I am a current high school junior and interested in the school of design in CMU. So I am planning a tour at CMU, and I see there is also interview with admission office available. But I wander what is it about?? Do I need to prepare anything, since I even haven’t started my portfolio. Thank you for answering! 
They said this an 20-30 interview about parents asking questions. Is it a interview with many parents in the room and asking questions, or you are the only one who is there asking questions? Or do I need to be qualify for having this interview? Do I need to dress formally? Thank you.
Hi @someonescarlett ! The admissions office interview is sort of a back-n-forth Q&A that you have the option of partaking in to see if the college would be the right college for you. You and your parents are the ones who are doing the interviewing – that is, you ask the admissions office any questions you have about Carnegie Mellon, and they’ll answer it. No qualification necessary, and no portfolio items needed
During my session, there was another family and we both lodged questions at the staff. I was dressed casually, and so was the other applicants.
I’m glad that you decided to apply to CMU for Design! I was accepted for the Fall semester this year, so if you have any questions about the application process, both general and design-focused, I’ll be happy to answer them 
Best wishes.
Hi @MandomeLife ! Thank you so much for replying. Sorry, I just saw this. My interview went well i think. I am busying preparing my portfolio right now. I just not sure about my ACT. So far I have a 27. And the average for the design school is 29. I am an international student so I don’t think there will be a huge room of improvement. But I am pretty confident about my portfolio and my GPA. Do you think ACT will really be an obstacle of keeping me out of it? Is everyone there have super high acts? I’m pretty worried. Thank you!
HI @someonescarlett , no worries. 27 is a bit on the low end, but can certainly be overlooked if you have an excellent portfolio and essay. Since there is still a lot of time before applications, I definitely suggest to try and take the ACT once more, or try the SAT once. I ended up taking the ACT a second time after my guidance counselor accidentally signed me up for it, and I got a score much higher than what I originally got. The test may be easier the second time around now that you have experience.
Regarding if everyone at Carnegie has high ACTs – yes, especially outside the College of Fine Arts. However, you’re correct in stating those statistics for the School of Design. Again, if you’re sure about your portfolio, essay, and gpa, then they make overlook your test score, but taking it one more time wouldn’t hurt.
Hi @MandomeLife ! Thank you so much for replying! I will try once more on September (I wish that will be my last act in my whole life!). I have some other questions ( sorry, I really don’t have other people or teachers mentor me) : according to the school of design, it says that the portfolio is better be a design problem. So should my portfolio be like I design a thing to solve a problem? ( for example to design a toothbrush that can storage toothpaste??) But how could I represent myself though my portfolio? Should I draw a series of stories that about the problems I saw in my life and how could I solve it by design?
Thank you so much! Because my school is not so strong at art, so I just doing everything by myself.
@someonescarlett I assume that this was what you read about? From http://design.cmu.edu/node/111 ,
“We advise you to consider your portfolio as a design problem: How can you best present yourself and your work?”
I interpreted this statement as “think about the display, sequencing, and composition of your portfolio.” In other words, your portfolio’s presentation.
That being said, that statement isn’t necessarily talking about the subject matter of your work. It’s not directing you to design a solution for a known problem, or to create a graphic logo, or to develop a product, though you can certainly do that if you wish. As you read through the Design Admissions website, you’ll realize that they never tell you what you ‘need’ to do, project-wise. They purposefully keep requirements ambiguous in order for you to show ‘you’ as best as you can in your portfolio.
So, if your current work is fine art (i.e traditional painting, photography, drawing, ceramics, sculpture; or experimental digital, installation, sculpture, painting, etc etc), then that’s completely fine, because that’s what consists of ‘you’ as an artist. If your current work is design, then that’s fine as well. If it’s a mix of both, or includes work from a field that is design-inclusive (i.e robotics, engineering, human interaction, etc), then that’s completely fine too. And if you want to show a series of images that explain how you identified particular problems that needed design intervention, then feel free to do so!
In other words, you tell your story through your portfolio’s content and display. Your images, and how you arrange their composition and sequencing, is what will show the admissions commitee who you are as a potential design major at Carnegie Mellon.
As a word of advice, you should place your images in an order that makes sense, either progressively, chronologically, likeness, etc etc. For example, if you have ‘process’ (that’s a very important word – do not forget it) images of a three-dimensional project, you have to make the decision of whether to put the process images before or after the image of the finished product. “After” may sound confusing, (“why would I show my process after my final image!?” you might be asking) but it’s your job as a prospective designer to figure out which form of sequencing would best show off and explain your project to the admissions committee (they are your client, after all!).
And that leads to a full circle back to your question about the portfolio being treated as a design problem. To reiterate, design your portfolio so that it tells your story. You want to convince your client, the faculty of the School of Design, to choose you over the others. Consider the placing of the images, the content of the images, the composition of the images, and the overall ‘look’ of your portfolio once it’s all uploaded onto Slideroom (the online platform used by Carnegie for portfolio-based submissions). And don’t forget to show how you approach and apply your concepts and ideas (i.e your “process”).
Hope that helped! Feel free to keep asking questions 
@MandomeLife Thank you so much! I completely understand now! I am planning do a pop up book which talks about my story. I have another question: is the process counts as 1 item, or both “process” and final work count as 1 item?
Thank you!
@someonescarlett Carnegie’s School of Design allows you to upload 25 images, or “items,” to Slideroom – you have complete reign over what images are uploaded and the content, display, and sequence of them. Ideally, you should allocate a certain number of image slots to a specific project. Of course, that certain number changes depending on the project. If you upload an image of a painting, for example, you would only use one image/item slot for it. However, if it’s a process-heavy project, such as a 3/D installation or design project, that requires for example, 2 image slots, then one of the image slots would be for process and the other would be for the final work.
So, back to your question: “is the process counts as 1 item, or both ‘process’ and final work count as 1 item?”
One image counts as one “item.” A process image does count as one image/item, so it’s up to you to choose how many images of the 25 you’re allowed to upload will be process, and how many will be final work.
Best wishes
@MandomeLife Thank you so much! Everything makes a lot more sense for me!
@MandomeLife Hi, I just realized one thing about upload images to slide room: how about up load sketchbook? Thank you!
@someonescarlett Uploading sketchbook pages are pretty tricky, and you’ll have to get a little creative with it. If you have Adobe Photoshop, you can put multiple images into one composition, then save that composition as a single jpeg image file. That’s one approach, but there are countless of other ones. This is part of the “design problem” they were talking about, so it’s up to you to determine how you want to show your sketchbook pages. Only rule of thumb is to not use more than one image slots for your sketchbook upload.
@MandomeLife Hello MandomeLife! I asked you about applying CMU during the summer, but now I got rejected 
. I am now thinking about to apply Pratt and SVA for graphic design. Do you know about these two schools ? Have you considered these schools? Do you know which one is better for graphic design? I am a little confused.:-S
Thank you so much for your reply!
Hi @someonescarlett ,
I’m not familiar with the programs at Pratt and SVA – I applied only to Cooper Union, Michigan, and Carnegie Mellon during my college app run.
The yield rate from ED was particularly low at CMU Design, as normal. Regardless, I hope you’ll find the right place for your academic career elsewhere.