Review of NPD 2009

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
1

<p>Hi all, I just attended my first National Portfolio Day yesterday and wanted to write a quick review for those who are thinking about attending one. </p>

<p>A blurb about me:
I'm a 21 year old student who has taken a lot of time off college and only discovered that I could draw in January. I've been taking courses at my community college to not only learn how to draw but to build up a portfolio so that I can transfer and study illustration.</p>

<p>I attended NPD in Columbus Ohio.</p>

<p>Reviews began at noon, but we arrived at 11 and were the first in line. When doors opened I ran right up to SVA and got the first review of the day. I brought a folio with some 11x14 drawings, a laptop with photos of larger drawings and two sketchbooks. My mother and Aunt attended with me and held my spot in the MICA and Ringling line.</p>

<p>The rep at SVA was really nice and gave me some great criticism to improve my portfolio, but said that I definitely demonstrate the skill set one would need to be accepted, and encouraged me to apply.</p>

<p>Then I ran down to MICA, where my Aunt was next in line. The rep there was extremely supportive and informed me of some programs they had besides illustration that might interest me. She took a lot of interest in my sketchbooks and encouraged me to submit some pages from them as pieces in my portfolio. Then I could write my essay about my sketchbook and why I included it.</p>

<p>Then I zipped over to Otis. 3 people ahead of me there. This rep was a bit older and was really really great. She loved my artwork but like the MICA rep, took much more interest in my sketchbook. She told me to include half my portfolio pieces from my sketchbook, or to do larger works based on paintings in my sketchbook, and to limit my observational drawings and only include a few. She gave me her personal cell phone number and told me to call her this week so we could discuss my portfolio further and that she wants me to send her any new piece I am working on so she can work with me this semester on getting a perfect portfolio. I also got a waiver so that I don't have to pay the application fee!</p>

<p>Lastly I went over to Ringling, which was a shorter line but had heard was a great school for illustration. Again, an older rep who was really fantasic and encouraging. He helped me choose which pieces to include in my portfolio and ALSO told me to take out some of my observational drawings and instead include images from my sketchbook. (I do paintings in a moleskine which are very illustrative based)</p>

<p>I had wanted to go to CCA but they weren't there, and there were no other schools there that I was (am?) planning to apply to. So in 90 minutes I was done and out of there.</p>

<p>It was a great experience and I plan to go to the Chicago one at the end of this month where more schools will be attending. </p>

<p>If you have any questions about NPD, feel free to ask :)</p>

2

<p>Hey, I was there yesterday too. I didn't feel like waiting in line so I hopped around and saw 8-10 schools even though I'm not interested in most of them. I was disappointed that RISD wasn't there but I feel like I got a lot of constructive feedback on my portfolio, so it was definitely worth the trip.</p>

3

<p>that's awesome you were able to see so many schools and get great feedback from them! </p>

<p>I know RISD will be at the Chicago NPD</p>

4

<p>Hey emifinan, thanks so much for the detailed description of your experience at NPD. My daughter will be going to her first this weekend. Do you think one adult placeholder-in-line is enough or should she should have two?</p>

<p>I'm glad you had such a good and encouraging experience there!</p>

5

<p>When we attended the NPD at MICA , I was a bit put off to realize that RISD didn't send any admission reps to NPD. Yes, you read it right.</p>

<p>They only sent alumni!</p>

6

<p>Austinhills,</p>

<p>One adult placeholder would be just fine, I'd imagine. </p>

<p>I only stayed at NPD for 90 minutes and saw 4 schools thanks to my 2 placeholders, but I'm sure that with one placeholder you could see even more than 4 schools if you stayed the entire time.</p>

<p>Of course, I got the impression that the Columbus, Ohio NPD had a smaller attendance than some do in larger cities. I'd really encourage getting there an hour early and waiting for the doors to open so your daughter can get reviewed by a school that might have a long line.</p>

<p>I'd also encourage you (or the adult placeholder) to wait in the longer lines while your D can get in some of the shorter lines and get longer, better reviews by some of the smaller schools.</p>

