This is what also confuses me, because there is no implicit direction stating that the pages have to be the same size. According to the Harvard GSD site, various portfolio formats are accepted, so it seems open to interpretation.

Sorry I meant explicit, not implicit

how many times have you picked up a book with a different size cover page?

Cover is usually half size of a spread, sometimes a tiny bit bigger when hardcover.

dumb question... but are all portfolios submitted digitally? Fuck, now I feel extra old thinking about all the effort I made coordinating paper stock and printer colours when finishing my portfolio.

Yes, many schools no longer take paper submissions.

This is a very humbling wake up call, thank you. I can only blame myself for doing this at the last minute and not looking over everything carefully. Thankfully I didn’t submit this portfolio format to each school, as some had their own specific page requirements which I followed. If I don’t get into any of my school choices, I can always reapply next year with a better portfolio.

It's unlikely to be the make or break thing. But even though schools are mostly not accepting paper portfolios anymore I still see people on the admissions committee who print out some or all of their assigned portfolios in each round - so you should not design a portfolio with the assumption that it won't be printed. Also individuals will view them on small monitors or even on a tablet (I do most of my portfolio review on the train), but here when it comes down to the final rounds the committee looks at them on a big screen in a conference room.  You really can't design for a certain viewing size.

in this case it doesn’t even matter though. 11x34 is so stupidly wide and poorly proportioned that to properly view any images (or read any text at all), the reviewers will have to zoom in on every page, regardless of how big the screen is.

not to mention that the OP has not given the most basic consideration to the portfolio’s audience. that kind of oversight speaks volumes about an applicant’s ability as a designer (and it’s not like the content is anything special either). this is not remotely on par with what will be accepted to the m.arch ii at the gsd.

Recommended File Set-up:
Pages: 30 max (Cover pages or table of contents don't count)
File Size: 40MB max
Page Layout: 12” x 18” or A3, two-page spreads should be combined into one page.

Correct me if I’m wrong but according to the GSD website, A3 (or
11x17) pages can be formatted as spreads, correct?

That's correct. I went to the open house in November and during the Q&A session they said that spreads were fine. Honestly the formatting probably won't hurt your chances very much if at all.

Phew, that’s a relief to hear, thanks for the helpful insight! I wanted to attend the open house but my work commitments prevented me from going sadly.

this is just blatant false information. the spread (not each page) should be approximately 12x18 or A3. see how those proportions are reasonably similar to a computer screen? the individual pages should be closer to 12x9 or A4. you completely failed to follow the directions.

Jchen I hope you get in with a full ride just because _place_beyond_the_splines is so hell bent on making everyone as unhappy as he is

Thanks for the support proximity and also to the other lovely posters who have defended me! I’ve seen his past comments and I just wonder what kind of sad, lonely life does one lead to just incessantly put down others online in order to feel better about themselves
...

Agreed. It's not that format size is an unreasonable constructive criticism but to vehemently argue that it's a deal breaker is a little ridiculous. Maybe if you were teetering on the threshold of getting accepted vs rejected would the page size swing on way or another but in 95% of the cases I don't think someone who got accepted to the GSD (or any high end school) would get rejected if their page size was a more horizontal proportion. It's more about the work, your essay, recommendations, etc.

Admittedly if the text is unreadable without zooming, then I think that is going to be a negative as, credit where credit is do, Mr. Thesplines is correct that the committees aren't going to zoom in to read and if they can't read they're not going to understand some of your thought processes or motivations, but there are ways of putting these things in a constructive and helpful manner instead of intentionally trying to put people down as a coping mechanism for whatever issues you're dealing with on a personal level.

Good luck on your apps

i'll be sure to pass all of this along to my colleagues that will be reviewing and rejecting you.

I can't say for the GSD. In my experience at other universities: in the early phases (when large numbers of applicants are culled out) the time that the committee spends on any one portfolio is in the range of zero to 1 minutes - and nobody's reading anything. But prior to those meetings the portfolios are circulated among the committee members, so some may have spent more time on them individually. In later phases, when it comes down to cutting pretty much equally good candidates - the ones that are a little less than must-haves but still very strong - that's when some get more attention - >5 minutes in some cases. You could look at it two ways: you don't really want to be one of the people we're scrutinizing that carefully - because it means you're on the edge. But, if you are on the edge then it might really matter what your text says.