<p>Hi I am preparing for an art school but do not have an art portfolio yet. How does a school decide whether to accept you or not? Do they look to see if your portfolio either sucks? Does your ACT/SAT and high school GPA count?</p>
<p>Alll of those factors count.
The most important aspects are probably your portfolio and GPA.</p>
<p>Start working on that portfolio ASAP. Even if you have no background in your field (like my friend), create a portfolio that is as close to what you want to do.</p>
<p>It also depends on the school. Schools like RISD, put a good amount of weight on GPA and SATs, but schools with a higher acceptance percentage may not. On the other hand, some art schools will accept students with decent academics and no portfolio at all (I believe SCAD does this). I think most schools have some kind of academic benchmark, and put a good amount of weight on the portfolio. Also keep in mind, they aren't necessarily looking specifically at developed skill in a portfolio, they are also looking for raw talent, imagination and passion.</p>
<p>And not to be ignored are recommendations and related extra-currics.</p>
<p>Handemom is absolutely right. Schools that require a portfolio put the most emphasis on that, but the most highly selective schools also give significant weight to your academics (GPA. test scores). Among the top design schools, I know that Carnegie-Mellon uses a 50/50 weighting -- portfolio (or the alternate design projects) vs. academics -- and that RISD has some very high minimum GPA requirements. (I've never seen any official info about those requirements, but I remember some posts by taxguy about what he found out about this when his daughter applied to RISD a few years ago. You can search the CC archives for them.)</p>
<p>And there are some art schools that don't require a portfolio for admission, but those programs tend to be much less selective. Another option is going to a university that has a studio/visual art major but does not require a portfolio for admission.</p>
<p>So keep up your grades and do well on your SAT/ACT, but if you want to get into a top-ranked art program, you should start putting a lot of effort into your portfolio as soon as possible. The admissions officers will not be looking as much at your mastery of specific techniques or acquired skills at this stage, but more at whether or not you have that special aptitude/talent (an "eye" for art, so to speak), imagination/creativity -- things that can be nurtured by the appropriate training.</p>
<p>It depends on the school. Like it's been said, some schools judge as if it were any other ivy league school, and some schools do 85% of their judging on the portfolio. Then you have weird, oddball schools like AAU; they accept anyone, so you don't need a portfolio, or even have to know how to draw.</p>