<p>My daughter and I went to NPD at Kansas City Art Institute last Nov. My (public school educated) daughter was a senior at the time and heard about NPD through the grapevine of some art students (no teachers). She decided to go at the last minute because act/sat tests were the same day (horrors)! I had to go to help her with several large oil canvases. She took 5 primary works and one sketchbook. We found out the RISD did not show up. (Of course who she wanted to see). I encourage her to stay since we were already there, so we saw Chicago art institute. They spent a great deal of time with her sketchbooks after quickly going through the large oils. The reviewer made the comment that she wasn’t discounting these large pieces because she could tell that D could do figures very well. The comment was "I can can see you could handle freshman year". She spent a lot of time with the sketchbooks asking what the thought process was behind her work. She also pointed out one piece and said D could do a whole Portfolio based on this one piece. (Risky! I thought) Anyway she asked about grades, ACT/SAT scores and such. Then she took a piece of paper she had been making notes on (with 2nd carbon) and gave D a copy. She told D she was accepted based on her work (pending scores and HS record). We were in shock. We had no idea that you could be accepted that way. My daughter was accepted this way to 3 other schools that day. Cooper Union was the only one critical of her work stating she hadn’t used color the way they wanted??? Anyway, the experience encouraged my daughter to apply to her the only art school she really wanted to go to and she got in. She never considered her work good enough so I think the process was a unique and wonderful thing to go through. As a parent, I always ask where the reviewers wanted me to stand after helping with the big pieces. Chicago said I could stay but thanked me for asking. Cooper Union asked me to leave. We had no idea what to expect, but I found it very enlightening and I would suggest that students use the process in the sophomore and Junior year. Senior year is pretty late if you have to change things.</p>
<p>I am pretty excited that we're going to NPD in a week! My daughter is a sophomore, and she's actually scrambling to put together more life drawing examples. I really appreciate all the detals on these posts, which are helping her prepare. We're treating it like the "PSAT" for portfolio submission.</p>
<p>bring your sketchbook.</p>
<p>Alright! It was NPD in San Francisco today, so here's our report. </p>
<p>My daughter is a sophomore, interested in fashion and accessory design as well as unusual stuffed toy designs. Her portfolio was very raw. She had almost no representational stuff. Instead, she had several pages of photos of pieces she'd already sold (stuffed toys, bags), some with the inspiration sketches, and several sketch/inspiration books of some fashion things. We spent about 2.25 hours total; she saw four schools. After that, she felt she'd gotten enough feedback and anything else was going to be more of the same. Oh, and we had agreed I wouldn't wait with her, but once we were there, she had me stand near her during reviews, but mostly just listen. Most reps asked me my name and asked me questions about her, though. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>We arrived just prior to opening, and when they let us in, went immediately back to Otis. Waited about 10-15 minutes. The rep gave her some very practical suggestions about laying out her portfolio, particularly how to showcase the stuffed toy designs. (She doesn't have any art teachers to help show her how to do lay out a portfolio.) He seemed very taken with her stuffed designs and the photographs she had taken of them, which were to sell them on her website. He commented on the tactile experience she was trying to create, and that she thought about the sensual qualities of her work, not just how it looked. (She puts things in the stuffed pieces to make them crinkle or have particular textures.) He was very friendly and encouraging. Pretty much all of his suggestions were aimed at creating a stronger portfolio for her work. He did not get to see her sketchbooks at all, because she forgot to bring them out and offer them. </p></li>
<li><p>After Otis, FIDM, which had almost no line (one person). The rep was again very friendly and pleasant. Again very positive comments about the 3-D work and fashion sketches. She kept commenting that daughter's work was very much on track and surprising given her age. </p></li>
<li><p>Next up, Parsons. They had lines behind each rep. We had less than 10 minute wait. Our form didn't have a carbon copy so the rep couldn't give daughter back a copy, but marked it a 4 out of 5 and made written comments about strong work and "Let's see how she grows!" She was the first one to really hammer on life drawing, which daughter hasn't had much of, and felt it would improve her proportions. But she said, "something about your silhouetttes is very engaging and has a clear personal style." When my daughter showed things from 1-2 years ago, the rep was surprised at the work she was doing then. She said that if daughter continued to evolve, she would be "a strong candidate". Parsons rep said she didn't like markers used for design flats, and preferred daughter work in ink and pencil. (Summer fashion course instructor she had two years ago made all students use markers.) </p></li>
