The application documents for art study abroad generally include two parts: personal statement and recommendation letter, which help colleges and universities understand our "past" from themselves and other people, and examine our comprehensive quality. When visiting foreign art colleges and universities, everyone knows the importance of letters of recommendation for applying for art study abroad. Different colleges and different majors have different requirements for letters of recommendation. Most colleges and universities need one or two letters of recommendation at the undergraduate level, which are usually provided by teachers or professionals related to our academic work, and are relatively easy to achieve; However, the recommendation letters at the graduate stage are not of the same grade. Most colleges and universities require two copies. American colleges and universities generally have three letters, and the more top colleges and universities require more "gold content". So, how to harvest higher quality and different direction recommendation letters?
The first step is to "find contacts":
At this time, many students and parents will choose Portfolio training Agency help. But I also want to remind you that before choosing, we must check the quality of "contacts". Sometimes we spend a lot of money to find "intermediaries" or "ghostwriters" and get a recommendation letter from top industry people for art study abroad applications. But this recommendation letter is like a description on the assembly line, which is too "routine".
In fact, there may not be a lot of academic interaction between you. The enrollment reviewers of art schools have many years of review experience. Even if they are recommendation letters, they can also contact other application materials. No project from PS, CV or Essay can be highly matched with this giant, Then art schools will also think that you have made a false recommendation.
We should attach great importance to the authenticity of the letter of recommendation for the application of art study abroad. Another situation we found in our work is quite common. Many students will write a recommendation letter in advance, exaggerate their ability, and then go to find the teacher to sign. In fact, the teacher seldom reads and verifies the objectivity of the content carefully.
However, the review of documents by overseas art schools is very strict. For example, many schools will require students to submit letters of recommendation together with the contact information and address of the author of the letter of recommendation. Schools will even "surpass" the students themselves and directly contact the recommender to verify the content information of the letter of recommendation and documents, which will become an uncontrollable factor, Once you help, it will directly affect your eligibility for application.
Therefore, in order to obtain highly convincing letters of recommendation for art study abroad applications, we need to establish a real academic relationship with the recommenders. Natural light is the only institution in the art study abroad industry that has an overseas admissions officer alliance. In the early days, many student unions may think that I participated in the review of the admissions officer's portfolio or sought guidance from the admissions officer once or twice, Then the admissions officer must give me a recommendation letter, but the purpose of inviting the admissions officer is not to "endorse" the students, but to use their years of knowledge reserves to provide us with teaching services, so your learning attitude and the quality of your portfolio are the key to decide whether the admissions officer will give you a recommendation letter! (Click to learn about summer courses for admissions officers: Coaching of interdisciplinary works collection, spending extraordinary Summer with Natural Light Overseas Alliance summer class ）
In addition, in the three letters of recommendation, in addition to the academic field, we must also cover the professional field of "social dimension". Most students will choose to obtain these letters of recommendation through internship or work, but we must be careful when selecting companies, because now a small number of internship projects say that they will give letters of recommendation at the end, But in fact, students can not learn anything when they go there, and the quality of recommendation letters is not ideal. The essence is to recruit "cheap" student coolies for the company on the basis of recommendation letters.
When choosing the type of work, we also need to pay attention to whether it is related to the specialty we apply for, and not deviate from the field of art design. Natural Light also often provides internships for students. For example, Fashion Group, the largest fashion media group in China, provides internships for natural light students every year to help students understand the fashion industry most directly, and have the opportunity to contact celebrities or designers in the fashion industry, so as to obtain their guidance and obtain recommendation letters. (Click to learn: Fashion professional study abroad counseling, fashion group 2019 intern recruitment ）
Of course, in order to help us find "contacts" we have something to say and merits to boast about. We also need to find some advantageous resources, that is, projects to help us "improve the background":
Step 2 "Find Resources":
We have repeatedly stressed the importance of background improvement. Overseas colleges and universities attach great importance to the comprehensive development of students, so they will also examine students' practical ability and social ability through other aspects. Compared with visual application materials such as works collection and documents, this part of the investigation needs us to implement into real projects, such as participating in interdisciplinary social practice, international design competitions, charity activities, research projects with scientific research significance, etc.
In order to help people gain advantageous resources, which is also one of the teaching purposes of Natural Light all the time, in addition to professional teacher teams, we have also been promoting cooperation with major enterprises, colleges and international competitions, such as COSTA, Tesla, ONE SHOW, Huawei, etc., and carried out many social practice projects, brand cooperation projects Interdisciplinary Camp Project. (Learn about ONE SHOW Competition: 2019 ONE SHOW Creativity Competition, and move the world with creativity together with natural light!)
In addition, we will also set up some academic project cooperation. For example, our cooperation with MIT Media Lab is to help students enter the MIT Media Lab for field study, to discuss scientific research with professional researchers and MIT teachers and students, to do projects practically, and to get to know each other in the project. This is not only an opportunity to improve the background, but also an opportunity for students to obtain excellent projects with a collection of income works.
Summary
There are a variety of assessment forms for students in art schools. Whether it is hard work collection, language, exam results, or soft recommendation letters, documents, background assessment, in fact, the purpose of the school is to maximize our understanding and explore our potential. There is no shortcut or "back door" for art study abroad. Resources and contacts are not directly available for us. We need to obtain letters of recommendation from admissions officers or designers for art study abroad applications. First, we need to use our strength to gain their recognition. Projects with superior resources also need our input and output to truly reflect the high standards of projects, Therefore, we need to constantly improve in the accumulation and build ourselves into the most valuable "advantageous resource"!
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