Art School Toolkit: How to be a Stellar Applicant

Hello everybody. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us today. Today we'll be talking about how to be a stellar applicant and we are doing today by Osmond Ori who is an admissions counselor at Pennsylvania College of Art and Design and an alum of Pennsylvania College of Art and Design and myself who is Julian Nichols and I am the emissions of that in program coordinator, also Nolina of Pennsylvania College of Art and Design. If you do have any questions during this session, please feel free to enter them into the chat area on the.

Bottom right corner of the screen and we will get to them during the Q&A session, but for now.

Go ahead.

Alright, hello everyone. As Julia said before, we will be going through some little tips and tricks to be a stellar applicant here when applying the pecat as a whole. Just to start off our main motto within the schools to see differently, we try and cultivate that experience where all of our students are open and able to, you know, bring their art out so to speak, and bring their vision to life overall.

I'm getting into being a seller applicant. First, I'm going to start with the admissions requirements you can apply through our website at pcad.edu or through the common app on. The common app typically streamlines the application process a little bit by including your high school transcripts and adding a personal essay prompt in there when you do the common app, but if you feel feel like it, you can apply either.

For the portfolio portion, it's 8 to 10 pieces of recent and recently finished work, I should say. When we say that it should be within the last year of you making it. So for example.

If you make something as a junior and then at the same time next year you start applying to the school, that piece will still be eligible to be inside your portfolio. If it's off by a couple of months, it's OK, just as long as it's made within a year of of that time period. We don't really want to see stuff from sophomore year, foundation year, 8th grade. It makes more sense. We want to see a progression of what you're doing.

As well as that, two of these pieces must be from direct observation. What we mean by that is if you draw a cup sitting in front of you, or a landscape or portraiture of yourself or someone in front of you, that would count as a piece from observation.

One more thing to add to the portfolio piece is that we are looking for a wide variety of range and abilities and mediums. You can have a focus if you like, but we also want to see that you're kind of trying to get out of your comfort zone using different materials, media, even going and trying different disciplines like photography, sculpture, things like that. Just kind of diversify your portfolio as much as possible while also staying within your your own specialized field and showing us what you really want to do when coming into this.

Oh, lastly we have your 250 to 500 personal statement or the common app essay as I mentioned before, generally with the personal statement, if you apply to the website, it's asking you about your determination to get into the school, why you like art, kind of telling your story and laying it out for us about what you want to do here at the school and why you love it so much. I'm not this one particular, but why you love art. So lastly, we also have your official high school and or college transcripts.

That the college transcripts would apply if you could have your associates degree you coming from a two year program into our full-time BFA program and want to transfer in, and then your official high school transcript can be during your final year in high school. But then we would also need the official version once you are done and graduated and has all your final grades on it.

No.

You.

Just to clarify really fast, sorry husband, if you have any college courses that you've taken, whether it's through to enrollment or you're in the midst of a semester college, we would still need those college transcripts as well. Another reminder, common app is only for first time students, so if you are a transfer student you do not want to apply through common app. You can apply through our website though. But yes, comment up is only for first time students. Go ahead.

So start off with being a stellar applicant. What stands out to us as a team within admissions, being proactive is also one of them. I'll get into the details of each one of these as we go through the presentation, but I'll list these all out for now. Active participation during events that can be events we hold online like this one, or events we actually hold in person, asking questions that could be via e-mail, phone call or at any one of our admissions events.

I'm following instructions or attempting to follow instructions, turning items, items in earlier on time, so making sure you're not missing deadlines, things like that. And then also the most important one, showing excitement I'll get into. Like I said, I'll get all these in the little nitty gritty details, but it is imperative that you show us that you really, really do want to come here, you want to get all those materials and you want to participate in what kind of has to offer. So going into the first point.

What does it mean to be proactive? Essentially, this is your your kind of first step into the college process of turning in items early on, being on time with things, responding to emails that we would send out, whether it's from a prompt we send out or something that we communicate individually for you for our emails.

Understanding and meeting deadlines. Like understanding when those deadlines are coming up and making sure we don't need anything else from you. Making sure on top of things, if we do need something from you, you respond promptly and do those things on time, and then also asking questions whether you know you're thinking of them or you're waiting until a problem arises. So if maybe you have preliminary questions or you have questions later on that you didn't think of early or earlier, when you're talking to some person around an event, you just want to make sure you ask those questions.

Before it gets too late or before deadline hits or something like that so we can iron out those problems and make sure that you get everything you need and everything answered that you need, whether it's from parents or you as a student.

Oh, sorry, and in tips that there's some tips to be helped with being proactive. You should always check your e-mail that you apply on. Some students do apply with their school e-mail. We would recommend applying with an e-mail that you know you're always going to check. So just in case if you graduate, it gets there, your school e-mail gets shut down or you don't have access to it. That way you'll always be able to respond to us rather than having to go back into the school and figure out a way to get access to those emails as well.

Umm.