7

<p>Just thought I'd report on last weekend's experience at the Austin NPD. It was really good, although way more crowded than I thought it'd be. Kids from Houston, San Antonio and other nearby areas had come for it. We arrived only a few minutes before the door opened and was shocked to see how long the line was to get in (should have taken your advice, emifinan, and gotten there an hour early to wait in line). </p>

<p>While my daughter stood in the Carnegie Mellon line, I saved a place for her in the RISD line. I think RISD was the longest line there. In fact, we thought at first that RISD wasn't even there because they were out of alphabetical order, but then quickly realized that the event organizers had put them in their own corner to accommodate the long lines.</p>

<p>Anyway, D talked to CMU, RISD, UMich, SMFA and maybe one other. (She had had an on-campus portfolio review with Wash U in September.) She said the feedback was pretty consistent from all the schools, except for SMFA, who gave way more negative feedback than all the others.</p>

<p>What D wished she had done differently: brought the pieces she was working on in her art class (duh)! </p>

<p>What I wish we had done differently: brought food or something (duh)! The event was 11 - 3, and the main reason we left was that we were both starving.</p>

<p>What was really neat: seeing the wide variety and talent of so many kids in one place, learning about UMich and other schools we had never heard of.</p>

8

<p>I went to NPD IN california
it was 12-4:00 pm
and the lines were frigging long
ionly got to review w/3,4 colleges CMU, RISD, Washinton in st.louis, mica
they basically went over my drawings and need to be more done etc
mica said i can get scholarships w/ my drawings
Iguess it helped but
verry verry tiring ...................T_T</p>

9

<p>Yes MiniYoo the lines were so loooooooong......... It almost looked like the half of the art students in LA all came. I wish I'd went for MICA, and SVA.</p>

10

<p>I just got back from the NYC one and there were soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many people. i got there at 12 and didn't get in til 1, waited at UMich for 2 1/2 hours (with not even great feedback) and then BARELY made it to SMFA (with awesome feedback yay!). </p>

<p>ugh im so tired and the trains were effed up going home which sucked too.</p>

11

<p>we went in Boston and stood in line for HOURS to walk away without seeing anyone. the experience was terrible, we even cut half the line (accidentally) only to make it around a corner and up an escalator. the woman trying to control things was being bombarded with parent complaints and fire department complaints. i felt bad but her and the rest of the staff's response was "this isn't my fault this isn't my fault" and she actually tried to force all the adults in the hotel standing in line with their kids to leave. it was absolutely ridiculous mayhem and a complete fire trap. huge waste of time and i would NOT recommend anyone go to Boston for NPD. but glad to see some people had better experiences :)</p>

12

<p>i just went to the NPD at MICA last sunday, i got to see 5 colleges, Cooper union, Carnegie Mellon, SAIC, MICA, and RIT. The trick to portfolio day is bringing one or two extra people with you to hold spaces in other lines. If a line is 100 people long and there are only 2 or 3 reviewers, dont stand in the line yourself, go to shorter lines and have someone else hold your place. That being said, NPD was still a madhouse, especially the line for SVA. my mom was in life for the whole 4 hours and never got to the front.</p>

13

<p>went to npd at pratt a while ago</p>

<p>got there at 9, there were already like 30 people in front of me (actually got to brooklyn at 8 but got lost...)</p>

<p>ran to risd first because i knew the lines would be longest there, i was the second person to be reviewed by my reviewer
he said some nice things it was ok, told me it would be hard to take classes in other disciplines</p>

<p>went to emily carr next (empty table), told me some more nice things</p>

<p>then pratt next, line was long
portfolio didn't get accepted as preportfolio or whatever that is, reviewer gave some good advice</p>

<p>then vcu, again because of the short lines</p>

<p>hit up the small schools, they give the best advice
the gym was really sweaty and gross and people shouldn't bring their parents unless it's to hold places in line...</p>

<p>left at like 2
(had been previously reviewed by sva mica and cooper so i didn't need to stop at their tables)</p>

14

<p>Sunspun41,
I attended 3 NPD days with my daughter 2004 - 2007 in Boston. Alot depends on where the event is located and how they manage the crowds. I was curious how the Art Institute of Boston would handle having NPD at their school, due to the layouts of their buildings in Boston - the rooms are not large and the buildings have lots of floors with very narrow staircases. We found it to be uncomfortable there just to attend an open house - so I can only imagine the craziness to house all the kids coming in with their portfolios for NPD - that is too bad you had a bad time. The ones we attended were at Massart and although crowded, it was not as crazy as you describe.</p>

