<p>I have been doing photography for the last 3 or 4 years and have made some work I'm quite proud of, and photography is the topic of my college essay, so I was thinking I'd submit an art supplement to colleges. </p>
<p>BUT time is pretty short, and I haven't won any major awards for my art, and I'm applying to mostly top 25 schools that probably have very high standards for art supplements, and it would cost a couple hundred bucks to get the required slides made.</p>
<p>So do you think it is worth it or not? How much does it help/can it hurt?</p>
<p>If it matters, I'm applying to Amherst, Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Skidmore, Vassar, Yale, Hampshire, and Wesleyan.</p>
<p>Thanks for any advice!</p>
<p>It's hard to say if it will help or not. My son submitted a photography art supplement and was admitted to his ED school. Did it help? We don't know. Did it hurt? Nope. (He had won awards, though, so maybe there's an art teacher that will critique your photographs for you to help you decide?)</p>
<p>Also, I highly recommend you e-mail or call admissions at each of the schools you are applying to to ask them about whether they would consider an art supplement and their preferred format. Most of the schools my son was applying to wanted them on a CD, which is cheap to produce. But some schools didn't want an art supplement at all if he wasn't going to be an art major.</p>
<p>I agree with everything blackeyedsusan said except that in many cases you don't need to call the schools, as their policies and preferred formats are clear from their websites (and many will take, and even prefer, CDs, as she says). I am close to a kid who submitted slides of drawing and painting to Yale and got in EA. As bss says, I don't know if it helped but I'm pretty sure it didn't hurt. She had had quite a bit of feedback from art teachers, which was very valuable in helping her decide both whether to submit it and which pieces to submit. If there's time and a teacher available, I agree with bss that it would be a good idea for you to do this as well.</p>
<p>One of her essays was about her art too, so I suspect it would be nice for you from that point of view as well.</p>
<p>Yes, as johnshade said, some schools will post their requirements on their website, but most won't. Of the schools my son was applying to, only Duke clearly stated what they wanted in an art supplement. They even had their own specific form they wanted applicants to use (instead of the common app art supplement form). FWIW, neither Rice nor USC wanted an art supplement at all. The remainder of the schools he was applying to accepted the common app art supplement form and wanted a CD -- Wash U, Emory, Bowdoin, American and Trinty U. And my son's essay was also about his photography, so the art supplement helped add another layer to show his passion.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses.</p>
<p>I'm thinking that I will submit a supplement. And, after checking their policies, it turns out half of them do accept CDs, which are really easy and cheap to do.</p>
<p>Now my question is how do I send the art supplement? Probably separate from my transcript right, even if I could easily put a CD/art resume/rec in with it?</p>
<p>You can either send it in separately or you can give it to your counselor to submit with the stuff sent from the school (transcript, etc.).</p>
<p>If I recall correctly, the Common App has a box you can check to say that you are submitting an arts supplement, so they will know to look out for it.</p>
<p>Thanks a bunch everyone, but I have another quick question.</p>
<p>It turns out I don't have time to get slides made, and Skidmore, Harvard, Columbia, and Brown mention nothing about CDs on their sites, only slides. I'm sending my art supplements with my transcripts and teacher recs, so do you think it would be a bad idea to just slip a CD in for these schools? They might not like it because it may seem like I'm not paying attention to the guidelines or whatever, but I really would like to submit something to these schools because I think my work adds a lot to my application, and maybe they are fine with CDs but simply prefer slides so that is all they mention on their websites. Also, my transcripts and everything are being sent tomorrow morning (should have done this earlier, I know), so I don't have time to ask the schools individually.</p>
<p>Any opinions?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>bump.
same problem. does columbia accept CDs??</p>
<p>The easiest method to find out is just to ask the college. They have such odd little application requirements that sometimes are just not clear, that calling is just the best solution.</p>