I would say YES admission committees do look negatively upon portfolios that do not adhere 100% to their requirements. As dumb as you think some of the guidelines may be, most are there to lesson the pain of sifting through tons of applications. You’re not going to impress any of the members of the committee by fudging the guidelines and you might just piss them off.

my nickel; if you are concerned with this *minor* you are concerned about the wrong thing. consider why they want the right hand corner stapled, perhaps they know this; that your format, and many will, will move left to right, and up to down, and stapling the upper right corner allows for a bunch of commitee members to toss your portfolio back and forth and look at it more easily than dealing with every different binding option in existence and stapling the upper left corner is equally more complicated. try stapling papers at the left corner and try flipping through the paper as if you were one of them and you'll see what i mean...

I went to Berkeley for undergrad and saw a few portfolios of admitted grad students (there is a bin of these in the Architecture office) that did not meet the school requirements. The portfolio of one of my friends who got in had a cover, was spiral bound and wasn't the required size (they say 8.5x11 right?). I can't say if admissions faculty looked upon his transgressions negatively, but however they felt it wasn't enough to keep them from admitting him. You can be sure that having a portfolio that meets the requirements exactly will not hurt you. So dont worry about your portfolio not looking professional enough--most applicants will stick to the guidelines.

I would play it safe, but i you absolutely have to veer from the guidelines, perhaps try not to go too far, i.e. make a cover but keep the staple.

speaking of bindings...i was told by a faculty member that it would be best just to put the portfolio pages in a standard "staples" type plastic sleave folder. However my layout is landscape 8.5x11 and have not found any of this type of folders in landscape with binding on the left side. Has anyone run across any of these?

take a look at 11x17.com. i love this store, and while some of it can be pricey, it's a great source for actually getting what you need.

thanks for the responses, I appreciate the advice.

i had a naked sketch of my girlfriend in my portfolio, and everything worked out fine. i also had some cartoons i drew for my university paper and some photos i took (aside from all architectural models, sketches, blah, blah, blah...)

i never abided by their guidlines, figuring that i wouldn't want into a place that confined me to a set-list of criteria.

that said, they let me in...and made me abide by their set-list of criteria for every project. yeah.