<li><p>Last stop was SAIC. We started to stand in line at Pratt, but it was very long and didn't seem that it would be worth it as a sophomore to spend so much time in line. SAIC was routing younger students to a particular rep, who had summer precollege program information and was giving advice on developing over the next two years. Interestingly, she said that fashion design programs are all very competitive compared to other areas and that students without previous classwork and precollege program experience were at a strong disadvantage. She singled out a few sketches in particular as strong and recommended that daughter apply to precollege programs, and that SAIC in particular would waive app fees for financial aid applicants for their program. She also said that she felt that daughter was likely to get merit aid for the summer precollege program based on her work. Oh, and this rep was the most focused on daughter; she addressed all questions to her, didn't make eye contact with me, was the only one who didn't ask my name. That was fine with me, and I actually expected it more than I got it. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>I honestly expected to have at least one rep be negative or neutral, but they all seemed very excited and positive. It made me wonder if they don't just do that to make students want to apply, when they're young? Daughter and I were both struck by the wide range of art skill people seemed to have -- we saw seniors with some very cool interesting stuff, but other things where I felt sort of awkward, like someone presenting what appeared to be a social studies project poster. Daughter had a small (11x18) bound portfolio and two sketch books, compared to massive 3'x5' portfolios being dragged around, and one girl carrying an armload of large canvases of what looked like acrylic paintings. Another person had a 5'x5' canvas they were dragging around.</p>
<p>By 2:15 PM, we were pretty much done. I wish FIT had been there. Pratt was the only "long line" school she was immediately interested in, and it didn't seem worth it for the wait, which probably would have been well over an hour.</p>
<p>PS: One of the nice things was that every rep was VERY positive about seeing a sophomore and commented about how important and valuable an early start was. I would definitely encourage younger students to go to NPD.</p>
<p>TrinSF these are so useful to read. The local art college here does an NPD in the fall. I was wondering if it would work to go for the first time (my D would be in 9th grade then) and just observe (without a portfolio), to get a feel for what it's like and what student portfolios look like, etc.. Do you think that would be worthwhile, or weird?</p>
<p>starbright: Well, you know, I'd have her at least bring a sketchbook. You can't really see much except the lines. As for observing others' reviews, it <em>would</em> be awkward if your daughter was just trying to watch and listen to those, because she'd essentially have to stand in an area that is usually just the reviewer and another student. </p>
<p>You might expect that there would be information tables for the schools, but that wasn't true except for one or two of them, mostly the local ones. Aside from that, it wasn't possible to just grab a brochure very easily. </p>
<p>One of the things my daughter regrets right now is that for years she has sketched and doodled, but she has done so on bits of paper, backs of tests, and in various little notebooks people gave her. Now when asked to show a sketchbook, she doesn't really have anything like that. At least one of the reps she saw yesterday said she should just paste scraps into a single sketchbook, and clip together pages she doesn't want seen. Now she's trying to unify a lot of her work, and is kicking herself that she threw away sketches for 3-D works she did. </p>
<p>What I'm suggesting is that if you get your daughter a good sketchbook now, like a Moleskine or something, and have her use it whenever the urge strikes, she will have that next fall to take with her, and can use it to start the discussion about what to work on, given her interests.</p>
<p>Good to know! Great idea on the sketch book. She has several, along with a thousand bits of paper (I can appreciate your D on this) and oodles of online work, but would be so good to consolidate and hold onto.</p>
<p>starbright - I believe TrinSF had some greqt advice to share. I went with my D to NPF when she was a sophomore. It was really her first experience talking about her work to a stranger and she found it intimidating and exciting at the same time. It also helped her decide that this was the path she wanted to pursue. Most importantly - it helped motivate her to get better knowing she would want to be able to show wor k where she felt she did her best and was proud of.</p>
