college interviews and the like

AlyceInWonderland

Okay, so this up coming monday I have an interview at the School of Visual Arts for my portfolio, and I know they'll be asking questions and things.

Now...I don't know what to expect at ALL. and while my portfolio is prepared, I don't know what types of questions to expect, or ask.

Help me out here.

supabeast

During my admissions interview at the Corcoran we spent most of the time talking about the pieces I was showing; they were mostly big abstract paintings developing from some techniques I was into at the time. You should be ready to do the same, look over that portfolio again and again and come up with an explanation for each subject, each surface, each media, even the proportions of the images. Describe things that don't come across easily in photos.

The other big topic was why I picked the school, in my case that was easy to handle because I had already been taking classes there for a year. Make sure that you're able to handle that discussion well; don't just reply with ”Well I want in because SVA is one of the best art schools in the world.” Tell them about faculty you admire and classes they offer that you want to take. Talk about why you want to go to school in New York—for this part you'll want to familiarize yourself with important connections you can make, the great bookstores and libraries, and of course the museums.

Less dominant topics will likely be them asking about your high school art classes; specifically what you did in them and what you felt you learned from them. You'll probably be asked who your influences are, it helps to be able to name some serious artists of the past and not just contemporary artists. Keep in mind that living artists, especially commercial or representational artists haven't gotten much respect for the last hundred years, so dropping a name like Akira Toriyama, or Dave McKean is only a good idea if you also mention people who have been dead, or at least famous, for a few decades. If you have specific museum exhibitions to list, they really get off on that because it shows that you care about art appreciation.

If you've done cool arty travel, it's also good to mention that. Phrases like “I'll never forget the effect the Nike of Samothrace had on me the first time I went to the Louvre,” “That Giotto altarpiece in the Uffizi is so intense,” or “The Orsay opened my eyes to modernism in ways books never could” are real winners, assuming that you've been to those places.

AlyceInWonderland

Woah, thanks for that. I'm a little nervous, but I figure if I'm honest and I know what i'm talking about I'll be fine. On mentioning art and such that may impress, I suppose I could mention "the gates" by Christo and Jeanne-Claude (The large orange gates that were put up through out Central park). It was on such a grand scale and was very awesome. I actually completely forgot that I was there to view them.


If anybody has any more advice, please post. I need the help. I'm pretty nervous.

supabeast

AlyceInWonderland wrote:

...I figure if I'm honest and I know what i'm talking about I'll be fine...

That's probably the absolute best way to approach a college interview.