CCA News

Editing Your Admissions Portfolio

Posted on Wednesday, January 20, 2010, by Marion Anthonisen

Happy (belated) New Year from CCA Admissions! Our office sincerely hopes you had a restful holiday season and that you’ve emerged raring to flex your application muscles. We’re opening more and more mail each day as we approach the February 1st priority deadline for fall 2010. February 1st is an important deadline to meet if you’re considering merit scholarships, which are awarded based on your academic record and the strength of your portfolio.

Quality over quantity has long been one of my favorite clichéd phrases, and I think it’s an especially timely one for you all. If you’re working to meet the Feb 1st deadline, I’d recommend that you focus your energies over the next two weeks on editing your portfolio, not on making new portfolio pieces.

Infusing order and cohesiveness into a portfolio is one of the oft-overlooked (but luckily, most easily done!) application prep tasks. If you prefer editing on-screen, drag your jpegs into one folder and view the images as thumbnails. If you have the space, lay your pieces out on the floor. Play around with different arrangements and you’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll start to recognize your stronger (and weaker) pieces. Considering the compositional and thematic connections you see here may also help you develop new directions for your work. Maybe you’ll find that you’re drawn to complimentary colors, crosshatching, or intense light sources. Simple discoveries like this can be exciting.

We want to see pieces-in-full, so include only those works that you’ve driven to their (and your) complete potential. If you do find yourself hovering below our 10-piece minimum and feel it’s imperative that you add a few brand-new works, give yourself some size constraints. If you’re beefing up the observational sector of your portfolio, make sure you offer equal attention to your subjects’ environment. Don’t neglect the background or consider it secondary. Developing context pushes your work to completion.

Also, if you find yourself with more than 20 fully-finished pieces, even after thorough editing, don't worry about sending us more than the suggested maximum.

And, breathe (in and out – don’t hold it)! You’ve worked hard on this portfolio, and we’re appreciative! Get in touch with us if you have any last questions. We’re looking forward to reading your application.

Marion Anthonisen
manthonisen@cca.edu