<p>on the applications it says we can send an art or music portfolio, but could i send some short stories and poetry instead?</p>
<p>I'm curious about this too. Except that instead of short stories...maybe editorials written for the school's literary magazine, and some poems. Anybody know anything about this?</p>
<p>in the book The Gatekeepers, it talks about how college admission officers highly discourage it (they have to read thousands of essays, they don't want more reading)</p>
<p>i don't know if it's the same for prep schools</p>
<p>I think I'm a broken record...I would call and ask before I send additional material not mentioned as required or "ok."</p>
<p>If you're a serious art student or musician -- to the point that you believe that this is a "hook" for you -- then you are being invited to send in your portfolios. But, even so, you wouldn't do this out of the blue. You would have had conversations (one hopes) with the department chairs or instructors and the portfolio exchange conversation would have come up at that time. And, if not, you would probably want to talk to those people -- people who are qualified to critique your portfolio -- before electing to send it in with your application. In my application I would point out that you've sent your portfolio to your fine arts contact person...and not actually submit another one to the admission committee.</p>
<p>So, since this question keeps coming up, I will post my obligatory link to the last time that I saw it appear (and, from there, you can keep linking back to previous discussions). I think the most authoritative statement on this came from szcbassoon, an instructor at one of the "top-tier" boarding schools, who generally dissuades applicants from sending in a CD or similar additional material. You'll find a link to his statement if you are persistent in tracking-back with the following link:</p>