8 pages single or double sided?

I was thinking about 4-5 double sided. I could stretch it to 6 or 7, but charcoal is my tool for drawings and they usually look better when scaled down. Paintings can be scaled down as well, and (just my personal opinion) it takes an incredible amount of time to review all of this stuff. I feel like if I was working on a committee, I just want to know that the person has a sincere passion for architecture, and developed some of the necessary visual communication skills to suceed in x program.  Obviously, a lot of schools wil have many applicants and then it becomes how much does the applicanrt understand design process, how creative is the applicant in problem solving etc. but even still I think it can be done in a relatively short concise portfolio. Am I wrong here, I certainly am not trying to be lazy, just practical.

I don't think you're wrong. Quality counts - not quantity.

While I don't think I've ever come across a portfolio that short when looking through accepted portfolios at Open House events, tours, etc., (sortest was probably a portfolio only of photographs, 12 single pages) I would agree with TeaBone and say quality. However, because of the shortened length, you have to really make the overall layout and accompanying text stand out.

What do your charcoal drawings lose when scaled down vs. scaled up? For your metal sculpture, do you have process drawings/photographs? Consider the spacing between the images, breathing room, etc.

As an aside, I always thought that 20-24 pages was considered an average length for M.Arch 1 portfolios. Penn has a max length of 20 pages.

Byen, Thank you for the response.

Although I am not applying to Berkeley, I have heard that they limit portfolio to 12 pages single sided as well.  I'm not sure if they still do that. My charcoal drawings generally look better when scaled down because I tend to draw a bit heavy, and so even my mid values are pretty rich. I think for graphite, you can lose some character by scaling down, but charcoal is a bit different in my opinion. And yeah I do a decent amount of process documented for my metal sculpture...my favorite part about it is actually the process, and craft involved and not so much the sculpture. Even then I can do it in a two page spread on landscape layout. The only issue would be with an older member of the committee who had poor eyesight!

Yea, don't make the old people work to read your portfolio, esp. if they've been cooped up in a poorly ventilated room looking at 100+ portfolios prior.