In August, RISD updated the independent proposition of the 2020 application season. In September, colleges and universities successively opened early application channels. In October, the regular application of British and American colleges and universities officially began. All this means that we really have little time left! In order to avoid detours in the panic and complete all the preparatory work most efficiently, we also summarized some of the most concerned issues in the application season: how to complete the portfolio efficiently? How to make yourself more competitive in the application? How to get a scholarship? How to improve the success rate of application for studying abroad By virtue of years of application experience in natural light, he summarized 10 tips one by one, telling students how to learn and do in the closing stage of the collection of works to maximize the success rate of art study abroad application!
01. Effectively use the most efficient time before the deadline
As we often say, "deadline" is the first productive force. No matter what stage students have reached before their collection of works, the closer to the application date, the pressure will become a huge force. Students will hurry to the final sprint stage.
There are also two types of students at this stage. One is that the collection of works is basically completed and needs final polishing and extension. The other is that the preparation time is short, or there is "procrastination" in the early stage, and the work has not yet taken shape.
Natural light Spatial Dynamics course site
For the first type of students, you should also be aware of the final Portfolio Coaching At this stage, it is not easy to continue to expand the theme of the work or research direction, which may easily lead to the situation that there is no time to end the work, or even the work deviates; Rather than expanding, we are more important to check the defects and fill the gaps, check the unreasonable places in the project, and then continue to deepen the details according to the time, and strive to improve the completion and quality of the collection.
The other kind of students have short time and heavy tasks, so how to make rational use of time to study efficiently is very critical. The first suggestion for these students is to get rid of the habit of procrastination and devote yourself to learning. The second is to make a strict planning, not only project planning, but also estimating the preparation time according to the project content, and then reasonably planning your daily learning schedule.
Third, on the basis of grasping the overall degree of completion, there are some uncertain factors in the project preparation process, but we need to have a time interval to make appropriate adjustments in the planning, and this interval value is allocated by the highlights of our work.
For example, which project we are most confident about, and whether the renderings or the research part of the project are the most brilliant, we should have a prediction, make sufficient preparations for the key areas, and try to improve them, because these may be the key to our eventual success in winning the favor of the admissions officer.
02. If you work hard, you should stop to be critical
Now the learning atmosphere of natural light is very strong, and students are working hard everywhere. I often see many students stay in the classroom until the teacher on duty urges them to leave. Although focus is very important at this stage, sometimes we still need to stop to think and communicate.
That is, the critical mode that the natural light has always respected. Maybe many students will think that critical will be more suitable for inspiration diffusion or early creation, but critical at this stage is also critical. It can help us obtain more objective and accurate information to promote our work.
Natural light critical scene
In fact, it is very easy for students to have thinking limitations during a long period of independent creation, or it is difficult to think out of the framework to think about the overall layout because they go too deep into a certain link. So at this time, we will provide students with an opportunity to stop to think and accept objective evaluation from many aspects.
In the critical, professional teachers and students will analyze their views on the works from different perspectives. In fact, when you tell everyone about the works, it is also a whole "re examination". In the process of communication and sharing, both sides will also help you to obtain more effective information, make targeted adjustments and deepening, so as to improve the success rate of studying abroad application.
03. Check and fill gaps, and refine the creation process of works
This is aimed at the difficulties that some students may encounter at this stage, that is, the project cannot be implemented or the best design scheme cannot be found. There are also two reasons for this difficulty. One is that some data is missing due to insufficient research in the early stage, or some design processes are skipped directly (such as analysis chart, sketch, mindmap, etc.), resulting in no way to find a direct source in the later stage design.
The other is very simple, which is lack of professional ability and skills to realize ideas. In the second case, because there is no time for us to systematically learn professional knowledge at this stage, we can only make targeted supplements, or make up through research, analysis and interdisciplinary methods, with the focus on highlighting potential and design thinking. But remember not to "cheat" and choose someone to do it for you. Falsification is a matter of principle and will fundamentally cut off the possibility of obtaining an offer.
