<p>Daughter who is an A-B student from NJ who LOVES art -- has always been gifted in it -- is now looking to seriously develop a portfolio to prepare her for an art college in a few years.</p>
<p>What do these art school or top arts programs look for? Her work has already been selected to exhibit at a prestigious gallery in our area since middle school. Are they looking for diversity of media? A passion in one area? </p>
<p>Is there something special that really attracted the eye of certain schools you can share?</p>
<p>She is also very well rounded -- very active in extracurricular activities, in an IB program, community service and top athlete in soccer and softball, if that helps. </p>
<p>Hi-- NY mom here. Though I am artistically challenged and really can't offer any personal experience, I did come across some info from Montclair U. as I checked that school out for my d. Look into the School of the Arts- and their Art and Design Major. They gave specific info as to what they wanted to see in a students portfolio. I am also not great with computers so I cannot do a specific link- but it is there!!
Also saw you were interested in School spirit/B student. For those NY kids who want a bit more spirit than our SUNY schools, they often look at U of Maryland-U Del-Penn State-UConn. But those schools are not safeties for the B student. Also check out Towson and Temple which I believe also has a good art school. Good luck.
You may also want to post in the Parents Forum. Parents are sometimes a bit more helpful when you have a real specific question like what goes in an art portfolio?</p>
<p>Depends on the specific major, but one common thing for almost all is that they want to see a certain amount of drawing from life (not just from photographs or imagination). Focus on quality- it's better to have 18 great images than 20 images which are mostly great but a couple are questionable. Put in anything- drawings, paintings, sculpture, installations, graphic design, websites, as long as it's TOP quality, and weight it towards what she wants to major it.</p>
<p>I recently graduated from high school and am headed off to RISD next year. I would suggest that your daughter utilize the AP Program- she should submit a portfolio at least twice during high school. AP Graders really know what they are looking for... if she gets high scores on her exams (like a 5), then she has a very good chance to get into a top school. AP also makes sure she will have a diverse breadth of work, as well as a concentration on some specific concept. Coming from an IB/AP school, I would suggest that she chose AP Art over IB Art... IB puts more emphasis on the meaning behind a work, the philosophical or intellectual reasons for making the work, instead of focusing on technique. In high school, it is more important to develop technique. </p>
<p>As for specific types of art, I would say anything... but she should focus on composition over everything else. If she wants to draw a flower, place it in an interesting way in the frame, instead of going the typical route, etc.</p>