15

<p>.. i am awfully jealous that you got your family to wait in line for you. When I went last year I spent 4 hours at like 3 schools. So much of that time was spent waiting in line. Do you have your portfolio online? I would love to look through it since you got such awesome reviews :D</p>

16

<p>Today I just went to National Portfolio Day in San Francisco at the Academy of Art. I got there at 11, an hour before it opened. There was about 70 people ahead of me in line. I only visited 3 schools, CCA, Otis, and SFAI. </p>

<p>I was the first one to CCA and got to talk to an admissions representative for maybe 10 minutes. He was very helpful and gave great advice. He even accepted my portfolio on spot and recommended me to submit my portfolio ASAP to get some scholarships. I was very excited about hearing this, especially being the first school I talked to.</p>

<p>Then I went to Otis. The line was long but my girlfriend was waiting in line for me while I was talking to CCA. The representative at Otis helped me in terms of what it means to put together a portfolio with cohesiveness. She told me to apply and I think everyone that talks to Otis gets a fee waiver.</p>

<p>Then I went to SFAI. The woman told me the same things as above and told me to apply. She also said that she hopes I join the class next year at SFAI, which made me really happy.</p>

<p>Overall, it was a great experience. It was pretty crowded and hard to walk around the long lines of RISD, Art Center and Pratt, etc. A lot of people brought huge paintings and portfolios but I didn't bring my original work. I had all my work ready to view on my laptop, which didn't seem to be a problem to the representatives. I visited all 3 of these schools in about an hour.</p>

17

<p>by the way, i showed a few paintings from portraits and all schools seem to be more interested in observational or representational work from still life, model, etc. They did appreciate my paintings for the craft though</p>

18

<p>Just came back from NPD in Miami. Very interesting and DD got some excellent feedback. It was 4 hours long, and she got to see 9 schools during that time. The smaller schools (her first choices) spent the most time and several told her that she was what the school was looking for and would be recommended for a merit scholarship. Since she was already convinced (her opinion only) that her art wasn't good enough, it was the validation she needed. The smaller schools had less lines and there was one reviewer that had the unfortunate luck of being placed next to SVA (they were alphabetical) and the SVA kids lined up right in front of him and no one could tell he was open. I sent DD and her friend over there and they got good critiques from him. Questions they asked her: Where/what do you get your inspiration from? What type of artists do you like the most? The rep from MIAD asked her what were her favorite movies. </p>

<p>Some kids spread their stuff along the floor in open spaces, and expected the reps to come and look at their stuff on the floor. I saw some that did and some that wanted the pieces brought to them. That made walking spaces even more difficult, and in some places it was impossible to get by, especially with those hauling around paintings on plywood, and glass. I would've been afraid something would get stepped on. </p>

<p>Kudos go out to the rep from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, who was late, having been in an accident with a bloody nose to boot. He hung in there almost the whole time, altho you could tell he was definitely not feeling well. Since that school is DD's top 4, she was impressed - thought that showed he really cares about the students, and I agree.</p>

<p>All in all it was an excellent experience. For those students wanting lots of feedback, I would recommend starting with the smaller schools first - shorter lines, and the reps tended to spend more time per student since they didn't have long lines. DD was with one rep at one school while I waited in the RMCAD line where they did 3 students in the same amount of time. All the reps told her what she basically already knew, and now she has received good advice and pointers on improving her portfolio.</p>

<p>We brought snacks which was a good idea since we were there 5 hours, and I would also suggest bringing a bag to carry catalogs. I had to send DH out to the car because I couldn't carry anymore!!</p>

19

<p>to andrwagts:
"I was the first one to CCA and got to talk to an admissions representative for maybe 10 minutes. He was very helpful and gave great advice. He even accepted my portfolio on spot and recommended me to submit my portfolio ASAP to get some scholarships." </p>

<p>what have you decided about CCA. i'm going to visit the campuses next week. can't get a feel for the reputation of the school. i'd be an industrial design/sculpture major. what have you heard?</p>