As a high school student preparing for college, one of the first things you’ll need to know is how to set yourself apart for admission. Unfortunately, grades are not enough to prove your readiness for college. While they play an essential role, college admission officers still want to be sure that you can handle the demands of college life. This is where a college application portfolio comes into play. You’re probably wondering what it is and how to create a college application portfolio. We’ll offer all the information you need in this article, but before we go on, let’s explain what it is.
What is a College Application Portfolio?
What is a College Application Portfolio?Put simply; a college application portfolio is a collection of materials designed to display your skills, talents, or works over the years leading up to college. Unlike resumes, portfolios are more artistic, showing your abilities and skills with images. Students would typically leverage college application portfolios to show admission officers how good they are beyond exam scores and grade performances.
Different situations require different portfolio designs, and that’s why it’s vital for you to know the different portfolio designs and how to create each.
What Should Be Included in a College Application Portfolio?
So far, we’ve established that a portfolio for college application should give a sampling of your skills, talents, or interests. However, despite the power of a college application portfolio, it’ll still be ineffective if it does not adequately demonstrate your strength and how you are handling your areas of interest. Remember that portfolios are different from test scores, grade performance reviews, and commitment essays. Portfolios show off who you are outside the academic setting, and that’s why modern portfolios are designed to be visually attractive to catch admission officers’ attention at first sight. That said, here are some of the areas that a college application portfolio should typically cover, irrespective of what you’re submitting it for.
- A complete artwork that showcases examples of your creative process and how you’re handling the things you’re interested in.
- Your areas of specialization. Include examples of all the skills you’ve developed over time.
- Cover a wide range of works showcasing your talent.
- Clear photograph or video of you and your team working on your area of interest.
How to Make a Portfolio for College Application?
The whole process of making a portfolio for creating a portfolio for college admission can be a hard mountain to climb if you don’t know where to start. Usually, you’ll find samples of portfolios online, but you may need to understand the process beyond the process you see online. Usually, we recommend that you start by deciding the right portfolio format for your case. There are two main formats for a portfolio: a PDF that displays your work and a website that you can link to. Usually, each of these formats has its pros and cons. Here’s a brief review of both.
- PDF: Saving your portfolio in PDF formats is pretty easy. Apart from helping you organize your work in a clear and simple way, you can also easily attach it to emails and upload it with other application documents. It offers you a lot of control over the format and layout, so you can use your experience in design and publishing to create beautiful, attractive portfolios that will catch admission officers’ attention.
However, the disadvantage of saving your portfolio in a PDF format is that it doesn’t allow you to easily upload multimedia projects like audio files, videos, and 3D designs. - Website: There are many sites available today for users to create attractive portfolios and art displays. The specific site you use won’t necessarily matter, as long as it allows you to create the kind of project or art you want to show off. A portfolio website allows you to get creative with creating your online portfolio for college. It allows you to include texts, videos, arts, and photos. It is also an excellent way to show admission officers how technologically savvy you are.
On the downside, the whole process of creating a website portfolio is often more complicated than creating a simple PDF. It also gives you less control over how your work appears on different devices.
When to start
Usually, you should start building your portfolio as early as junior high school and do it throughout high school. Even if the projects you work on in your freshman year are not as good as those you create in your senior year, admission officers would still be impressed by the dedication and efforts you put into improving. Remember that your portfolio would usually tell the college admission officers who you are outside the academic setting and who you can be in the next couple of years. So, while showing off your best works, you also want to show them your progression process so that they’ll know how much you’ve improved over time.
7 Tips for Creating the Best Portfolio for College
If you must do it, then you have to do it right. Yes, we’ve talked about preparing a portfolio for college application, but how about some tips to make your portfolio qualitative enough? Here are some tips to help you design the best college portfolio out there.
Read the criteria closely
Your college application portfolio should be tailored to suit the college you’re applying for. Usually, different schools would have different portfolio requirements. So it’ll be great to take a close look at what your choice school is requesting. Information like due date, preferred format, number of required pieces, and so on would help you determine what’s best.
Think carefully about what to include
While looking to make your portfolio elaborate, it’s also essential to include only necessary things. Usually, we recommend including a range of work while highlighting areas of interest that demonstrate your suitability for the course. However, avoid going over by cluttering the portfolio with repetition and irrelevant pieces.
Organize examples effectively
Your arrangement tells a lot about your presentation skills and how your thought process works when it comes to portfolio preparation. Admission officers can tell that you are ready for college from how conscientious you are about the order of your work’s presentation. In addition to that, an orderly arrangement helps them better understand your narrative.
Tell stories
Yes, it’s vital to showcase your technical ability. But beyond that, you also want the admission team to understand your works from your perspective. Hence, the need to tell your story. Think about the deeper meaning of each example and how they can impact your chances of getting college admission. Bear in mind that there’ll be several other applications, so clearer stories would catch admission officers’ attention more easily.
Don’t get hung on quality
You don’t have to overstress it. While it’s crucial to hit quality, you don’t want to get stuck in a rollercoaster trying to hit all strings of perfection. Don’t get too concerned with how many works are in your portfolio. It’s okay to have more pieces, but that should never come at the expense of your standards of quality.
Get a different opinion
This should ideally be someone with more knowledge and experience than you. Tell them about your fears and ask them questions where necessary. Also, encourage them to give constructive criticisms.
Be prepared to talk about your interests
It doesn’t matter how weird your interests are or whether you find them attractive, still talk about them. Note that the interview panel may want to discuss ideas and techniques in your portfolio. It’s easier to answer questions and engage in discussions when talking about your interests.
Wrapping Things Up: How to Create a College Application Portfolio
Here’s a detailed article pointing out everything you should know about a college application portfolio. Applying to and getting into selective colleges require more than good grades. You want to also show that you are ready for college life and can stand out in several different areas like extracurricular activities and community service. This is where a college application portfolio comes into play. It shows your area of interest and how well you’ve done in them. However, creating a college application portfolio can be a mundane task if you don’t know where to start. To help, we’ve provided the basics in this article and given you useful tips that can get you going.