Also getting us know that you're responding to emails, even just letting us know that you've seen it, you confirmed it. You're letting us know that you're proactively on engaging with us as your admissions counselor and letting us know that you're still involved in the process and that you're not just gone, so to speak.

Other tip, marking down any important dates, so important dates would be like our discovery days that we have at the school and a deadline days that happen for whether it's housing or deadlines to apply. Any special events that we might hold or offer. As far as scholarship awards go, like any deadlines like that, just making sure those are all in in the back of your mind as well as keeping up to tab with any application process deadlines as well and then lastly once you.

Why? You will have an app what's called an application portal. I would say check it almost every day if you can just to see if there's any new updates or any new information that we do send you. This kind of goes hand in hand with checking your e-mail every day. So if you check your e-mail, check your portal. Those are two steps out of the way and making sure you don't have anything you need or anything else like that.

I will also say one thing that helped me as a student is with marking down those dates is making sure that they are prevalent to my vision. So either putting it on like a fridge, calendar or even marketing into my planner or even setting reminders for my phone. That definitely helps me kind of remind myself to turn in these applications or anything that the deadline.

It's coming up, so make sure that you're keeping in mind that and what system in the sense works best for you.

And do it. I totally agree with you. Making a visual reminder helps a lot, whether it's stickers or posted notes or hanging something on the fridge or Julia mentioned like any of those little things that help you remind yourself, hey, I need to get this done. Do it as much as possible. Moving on to events, I mentioned some of our.

Once in the beginning, being memorable events lets us know a lot of different information about you. If you're very social, you're asking a lot of questions. You're very eager to get to know us as a staff and faculty. Visiting helps a lot, because now we're we're know you're one step closer to being really serious about attending the college. We love to talk to all the students, so do not be afraid of myself or Julia or any of the other admissions, counselor. We just really love to engage with you when you guys are actually in person.

Especially after this year, it's better to have events in person and talk to you and do. And it shows us that you're actually doing research, whether it's you visiting our college or many other colleges. It just lets us know that you're really serious about this. You want to know more information, you want to learn about us, and it helps to get up, get to know us on a personal level, whether it's the admissions department or the other departments. And it helps us get to know you. So if you wouldn't like that, at the bottom here we have a little tip. You can go to peak out at Edu slash visit.

And that's why we have all of our events listed and you can register for those accordingly if you like, depending on your schedule.

Also with events, one thing that also helps us connecting with your counselor at events outside of our large events like our Discovery Days, Accepted Student day, we do have national portfolio days around the year as well that we attend as admissions counselors. One thing you can do is schedule personal meetings with your admissions counselor. I will say that's probably one of the better opportunities for us to get to know you whether it's reviewing a portfolio, answering any of your questions.

Doing a follow up after a major event that you have.

Or if you just want to show us some of your art that you're working on, like, those are like the best meetings, because now we're getting even more inside. Look into what you're doing, what your process is, and the more chances we get to talk to you and your family, the better it is for us to get to know you and help you. And it honestly makes the transition a lot smoother as far as going through the application process and just getting to know us and, you know, being in touch with us and honestly, it alleviates a lot of pressure off you as a student because the more you get to know us honestly, you get more comfortable as a student and talking to people you don't know.

I'm so it helps. It honestly helps doing those one on ones. So don't be afraid at all. Well, we usually provide our information, our numbers and texting information as well. So there's multiple avenues to reach out to us and in that way, whichever when you're comfortable with.

And I will say also that our admissions counselors love to meet you as well.

Your whole team is very social, surprisingly, but they love getting the chance to talk to you and love getting the chance to see you at these events, but also they've remember you as well. So if we see you at a college fair or like high school visit, that is something that they remember and it again, like Osman said, it does help in the process to remember who you are and to get to know you a little bit more better as well.

Wholeheartedly agree, Julie. OK, so on to the next point I did. I've been mentioning little hints here and there throughout the presentation about asking questions. Asking questions is never a bad idea. There are never any stupid questions or silly questions to ask us. We hear them all the time, but we are more than willing to answer anything that you have to say. Nothing is silly. Trust me, it's a new process for a lot of people and going through this process can be a little tasking, specially when you just graduate.

Where you're going to see, you have a lot more things to do. We love to answer questions. It's one of my favorite things to do. I answer anything and I gotta talk for hours. That's like my jam. So it also informs us that you're actually trying to gather information about the college and you're not just you're it's reinforces your seriousness that I actually coming to the college. Excuse me. Oh my God, excuse me. Essentially, it also reinforces your your.

Your attention to detail. Like you're taking down those notes, whether it's your parents or yourself asking those questions. It lets us know and keeps us on our toes about what you really want from the college and what you want to do.

And I'm trying to think they also help us identify some potential problems. If you have any, like, let's say you have accommodations, you need, you know, certain things for rooming. You need certain things within the classroom. That also helps us identify those things early so we can set up meetings with other departments so that you are ready to go when you get here. And it's not like a surprise out of nowhere. Like I said, we love questions. We love them. We love them and we love them. I will say that over and over again.

