@ Lance

I sent my stuff out about a week ago to GSAPP and just submitted my application today. I am also assuming it's fine and pretty common. Probably just makes it more convenient for them to process you portfolio after you've submitted your application (not convenient for us though--just finished my personal statement this morning). Actually noticed on the app that it said my portfolio was received, but GRE scores were not received--which is weird since those supposedly got sent out way before the portfolio. Wondering if that's the case for others as well?

ALSO, to anyone applying to UPENN...

Do you know if there is any confirmation from them regarding the portfolio submittal? I uploaded it about a week ago, but didn't submit my application until today. I am assuming it's okay, but can't help feeling paranoid that maybe it did not go through or I need to have uploaded during the same session of my submittal. Is there any way to check on the status before I attempt to call them tomorrow?

any idea what happens if a recommender submits after the due date of dec 15? is it possible ?

Karimi-

Depends on the school. Some school stated that getting the recommenders by a certain date is your responsibility.

@Jason_sf

Same thing happened to me. I emailed admissions and asked them about that and they said there is no confirmation and no way to preview the portfolio.  If you were unsure of whether or not it went through, and uploaded it a few times they said the last upload will be the one on file.  Pretty stupid system if you ask me.

RandomMistakes and anyone else applying to UTSOA,

UTSOA does not need to receive the hard copy of the portfolio until the deadline of 1/6/12 even though the application is due 12/15/11. Unless I am mistaken?....

I took the GRE back in April and listed the schools I needed the scores to be sent to at that time. Is there any way to follow up and verify that the schools have actually received the scores? Or should I just trust the ETS system and not worry about it?

VMarie, You are correct about the deadline for UTSOA, I just wanted to get them printed and mailed all at once. As for GRE scores, some schools, like UT, have an application status check after you submit the app. So Austin will check the scores off the list when they receive them. I would trust the ETS, it worked out for all my scores.

Gooooooooood morning

Narddog reporting....

Just finished GSD and COLUMBIA....not feeling relieved yet ironically. Anyone else find Columbia's site a mess and their 600kb upload limit a nightmare, especially for the tax reports? How is everyone else hanging?

VMarie, you should have also received a confirmation letter/email that your GREs were indeed sent. As long as you have the correct school code, you're fine.

i've yet to finish my portfolio.. one small project left to do and put finishing touches on the cover pages, etc. i'm targeting to mail out everything by monday, hopefully. we'll see!

on top of that, i'd have to move in to a new place this weekend. haha exciting times ;)

where are you applying to Morgan2sims? 

@batman, i'm applying to pratt, gsapp & sci arc.

aside from yale, where else are you applying to?

woo.  finished the GRE/formwork (cept that berkeley essay)/portfolio finally.  breathe. 

as for GREs, i think all the schools take a little time to match scores received to your application, but it'll get done.  the scores took a while to update to verified even though I took the test a while before I started the application, but it eventually came up.

@dionysus: are you as annoyed as I am about Berkeley having two essays?  I'm trying to pry apart one great personal statement and figure out what parts are history and what parts are purpose, without totally screwing the meaning of both.

Do any other schools require more than just the one personal statement?  This is the first I've run into it, and it's obnoxious.

@Tim, UMN also has essay req's in addition to the personal statement like "Describe a place that is meaningful and state why you find it meaningful."

@byen01: That's not quite as bad, since it's a totally different topic.  My beef with Berkeley is they require a "Personal History" and a "Statement of Purpose."   ... but it's like, well, my reasons for my chosen 'Purpose' in grad school are entirely dependent on my history, so this is annoying.

@TimDudley

i know what you mean.   I doubt it's going to be a huge deal in the end though, like GREs and GPAs, so focus on a good portfolio and statement of purpose, i'm guessing.

and that 12pg limit for berkeley is annoying too!  thats like two projects! 

I ended up doing basically a second, consolidated portfolio for Berkeley & managed to squeeze 5-projects into 12 pages (1 spread each, 2 spreads for a large senior studio).  It was not easy, but I think it came out alright.

Niall, I don't know who you are but that was incredible. Bravo good sir.

Is it appropriate to put "LEED Green Associate" after your name on the cover of your portfolio?

no

@ Laila, just put that in your resume.

k thanks. On my resume for internships i generally put it after my name. On my resume for grad school should I put it as a line item under accomplishments instead? 

Also, I saw this in earlier discussion but wanted to be clear. Digital submissions of portfolios will most likely be downloaded PDFs and viewed 1 page at a time? (this is important to me, mine is not meant as spreads)

Is simple Kinkos printing with spiral binding frowned upon?

@ LailaAmmar

That's only for GSD. Different schools have different ways of submitting portfolio..

@Laila, I'd think that even if the GSD (and UVa, among other schools that use dig. uploads) viewed the pdfs page by page (which would make sense, seeing as their req'd page dimensions are formatted for a 15" monitor), that's not to say that they wouldn't be curious to see how your portolio reads as a spread. Why aren't you treating the online portolio as you would a bound portfolio?

As for LEED GA, up to you where you put it in your resume. There's no right answer.

@App, as long as it's dec quality, can't see why kinkos + spiral bound is frowned upon. Just affix a container of cavier, or maybe a mink.

I logged in just to laugh at that.

