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For students that started studio sequence Spring 2007 or earlier and have completed (or are currently enrolled in) ALA 100, 120, 221, 223, 200, 236, 222, 224, and 240
Admission to upper-division programs (third year) is competitive and limited by available resources. Admission is awarded to those applicants demonstrating the highest promise for professional success. Students applying to more than one degree program in the College of Design must submit a separate application and portfolio (if required) to each program. Students not enrolled at ASU when they apply to upper-division programs must also submit an application for admission to the university. Lower-division students not admitted to an upper-division program are not dismissed from the college and may reapply or transfer to other programs. Students that are not admitted this fall to upper division that plan to reapply in spring 2009 are to contact the director or chairperson of the program they are reapplying to. Transfers into upper-division programs are considered only on a space available basis, and such transfers are limited to students with equivalent course work who are competitive with continuing students.
Submission Deadline
- WHEN: May 2, 2008 Before 5:00 p.m.
- WHERE: College of Design North building, room 162
Policy on Late Applications
- Late applications will not be accepted under any circumstances
Qualifications
- Must have completed (or be currently enrolled in) ALA 100, 120, 221, 223, 200, 236, 222, 224, and 240.
- A minimum university cumulative GPA of 3.00.
Note: Students with any previous undergraduate degree should apply directly to the graduate program.
Transfer Students and Transfer Work
- Applications and portfolios will be accepted from students who have previously received approval for the transfer courses equivalent to the lower division required courses.
- Transfer Transcripts (ASU transcripts are not required). If your application includes courses that are being transferred to meet major course requirements, a transfer transcript must be included to verify enrollment in those courses.
- It will be expected that you request and ensure that an official transcript reflecting completion of those major courses be received by the ASU Office of the Registrar by June 1, 2008.
- Provide an unofficial copy of those transcripts to the College of Design Academic Advising Center in the College of Design South building (CDS) room 115 by June 1, 2008.
- Application documents should be the first page(s) in the Portfolio, 1) application, certificate of admission to ASU.
Deficiencies
- Must have completed (or currently enrolled in) ALA 100, 120, 221, 223, 200, 236, 222, 224, and 240.
- Deficiencies in other lower division requirements may be considered in an unusual circumstance, when the admission standard deficiency is slight, written evidence of extenuating circumstances is convincing, and promise for success is evident, a student with deficiencies may be granted admission to the upper division on a provisional basis.
Application Materials
Portfolio Requirements
- Anonymous review - The portfolio review is anonymous. The applicant’s name should not appear anywhere on or within the portfolio. Applicants will sign-in next to a number when they submit their portfolio. The school will in turn assign the number to the applicant’s portfolio when they turn it in.
- Portfolio size - The portfolio may be no larger than 8.5 x 11 inches. The portfolio may be no smaller than 5.5 x 11 inches. The portfolio may be any size within this range.
- Binder - Applicants are encouraged to design their own portfolio cover and binding, rather than purchase a portfolio binder. Spiral binding is one of the ways applicants can bind their portfolios, and spiral binding can be done at almost any copy shop.
- Project description - The following information should be provided for each project presented in portfolio.
Course
Semester
Instructor project duration
Concise description of the assignment
Description of your approach to the problem
- Content - Applicants should present work sufficient to demonstrate the depth and breadth of their creative activity. This work should include (but is not limited to) examples of two- and three-dimensional design and graphics.
Applicants do not need to present every project they have done in their portfolio. Applicants need to show themselves in the best light possible by editing out weaker projects and emphasizing their stronger work.
Applicants are encouraged to include additional materials, written or pictorial, that provide additional evidence of skills and abilities and of the aptitude and commitment to the major. When any work submitted is not completely original, the source must be given. When work is of a team nature, the applicant's role should be clearly indicated. Original examples or slides must not be submitted. All examples must be photographs or other reproduction graphic media.
The portfolio is the sole means that the reviewers have to understand the applicant. Clearly describing the project and the approach is essential to an effective portfolio. The faculty have put together a series of informal suggestions and tutorials intended to help the applicants in the design and production of the portfolio. These tutorials may be found on the web at http://149.169.66.23/222s08-web/portfolio_home.html
Keep it simple and clear. Don't try to be overly complex graphically, and watch out for graphic excess. It is easy to get lost in an overly complex project that, because of its time requirements, doesn't get developed sufficiently. Simple, but well-presented content is very effective. The portfolio should be about presenting the creative work, not itself.
Don't get in over your head. To be ambitious in the portfolio's design is good. To be ambitious to the point that the portfolio is not feasible is not. The portfolio is, for most of you, a new problem, and new problems are full of possibilities-don't get lost in those possibilities. Be realistic in regard to time. Be realistic in evaluating what you can pull off. It is most important that the portfolio be clear, well-crafted, and aesthetically developed. Well-developed and made simple are much better than not so developed, but new and interesting.