OK. All right. Couple more things. So following instructions or trying to I mentioned this before, it can be a little bit tasking as well to follow instructions when you're a senior. Let me a little bit easier when you're a junior. But paying attention to instructions and submitting items on time shows us a lot more about who you are and what you think it shows. You know, following those rules and steps that we ask of you during the admissions process lets us know your timely organized detail oriented.

And it also lets us know that you're going to be a good fit for taking direction from faculty if you're struggling with something and you can take direction from us. It also like when you're going to be great once you get into the classroom and actually you have to, you know, get constructive criticism, have critiques and things like that and able to improve upon what you're already doing.

One quick tip of the bottom here or an example I should say is when you're submitting your submitting your portfolio, commenting in the the the portfolio section, it tells us a lot about your artwork. Kind of really gives us insight about who you are and why you want to be the things you do. That's why we ask for those descriptions. It's a lot easier to read a person and an artist about their work when we have like a maybe a two or three sentence description rather than oh it's just.

Pencil and graphite, and that's it. The size of it. It gives us a lot more information when you actually write about your pieces and go into detail about those things. I'm going to give us an insight into your style as well. Lets us know your voice, let's get to know you, like I said, and really lets us bond even more through that process. So.

And I will add on to that. Following the instructions, there are a lot more opportunities in case you are say from California or somebody someplace far away that you can't come and visit us in person or attend one of our events. That will give you a chance to kind of let us know a little bit about yourself, but also let us know a little bit about what you're thinking. Especially going into the portfolio commenting section, it is known that artists and everybody will have a different perspective.

And a piece of art when they're looking at it because of the different perspectives that we live. So giving us a little bit of details of what you are attempting to do and or what your thought process is allows us to see it as the way that you want it to be seen, but also give us more sense of who you are.

Agreed.

Last thing, most important one, be yourself. Don't ever change yourself. As far as the application process goes, we got a lot of unique people and a lot of unique individuals coming into our school and that's probably the best part about us as an institution. We love diversity, essentially people being themselves to their artwork and talking while talking to us and getting to know you. The be honest, be upfront, be yourself. Ask questions.

I'm sure it's your potential in your artwork and just have fun with the entire process. We try and make it as fun as possible, but there's always little things that are like, oh, the parents have to do this or you have to do that, but we generally try and make it as fun as possible and as smooth as possible. Honestly, we just want nothing more than you succeed succeed. I can't say that word succeed as much as possible. So that's from the application process as you start to the portfolio, meeting with us many times as you like.

And then getting over the hump of being accepted and depositing and things like that, it's one of those things where we take a lot of pride in our students and the students who are applying to our institution. So we want to make it a process like that's enjoyable, smooth and relaxing the whole way through lastly.

Sorry.

I'll ask you one quick thing really fast.

Even if you find out that maybe peak heads not a good fit, that is OK, we definitely want to make sure that you succeed, not only as a student who is applying to be happy as a person as well. So if there is something that comes up or something that just kind of makes it feel like, you know, I'm not sure if I can attend this or something like that. We as an office will help you through that. And like I said, succeeding as a person is our top priority.

For you. So we just want to make sure that that is known.

The.

You're under your point, Trulia. Going back to being proactive. Always, always communicate, whether it's through e-mail or texting or phone call or showing up in person and talking to us. Always, always communicate, no matter if it's the good. If you just like Julius mentioned, if you decide that peak at isn't the place for you, if you want to take a gap year, if you've changed your mind about anything, just please let us know. I promise we won't be mad. It's it's better for us to know where your.

Where you stand personally than for us to, you know, trying to keep you going through the process and you're deciding, oh, I'm not just, I'm not ready for this yet. So always, always communicate.

Ohh good.

Yeah.

We yeah, we are always here to help and our whole office has been through this before. Some of us also have been through the peak of classes before. A lot of us have been through the peak at process before. But we totally understand how challenging and how like a bit scary it is to apply to colleges and make this decision for your future and for your future career. So communication is key. We definitely do understand and we are always here to help, not only is it our.

But we also again do care about your well-being and also your success.

I'm sorry, I apologize. So lastly, if you would like to follow any of our social media pages or go to our web page, web page and check us out, they're all pcad.edu except for Instagram and our Twitter account that is pcad under score Edu. But other than that, Julie, I will hand it over to you. That is the end of our small presentation about being a stellar applicant. If we have any questions, Julia, I'm here to answer.

Awesome. So it looks like we don't have any questions at this time, especially considering that you were very thorough with your presentation. But like Osman said, if there are any questions you can definitely reach out to us. I put our e-mail in the chat area as well, so feel free to reach out to us either by e-mail or phone, and we'd be more than happy to answer any other questions.

But thank you, Osman for joining us today to talk about how to be a stellar applicant. And thank you everybody who joined live and or is watching this in the future. If there's any questions, reach out and we look forward to seeing you in your application. Have a wonderful day everybody.