissions;
<p>“You should think carefully before submitting supplementary materials with your Yale College application. Most successful applicants submit only the items that we require. There are cases in which too many submissions, or submissions that do not reflect a high level of talent, can actually work against a candidate. Because the Admissions Committee gives greatest weight to the documents required of all applicants, we recommend that you focus your energy primarily on those elements of the application.”</p>
<p>Thanks for replying but its not your typical studio art. It’s more like a replica of artifacts, like in a museum. It is just for fun but I just thought it might make me stand out. And they aren’t exact replicas, I usually put a twist on them. But if it will only make me look bad I won’t submit.</p>
<p>Generally, Admissions Directors are not skilled artists, or art critics, so when a student submits an art portfolio, admissions forwards that portfolio on to the art department for review. The art department reviews your portfolio and then writes up a comment-sheet for Admissions. It’s the same procedure when a student submits an abstract or research project – it all gets forwarded to a specific department for review. </p>
<p>So, I guess the question to ask is: What will Harvard’s Art Department think of your “just for fun I’m hoping this will make me stand out” work. Will they get it? Or, will they question why you submitted it?</p>
<p>Thank you. This is so stressful. I guess I’ll just have to decide if I want to send it or not. If I do though I’ll make sure they’re my best.</p>
<p>I sew. My work is not that good, technically, but some of my pieces have taken a lot of time and show creativity and hard work given that I’m entirely self-taught. One thing my high school did–which was great–was that our guidance counselors had a form of “getting to know you” questions we had to fill out in junior spring when they started thinking about college recommendation letters. One of the questions was something along the lines of “are there any photos you want to show us of something you do that might be hard to put into words.” I attached a 2-3 photos of my work. (Latin-themed sewing pieces sounds about as unusual as what you do. I also only had 2-3 things worth showing, just for the record.) I think my guidance counselor commented on it, but I’m not sure. It doesn’t sound like it’s worth attaching a portfolio of your work. Was your history teacher involved with the production of or aware of the existence of these things? If somebody writing a recommendation for you knows about this, they may mention them as a fun thing you do. It doesn’t sound like you want to write an essay involving them, but they may still come up in your application without you submitting a portfolio. I don’t think it’s a good idea to be like, “hey, you should write about this,” to your teachers if they aren’t moved to do so by themselves, but if nobody writing for you knows you do this, it might be a fun thing to mention at some point.</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice. I haven’t told any teachers about it and counselors in my school aren’t really interested in “good” kids they really only care about classes and making sure the “bad” kids stay in school. I’m actually pretty sure my counselor thinks I’m an idiot soo yeah. But I will definitely talk about, that would be way less work than submitting a portfolio and I could tell them how much it means to me, even if it’s not the best art. Thanks again for the advice!</p>
<p>“I’m actually pretty sure my counselor thinks I’m an idiot soo yeah.” </p>
<p>Are you exaggerating a bit or do you think this is based on real observations? How are your academic achievements? In all reality, are you among the top scholars in your grade?</p>
<p>It was a little exaggerated. I’m top 5 percent in my grade taking the hardest classes, except AP calc (i took easy college calc this year). But she thinks I’m stupid, or at least thought I was, because when I got my act scores back (32 which is really good for here considering that most of my school gets low twenties) she said “wow I didn’t expect you to get a score that high”. I know she’s not a bad person, however, so I don’t hold it against her. She just for some reason doesn’t think I’m that smart.
Oh and I retook the act in hopes of a 33+.</p>
<p>Funny, my high school was extremely different from yours, but I got an almost identical comment one time. Although we were a public school, we were a magnet, and our average SAT score I think was just over 2200. In junior February or March, I told my counselor my SAT score (>2300) and she responded, “what, YOU broke 2100?” I ended up getting a fantastic recommendation from her, so don’t give up yet. See if you can get to know her a little, ask if there’s anything she would find helpful in writing a recommendation–does she want a resume, are there questions she’d like you to answer, whether in writing or in a conversation. My counselor’s turnaround was probably unusually large, but comments like that by overworked high school guidance staff often indicate inattention, not any bad opinion of you.</p>
<p>She knows my family pretty well, and I think my recommendation from her will good its just sometimes I really don’t like her. I almost wanted to change counselors at one time. But I am always really polite so I don’t think she suspects anything. Her recommendation will probably just be kinda vague as we only talk when I need my transcript or something. I do have other teachers that will hopefully make up for her recommendation, and my essays should be great so hopefully that’s good enough.</p>
<p>She also always asks for a resume when doing recommendations so she would learn a little more about me that way.</p>