Be clear. Above all, be clear. You have the reviewer's attention for a brief period of time, so use it well. Don't waste that time with pages, images, drawings, and text that is unclear. Be focused in how you present the work.
Have good descriptive photographs. Make sure that you have clear and descriptive photographs of your work. Nothing kills a portfolio like poor documentation.
Show yourself at your best. You don't have to show every single project. Certainly you want to include most of your work, but if you have a project that just did not work, you can omit it. You can also, through the presentation in the portfolio, show those aspects of a project that are strong and not show the aspects that are weak.
Don't use overly large images for every photograph. Consistent use of large images tends to be less effective. You can use images as large as an entire page and also quite small images size should relate to the composition of the page and to what you are presenting. Remember to use white space.
Be selective with your use of images. Leave the bad stuff at home. The photographs are the means through which you and your work are known. They have to be effective. Fewer good and effective images are more effective than a lot of mixed images.
Use cropping to strengthen subject matter. Crop your photographs as necessary to present the real subject matter of the shot in a stronger, more focused way.
Don't distort your project images. Every year there are a few portfolios where the student has pushed, stretched, and colored images as a way of making them graphically more exciting. This is always a problem because it clouds the actual project. The portfolio is about the content of the projects-don't undermine that.
Avoid backgrounds. Backgrounds can be used effectively but much more often they undermine a portfolio. Backgrounds tend to end up giving little information and then competing with project images. When not used in a fairly sophisticated way they result in busy, unclear and confusing pages.
One sketch does not qualify as a process. Presenting process can be very effective, but to show process you have to show a progression (a series of sketches).
Present developed sketches. If you include sketches, make sure that they are graphically developed/good, particularly if you are including only one or two from a project. You can present a series of less developed sketches to talk about process. That way all the attention is not on a single so-so sketch.
Drawings need to be readable. Drawings and, most particularly, line drawings suffer when reduced to a small size. Ninety-five percent of the information they carried is usually lost. This is complicated by the fact that drawings are the most difficult things to photograph. If a drawing ends up not showing anything, it is better to leave it out. Ways to make drawings more effective are complimenting the overall drawing by including detail fragments that will how the quality and content (this is probably the most effective), and making your drawing images larger (even as large as a whole page if the drawing is worth that kind of emphasis, although not every drawing is worth it).
Use captions, titles and notations. Use captions and brief notations to describe a little more about what the reviewers are seeing. You have an informed audience, so a little well-chosen text goes a long way in conveying the ideas behind the project.
Avoid overly large type for general text. Larger type has its place to be sure. This caution is against using 18-pt text for your general text throughout the portfolio. Overly large text tends to make the portfolio seem less refined and text can overwhelm content. The 12-pt font is good as well as the 9-pt font. Even the 7-pt font can work for elements like image captions.
Don't use exotic fonts. Exotic fonts like gothic scripts, handwriting fonts, fantasy fonts, etc tend to overwhelm the content and are distracting. Simple fonts like Times, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, Andale Mono, etc., are good.
Make your own cover and binding. Avoid expensive portfolio folders-make your own portfolio and cover. Chipboard or illustration board functions well. You can have the entire portfolio bound with spiral wire binding at a copy shop.
Avoid elaborate covers. Avoid overly elaborate covers like metal or wood covers with hinges or complex mechanisms to operate. This can be done successfully, but past experience has been that this type of work is not successful much more often than it is. This type of cover and binding has to be done very successfully in order not to detract from the portfolio. Also, the time requirements of this type of cover often take time away from the general composition and production of portfolio, so the content is hurt. If you want to do it try it-make sure you can pull it off at a high level of execution and get some feedback from a faculty member.
Don't use plastic page sleeves. Make it your own and make the portfolio more like a book and not pages inside something you bought.
Portfolio Return
- Where: College of Design North building, room 162
- When: Portfolios may be claimed in person on July 7, 2008 or later. We will allow a third party to pick up your portfolio for you with written and signed permission. While care will be taken in handling the portfolios, the College of Design will assume no liability for loss or damaged materials.
General Information
- If you have re-taken a class, you should check with the Registrar’s Office to ensure the lower grade has been deleted.
- If you change your mailing address between the time you submit your application to upper division and the admission decision notice date, please contact the Department(s) where you applied to update the address on your program application. You must make any official address changes on the ASU interactive website. For assistance contact the Office of the Registrar.
Admission Decision
- Students will be notified on or before: July 1, 2008
Matriculation
- Students that are accepted are expected to begin the upper-division professional program at the beginning of the immediate next fall term. There is no spring admission to the upper-division program. If you have any questions regarding this policy please contact the department chairperson.
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