Should I submit anything directly to the Art school; or the Sports Coach etc.

Prep School Admissions
1

After I registered on the Gateway saying I’m interested in Art and Swimming, different schools’ Art directors and sports department start to send me email boasting how strong their programs are. After I receive those emails, should I respond? For example should I send my art portfolio to the art directors; or let the swimming coach know my swimming record? Same question on creative writing, do I need to email the creative writing program there directly on my writings? Or I should submit all those materials in the application and avoid contacting teachers there directly?

Also, anyone has experience in what is the best way to present Art portfolio? In the application, there is place to submit links to multi-media. How do people normally do it? For example, for Art, you put all your portfolio on a website and then submit link to that website? For performance, do we put videos on a site, or just submit video files? And usually would the admission officers reviewing those or they will send to the Art program teachers to review those?

Thank you so much in advance!

2

Are you a competitive swimmer? This means, Will you be a varsity level swimmer your freshman year? If yes, you should contact the coach through the schools “athletic interest” link on their sports page. I assume there’d be a place to list your swim times.

For art, there is a place to attach art to the application (if I remember correctly) BUT I was told by an AO to send everything supplemental (sports videos, art portfolio) to your AO separately in an email as well as attaching it to the app. They told us point blank that the app attachments often don’t work and they don’t have time during application review to try again and again to download things.

During your interview you can ask your AO if it would be appropriate to send your art to one of their teachers.

3

@one1ofeach Thank you so much for the reply! Yeah I asked some admission officer about art portfolio, they also mentioned email is good in addition to the App.