it isn't usually a good idea to put work projects, since they aren't your own design. especially since you just made collages, not what was the content of the collage.

for non-architecture marchs they look more for artistic and design abilities in painting, photography, scultpure, etc., not really oh hey i worked an architecture firm. that can just stay on your resume with a description of the work you did.

on the portfolio guidelines on the schools sites they say what they are looking for, so i would stick with that. and i would definitely stick with original and more interesting work for your portfolio.

That's what I was thinking. Thanks a million. I've got some ideas for those extra 187 square inches...

I disagree, if you think it is good work/will improve your port and you produced it then put it in. give credit to the firm and thats that. even design work.

@pigeon: The program is what I'm most proud of, everything else was 'here is the template, here are the renderings, make it look like this.' How would I put a document into a portfolio? So far, I've relied heavily on graphics, so should I photograph the program in an informative while artistic manner and dedicate a page to that? Should I copy and paste from Word? I would like to include it, but as I said, real estate in this thing is a hot commodity and a picture of a document seems... silly?
Or, I could break up the organic grid I've got with a highly organized collage of all my boards at like 50% opacity for a background, and then put on top my most interesting board and a shot of the program...

I'll see if I can't rig up a demo. Thanks for the debate.

I vote to not put it in. It sounds more like office work than design, maybe I am wrong here. If its just office work they don't care. They want to see how you can be creative essentially.
Its like cad drawings. It's not something they want to see in a portfolio for school. For a job this gets debatable but for schools I doubt they would be happy you had a internship already. They would most likely ignore that completely I know some professors who would go further and actually be less happy to see that.
Personally I think the experience of the internship and what you saw while you were there will be valuable to you as you go through the march program though.

It did definitely convince me that I wasn't interested in architecture solely for the glitz, glam and title, but rather for the whole kit and kaboodle, bidness and all. But I see what you're saying, it neither affected my tastes as a designer nor my process. All it did was show me, 'Hey, I could do the corporate thing and not get my knickers in a bundle.' I could see Berkeley not giving two rabbit poops about how I felt wearing slacks and sitting in a cubicle... At least not those who would be looking at my portfolio... How much space should it take up in my statement though? It was often times drudgery, changing lightbulbs, hanging pictures, stapling, binding, mounting, printing, and printing, and printing... Should I basically say 'I'm just as ready for the world after grad school as I am for grad school itself."?

Thanks again.

I think schools are looking for all kinds of skills and among these, the ability to organize and represent data is kind of crucial.
Now, nlw, you're most proud of the program for this reason probably.
I would take some time and look around for program diagrams and try to reorganize what you did in the form of a graphic diagram. You will go through this exercise a lot in architecture school, so I would include that as evidence of analytical skill.

That's true. ckl makes a good point that part of the portfolio process is to see your abilities to organize information and complete the task of putting a variety of information together in a graphic way. I always thought of the portfolio itself as the representation of that ability but I suppose it could be supplemented with other examples you've done. I guess its tough to say for sure without actually seeing what you did.

I would leave out the drudgery, like light bulb changing lol. Perhaps a story about finding something positive from the reality of the architecture process. Problem is you'll be pretty detached from that reality in school, for a reason. They want to push you to think about these ideas PAST your cubicle so that when you do have a chance to go further with an idea later in your career you have the skills developed to make the most of it. You probably won't ever use these skills for the first 10 yrs of your career but they will be important later on.

What they don't want is for you to be "just as ready for the world after grad school as I am for grad school itself." They want to expand your views of architecture and what it can accomplish. They expect you to have a changed outlook. If you haven't rethought anything after grad school what was the point really?

For their own ego somewhat they don't really care to turn out someone who they could view as content pushing out average corporate cad drawings. They want graduates of their school to change the world so they can market you later! That's only half a joke.

I think you would be better off describing what things you look to develop. Talk about what makes you excited and passionate about architecture or more generally design. Don't talk about how you are all ready set to work in architecture, or how you aren't going to change.

show us!