<p>I was interested in applying to Cooper Union's Art School. I am a photographer, and I was wondering if it is fine to just send in photography slides, or is there anything else they need, besides the home test?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Yes, you need one (it's not obvious from Cooper's admissions web page). But see #9 here: <a href="http://www.cooper.edu/administration/admissions/faqs.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.cooper.edu/administration/admissions/faqs.html</a></p>
<p>I think that, as with any portfolio submitted to an art school, you want to show your ability to draw, work in different media, and so on. The Cooper website isn't that informative. Take a look at other art school descriptions. The ones for kcai.edu and cmu.edu are instructive. Do a search here on CC for "porfolio" and you'll come up with some old threads with good advice.</p>
<p>For example, look at this one (there are many more):</p>
<p>A lot of people send in sketchbooks as well.</p>
<p>Attend a National Portfolio Day. Cooper Union is usually there....with long lines!</p>
<p><a href="http://www.npda.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.npda.org/</a></p>
<p>Cooper is so flaky at NPD. My first year the guy came about two hours late. My second year, they were a no show. If you're able to, attending an actual open house and portfolio review at the school is much more helpful.</p>
<p>What is the best way to present a porfolio-I want to apply to Textile design programme-should my portfolio have some fiber art pieces-or mor drawings -most requirementssay have drawings and I do not draw well!!</p>
<p>My daughter thought cooper was flaky too. The comments my daughter got were the least helpful of all the colleges. I told her to forget them and just take the drawing test. She was so put off by the Rep. that she wouldn't apply! (THe Rep didn't let me listen to the comment so I didn't hear them.)</p>
<p>Anjorie...
Check the school/college website with regard to the portfolio...give them a call...or go on a visit. The art schools my daughter applied to all wanted a variety of works, including drawings from observation.</p>
<p>I went to the Cooper open house and saw them at NPD. Perhaps I was lucky, but both times, they were very professional and extremely helpful.</p>
<p>i dont reg giving only photos for anyone, besides SVA. im photo myself. i saw cooper at NPD and the woman really liked my photos, but she said i need to work on my drawing and that i should draw daily in a sketchbook. cooper in really into conceptual stuff too, just get really wild and make something completely original.</p>
<p>I’ve gotten accepted into cooper union for sept. the hometest is everything. if you have any questions I’m happy to help</p>
<p>for those of you who are students at cooper, how much emphasis is put on the hometest vs a submitted portfolio when getting accepted?</p>
<p>in response to silentvelcro:</p>
<p>i was wondering if you could give me a few pointers on applying to cooper union. i am applying for fall 2010, and i don’t know what they look for in portfolios, or if my work is good enough to even get me a chance at being reviewed for acceptance. what sort of stuff and how much of your own work did you submit?? do they really weigh heavily on the home tests???</p>
<p>thanks for your time.</p>
<p>I’ve had my porfolio reviewed three times by cooper union reps and the one thing that each reviewer mentioned was that the school, because of it’s interdisciplinary approach to art, tends to be partial towards applicants who work in different media. However the conceptual basis for your art seems to be most important so if you had a body of conceptually and aesthetically rigorous photographs it’d seem like a disservice to throw in some random drawings, sculptures or performances unless they related directly to the rest of your work. I have seen some portfolios online by admitted students that consist entirely of photography. Either way you will be required to draw in your hometest. </p>
<p>One of the student tour guides (ben) said that the hometest acts like a sort of like an equalizer so that students who may have weak portfolios for whatever reason would be able to make up for it by producing an amazing hometest. Supposedly It also gives the applicant who may not be tooo experienced in art the same advantage as someone who has been going to an art high school in south florida.</p>
<p>kholloway
Where do you live?
If you can travel to NYC, by all means come to in-house review, everyone is welcome, anything goes.
Last and only one left is on next Saturday, Dec 5th, come early like, 3 PM.
If not, there are NPD but they send out really harsh geezers out to discourage kids who can actually draw. If your stuff only consists observational goody goody photocopy works, they’d say you are not good fit.
I would still apply, though, if you really really want to go there not because it’s free or hard as Harvard to get in and know enough what you are getting into.</p>
<p>While I was standing in front of the foundation building waiting for my kid, there was this girl with dreamy gaze arranging and rearranging dried plant seed pods onto like, crudely splash painted 4 x 6’ canvas with hodgepodge 3D object -broom stick, yarn, pipe-cleaner, etc -attached as frame.
When I was leaving, it was replaced by the kid sat cross legged on the cement pavement in November night chill in dim light curving wood panel with assorted curving tool box set as big as the panel itself.
After years of spying, sneaking, end of the school year dumpster-diving, Cooper is still a biggest mystery.
I am glad I’m not the one wanting to go there nor to be validated one’s worth by them.</p>
<p>I think the NPD reviews are done mostly by faculty whereas the open house reviews are done by faculty and alumni.</p>
<p>Really?
I doubt they’d let big shot profs go do trunk shows.
I always thought they (geezers) are hired guns for the sole purpose, to reduce amount of hometests they have to deal with from the kid who don’t get Cooper.
I could tell and know a few in person that there are enough cooper alum around NPD corridor that need paying part time job and lots of good advice to give what Cooper does to wrong kind of art kids.
Meanwhile, in tight knit “in” circle, teachers and stuff are lovely, seems higher the status, nicer they become. The new dean is so very polite, and Day - somebody start with G, she reminded me of my 1st grade teacher… of course no one could beat the great-est founder.
Every time I walk past the school I look his statue to the shiny new building and think, what would he say to all this if he were here today.
Being fan of Peter Cooper is the wrong reason to be obsessed with the school, as wrong as its free tuition or name recognition, but good enough to support the kid who really wants to be there, no matter the outcome, in admission, job prospect and happy, long, contented life.
It’s his life, not mine, I will support him up to, I don’t know, three, four, five times lucky? where generous leftover from nearby bakery falls short.</p>
<p>sorry, I was looking at wrong schedule.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I live in Southern California. I won’t be able to travel to NYC before the 4th. I do really want to go there and I’m cookie-cutter. But I’ll see what happens. I am waiting for the home test and I’ll be going to the NPD in January at Art Center. Who knows. Maybe I’ll post what happens on here. I’m applying to some other schools in the mean time.</p>
<p>so…what is cooper U for art like from a student’s perspective? their web page is sparse and we have never met a living, breathing graduate of CooperU. The other schools seem more accessible–they send lots of flyers, they invite students to come and try a day, follow an undergrad, see the stuff produced by the grads or current students…etc. CU is just out there, luring students with their hip image and free tuition. Yes, at the local PD last year, everyone seemed to walk away saying “what’s up his XXX?” about the reviewer from CU (DS did not get to speak to CU reviewer because the line was too long). Is it just a NY thing? Is CU rude/cruel to the budding art students because they are not as desperate as the other art schools that seem to be quick to accept students (and potential tuition and fees) after a cursory portfolio review? </p>
<p>DS not sure if he will apply but likes the idea of a home test (it intrigues him and hopefully will be more than drawing a bicycle) and I like the free tuition bit. If there are insider views of CU I would love to hear them.</p>