I think 3 projects should suffice, especially since you have that page limit to contend with... just make sure to include concept sketches and round out the ideas.

All of your projects appear to be very diverse and speak about a personal passion for design, which I think speaks louder than design work generated solely for school.

And that shoe outta tape sounds cool... why don't you include it as a 'warm-up' to the rest, or as a happy ending?

Just my 2 cents...

Good call, I'll stick the shoe in 'unofficially'.

It's getting to done, this should be an official critique thread quite soon.

I really don't like the 12 page thing that berkeley does. I guess I understand the reasoning for it......to sift out the superfluous clutter and force you to isolate your strongest work.....but isn't that what a portfolio is???? and isn't that how you seperate good ones from bad ones? It just seems kind of like....

hey we want to be different....print 12 pages on paper only made before 1954 and then crumple one sheet.....the others must be moist...not wet and have no corners.

ha...sorry just a little annoyed

Okay, here's the 95% version. I would greatly appreciate any input on making it 100%. It's missing a final page, I think. Maybe not.

A quick recap:
Econ major.

www.megaupload.com/?d=H5NHABGO

format = good. nice, simple, clean, organized

mixing of image text (blurry) and non-image text (non-blurry) = nah

Yea, not exactly sure how to predict the overall file size when compressing individual slides from Photoshop. Any advice? I can make the overall file about three times bigger, but trial and error is frusterating. Thanks.

NLW, not sure how good my opinion is on these things but...
I think the shoe feels really random at the table of contents, I understand that you don't want it to be it's own "project" and saw that comment by Sbeth, but it's so random if people don't know the context. It looks pretty cool from that one photo, maybe you should go ahead and include a spread on it, provided the concept around it is well thought out.
On some of your descriptions, be sure to only include info that's really pertinent. The Ukulele is really cool and your description of the work and client interaction that went into it goes over really well, but does the acceptance committee really need to know if was for your girlfriend? Or where you say you made nine instruments, four for clients, and you're only going to show two... It just seems a little forced. Maybe you could do a spread showing a few images of more of the instruments (in your intro) and then just hone in on the two in more detail. Really incredible work on those btw, and the sketches to go with them are well executed and help me understand what's going on.
Also, on the third project, you bolded a couple sentences in your write-up that pertain the most to your concept (I think?). It's really hard for me to tell if those are bolded or not (might be that resolution issue). If they are, burying your main concepts in paragraphs like that can make them hard to find. Maybe you could look at the write-ups one more time and cut out just a little bit more of the fat?
Overall, I like the legibility of your graphics and layout. That section on the last project, showing the structure and spaces in your design is nice.
Good luck!