you only have artistic work and no architectural drawings?
shame on you. you need everything you need.

since you are not arch major, u will apply as track 3 anywhere.
schools don't expect architectural drawings from you.

maybe other kind archinectors will give wiser advices.

show them what you have. if they don't like it, you don't have to give them all your money!

when i applied for grad school in "program 3", i was advised not to include any arch work because they would compare those renderings to other candidates with an arch background

the point of the portfolio is to exhibit your creativity and intelligence

no sleep- ive been looking at eveyone's portfolios online getting very intimidated on how heavy they were with architecture work. yes i am definitely applying for arch program 3. thanks for you comments

beyond basic drawings skills, any work that shows a more sophisticated understanding of 3-dimensional space will go over very well. i'm talking about sculpture, installation pieces, and digital media. you have a great background for a three year program; show off your skills and don't worry about not having any "architecture" proper.

are there threads where people have posted their non-arch background portfolios?

sweet jesus, smellen. thank god you posted that. I've been feeling the same way about my portfolio (even though it doesn't completely exist yet) because I'm in a very similar situation. And the portfolios posted here are definitely intimidating.

If you search for long enough, you'll find that the advice that's been doled out consistently boils down to what sparch, nosleep and jafidler have posted above. That is, don't fake it, and don't stress it. Show them the best of what you've got, make sure you present it well and follow all the regulations that each school outlines for applicants (you'll find most of them are very similar). Other than that, they don't expect you to blow them away with architecture...and you won't be able to. They want you to blow them away with your potential, as shown through your art (or whatever else you choose to include).

If it makes you feel better, I was a psych/econ major and worked in finance, then advertising (since graduating in 2004). No BFA for me. In my portfolio I'm going to focus mostly on my photography, because it's been my primary artistic outlet.

Schools offer MArch program for people without an architecture background specifically because they are expecting people like us to apply. If anything, our portfolios will be a breath of fresh air to the admissions committees who are sick of looking at people's crappy and over-explained renderings.

you know, i should have looked at the date on smellen's posts.

what an ass i am.

If your background was in the arts, put in nothing but art work. Don't even attempt to put in any architecture work (i.e. autocad plans, cheesy digital rendering, hand drafted images of your parents house, etc). Chances are, you probably don't know enough about architecture yet -- so what you don't know won't kill you.

However, if you have art that deals with an architectural subject matter put it in. Also, they love to see free hand drawings, and it could be of anything.

I'm telling you this based on personal experience. I had an arts background in undergrad, and I was given some good advice on what to put in the portfolio. I found that they really liked figure drawings, sketches, paintings, sculpture, and photography.

Just don't put boring things in it. And not too much writing. Titles and small captions would be good enough. It's all about the images and graphics.

Archmed & ripomatic-

thank you very much for your responses. the portfolios posted on here have been very overwhelming for an applicant with a non-arch background.

I suppose im still a little uneasy with my video/installation work making up the majority of my creative endeavors, rather than paintings, photos, etc. I am doing some drawings now to supplement this and to show that i do have free hand drawing ability.

its good to hear i dont need to include any architecture work, and in fact (which came to a surprise to me) its in my favor not to!

any advice on binding?

thank you again! this process is rough....

smellen, you should definitely use your video pieces in your portfolio if you think its a strong point. Most schools don't want DVD's, so you should take screen grabs/stills of your videos and maybe back them up with a succinct explanation.
No reason to let good work go to waste.

med.: "they really liked figure drawings, sketches, paintings, sculpture, and photography."

That's good to know.

I'm still a bit confused though. I've seen a lot of MArch I applicants [if I'm not mistaken] with architectural stuff. But MArch I admission committees REALLY DON'T want you to have architectural stuff, right? That stuff should be for MArch II (unless the architectural stuff isn't good enough for MArch II, which I'm guessing may have been the case for these MArch I applicants ...).

What's track 3? Is that equivalent to MArch I?