<p>First off, I want to thank Heron for starting this thread, because without it, we wouldn't have known of NPDs existence until my daughter's Junior year (she's currently a soph), and when I looked it up, I discovered it was to be held near us in a matter of weeks - So, great big kudos, Heron!</p>
<p>So, my daughter's a photographer and we live in S Florida and she's planning on attending Ringling's precollege program in the summer, so this was our first stop. In the meantime, I sent DH to wait on line at RISD as instructed by this board - also, thanks to this board we got there 20 minutes early and were first in line when the doors opened - thanks guys! We also had minimal waits and got to see NINE schools thanks to the hopscotch line help my DH provided.</p>
<p>Ringling - was great for daughter's ego. He looked through photos and looked visibly impressed and then asked what type of photography she'd like to do. My daughter responded fashion photography. He said she certainly could do that based on what he saw (a note: there was only one fashion-esque type photo in her portfolio which was actually a lot more portrait, but hey, what do I know - I studied accounting). He also pointed out that she had a great eye for someone so young - a line we would hear repeated a bazillion times that afternoon - do they give these guys a script? (more of the cynic here). He invited her to apply for precollege program annd was thrilled to hear she has been interested in the school forever and attended a teen studio class in photography when she was 13 that cemented her love for photography.</p>
<p>RISD - Seemed ho-hum and said photography was fine but she'd have to work a whole lot more on drawing if she really wanted to attend. I thought this was an honest assessment and since my daughter is not a right fit for this school at all (lousy fine motor skills, lousy academics, bad fit geographically, etc), we moved on...</p>
<p>RIT - LOVED this guy - he was the head of the department and loved my daughter and her work. Said she'd be a perfect fit for their biomedical program due to her talent for macro photography. He also mentioned their high job placement rate - music to my ears, and gave her a stellar review on his feedback form (he kept one copy).... However, my daughter is totally uninterested in the cold weather, although she could probably be talked into the merits of having a truly marketable skill upon graduation. After speaking with him, I TOTALLY recommend this program to anyone out there who might be insecure about job prospects upon graduation.</p>
<p>SAIC - spoke to special personn they had there for sophomores who was head of summer programs - invited her to precollege and said if we didn't get enough scholarship money for it to personally give her a call - that she didn't want my daughter to choose not to attend because of financial considerations - wow!</p>
<p>Corcoran - said my daughter would be a good fit for photojournalism...</p>
<p>CCA - said could not recommend scholarships for sophomores but could for juniors - see me next year...</p>
<p>Pratt - loved this guy - personally made a connection with my daughter and invited her to update him with her work over the next few years - gave her personal email address and invited her to precollege...my daughter totally loves Pratt now because of this one guy.</p>
<p>KCAI - spent long time with us, knew of her high school's strong photography program and dropped the name of the photog teacher..told D at this age they usually have to advise students to concentrate on composition but in her case she was already there, so told her to think in terms of developing a series of photos that sent a message (we actually heard this a lot) - invited to precollege program and said there was plenty of scholarship money.</p>
<p>SFAI - very holistic philosophy of being more interested inthe artist themselves than the actual art. They focus on what the artist wants to say and then advise on how to get there. I liked them, they liked her. Gave us wonderful feedback on how to improve portfolio.</p>
<p>Since we were more interested in feedback than actual schools we waited on lines that were short rather than particular schools. Next year we'll make sure to see SVA, MFA, MICA, Parsons and Otis, and try to see Ringling, Pratt and CCA again.</p>
<p>Our experience was as follows:
My son had a (photography) review by RISD, MICA, SVA, & SAIC in both his junior year and senior. They were all pretty favorable. Basically, MICA and SVA gave him a "green light" on the spot (meaning he did not have to resubmit a portfolio with his app.). SAIC and RISD don't do that at all I think. Anyway, the most critical and, I think, most useful review was from SAIC. In the end we tailored the RISD submission very closely around the review.
He got into RISD, MICA and SVA and did not apply to SAIC (because of distance from home). He is going to RISD.</p>
<p>Some succinct advice:</p>
<ol>
<li>Bring someone(s) to stand in lines for you</li>
<li>Know what you're going to show and be prepared to answer questions about it</li>
<li>Don't try to show more than 15 pieces because it's maddening to people behind you</li>
<li>BRING SKETCHBOOKS</li>
<li>Wear comfortable shoes</li>
</ol>