So, anyone else applying without a lick of internship experience?

@byen01

PDF portfolio and printed portfolio are two different things. Unless they are looking at the PDF from an ipad, the admission committee would need to scroll down with a mouse. Not from left to right, like ipad and books. There is no spread in a PDF portfolio. You'd only look at each page one by one. It's not like issuu where the PDF you uploaded will magically turn into a book. 

@qtip: i've been doing my layout in indesign, and since i'm using the option for facing pages, i can also opt to save my pdfs as spreads, not individual pages. if you use this option, the admissions committees would be looking at issuu-like spreads.

@npats

That's a well made portfolio. The graphic is really nice. It's easy on the eyes. I noticed some continuity from the first page up to the last. Your process seems to be really strong and definitely unique to american educated architects. I also noticed that you worked for Foster, but I didn't see any of the work that you did while working there on your portfolio.

frangipani,

I tried that, but when I view the PDF, the pages still flip vertically. I thought that the only way to make PDF pages flip horizontally like a book/issuu is to turn it into flash.

Also, my concern of saving it as spread is that the viewers would view two pages instead of one. The portfolio requirement states that maximum 18x12 for each PDF page. Wouldn't the admission committee think that I'm using 36x12 for each page?

qtip - i think i misunderstood. you're right about the horizontal flipping; i just meant that if you designed a two-page spread then you'd want it save as spreads and not individual pages.

as for page sizes, again you're right - i was just thinking of berkeley, who has no size limit and lets you count a two-page spread as one page. The GSD would probably think you hadn't read the instructions properly!

is there any reason why you want your pages to flip horizontally like a book?

frangipani

I'm just answering byen01 question about treating online portfolio and bound portfolio as the same. Because they are viewed differently, it doesn't make sense to treat them as the same. Although, it all depends on the school.

Personally, it will also be convenient for me because the other school that I'm applying to also wants a bound portfolio. In the end, I'm probably going to end up making 2 portfolios.

@npats

I don't want to seem like a dick for saying this, but your portfolio doesn't seem to match your awards and work experience.  Don't get me wrong, it has beautiful graphics and layout, but I can't find a complete work of architecture anywhere in your portfolio.  Every page seems like a diagram leading to nothing in the end. I can't ever get a full image of your projects because all the model photos/renderings are like 1 square inch thumbnails...

@npats

I looked through your other portfolios and I really enjoyed your 2nd year Arch portfolio much more.  The thought process was much more clear and distinct and it was easy to understand the final outcome of your projects.

@npats

One of the best portfolios I've seen, I think you're probably going to be getting in anywhere you like. Question tho, why MArch if you've finished your MA in the UK ? Or did I just misunderstand ?

@qtip, I was more speculating as to the different ways an admiss committee could flip through a portfolio; perhaps it's just the graphic designer in me that would actually want to do quickly peruse through to see how spreads are laid out, just to confirm that the portfolio has any visual-information hierarchy throughout.

Also you can totally view pdfs like a book (a la Issuu)! It's under View>Pg Display>2 page scrolling, and also do 'show cover'.

26 / M / B.A Universidad Católica de Chile / Currently Working at www.gt2P.com

GRE: Q700 V420 W4.5 

TOEFL ibt 112

CV http://juanpablougarte.info/cv.php

Portfolio (crappy resolution) http://juanpablougarte.info/MIT%20Media%20Lab%20Portfolio.pdf (14mb, might take a while to load)

That "juanpablougarte.info" thing was supossed to be my website in order to contact teachers prior to application, which never happened (basicly, because the website was not ready when it should have been).

I've applied to MIT Media Lab, MIT SMArchS, SCI-Arc March II, Harvard GSD March II. I'm also considering applying to Michigan, USC and Carnegie Mellon.

@byen01

I tried that and it works great, but you'd need to set it up every single time you open a PDF. I doubt anyone would bother doing it every single time when they're looking at thousands of portfolios. Thank you for the help, though.

i too have a question about uploading/ printing the same portfolio. Some colleges ask for an identical version to be uploaded. I have designed my portfolio to be viewed as spreads (letter size page). So when I upload a digital version, should I export the pdf (from indesign) as spreads?

If i make a pdf with regular pages, the spreads become incoherent and the visuals lose impact. 

@sg18

Export it as spreads. Be careful and leave one blank page at the begging in for the spreads to match (I suposse if you are working on indd you've already noticed this).

@jpugarte1  Yup, everything matches. Thanks! 

wow, the number of posts are quite low compare to last year.. hopefully it means its less competitive this year. good luck everyone!

I'm hoping the same thing. Last year there was over 1300 posts compared to 200 so far

Or we're asking 1100 less stupid questions. Evolution, for science!

**fewer, not less. I guess I just contributed to the stupid grammar mistakes pool...

I doubt thats it, but I still find it strange.

hey all - one question: 

i'm exporting my portfolio for yale to a pdf right now, but am not sure whether or not to export it in spreads - most of my graphics are in spreads, but depending on what they're viewing it on, i would export it differently. When i tested it out on ISSUU, exporting in spreads made the viewing really weird - would anyone have any advice for this? 

Thanks so much! 

And happy applying in our hopefully smaller applicant pool. i guess we won't know til the end huh?