Course site of natural light material test
However, in the first case, students should never feel that they can fool around if the problem is not serious, because true and accurate preliminary research is the basis for connecting all design achievements, and also the key to determining the quality of the final work. So at this time, we must go back and refine and supplement the design process.
Take Sunmeng, a student majoring in natural light architecture, for example. She has prepared a complete collection of works during her undergraduate study. However, during our subsequent evaluation, we found that a large number of data were inconsistent with the results. In fact, there was a problem with her design process. Some of her works in school even completed the design renderings first and then went back to "make up" Analysis and research.
But we all know that architecture is a very rigorous discipline, and once the data is not true, it will directly lead to the rationality of the results, which can be seen at a glance by experienced admissions officers, so we must not give up this part in order to catch up with the progress. We must try our best to improve the missing part. Sunmeng did the same thing, and finally she gained University of Edinburgh Including 7 offers.
04. Improve the comprehensive strength of the collection
A complete set of works includes multiple projects. Taking British colleges and universities as an example, the postgraduate works include about 3-5 projects, so there will be a period of time between each project. In addition, many students will use their early works in school, so the interval will be longer.
In fact, the process of making a collection of works is a high intensity learning process, so generally speaking, there will be a big gap in the professionalism and project maturity of the students' later works compared with the earlier ones.
Natural light summer class site
However, the admissions officer's survey portfolio is an overall scoring mechanism, and we can focus on it without obvious weaknesses, so at this stage, we must return to the whole, check each project with the current professional level, and if there are obvious gaps, we must timely supplement and deepen.
In addition, colleges and universities use the collection of works to investigate our comprehensive strength, so each project must not be in a single direction. For example, the interaction specialty cannot be all web design or APP. The choice of project themes should be as comprehensive as possible, and the creation process should also focus on our ability in different dimensions, and try to reflect the richness and diversity of the collection of works, Improve the success rate of application for studying abroad.
05. Make the most targeted application planning and improve the success rate of application for studying abroad
Since this month, colleges and universities have continuously opened online application channels. Although we have stressed with students from the beginning that we must do research on the official website and adjust the layout, format and size according to requirements, we still hear that students submit the format of A college to B college every year in the application season, or directly apply for the wrong major So in this case, the natural light has begun to "force" students to prepare the portfolio folder with the name of the school in advance, and then mark the requirements of the school. When uploading at that time, only some detailed adjustments need to be made according to the school.
Another thing to note is that many students will choose to apply to multiple colleges at the same time. Most of them can use the same set of works, but the format is slightly different, but some of them have their own propositions. These propositions actually represent the most important investigation points of the college, so students must prepare in advance, And reserve a good plate in the work collection.
Another situation is that capable students can consider whether to apply for more similar majors according to their own conditions and needs. One of our former classmates originally wanted to apply for the interaction major of London University of the Arts, but he applied for both the game major and interaction major due to a manual error, and finally received an offer from both majors.
Although this is an accident, it is not impossible to copy this surprise. First of all, there are similarities between some professions, such as interaction, product, service design, etc. For this kind of matching, we can make some targeted adjustments in the composition of the portfolio as required and then apply at the same time, but remember that the span of these professions cannot be too large.
06. Collection layout requires "platoon"
In fact, typesetting has always been an important part for students. After all, it is about the visual effect of the final presentation of our collection of works. But in addition to visual effects, the most important role of typesetting is how to arrange troops through reasonable sorting.
As we said above, we should pay attention to the integrity of each project. The next step is how to arrange the appearance order of works. My suggestion is to try not to sort according to the time line. Although the learning process is gradual, the collection of works is a concentrated presentation. In order to accurately obtain the "first impression score" of the admissions officer, we should choose the first work with the most interesting theme and the strongest visual impact, so as to get the attention of the admissions officer.
Natural light admissions officer course site
Next, we can put works with high degree of completion or interdisciplinary, reflecting the ability of different dimensions next, and finally put some single page works of observational painting. In addition, in the process of typesetting, we should also make targeted screening of the creation process to highlight our advantages to the greatest extent.
Finally, don't ignore the details, such as the text description, the design of the front and back cover, color matching, etc., which are all for the purpose of highlighting our work itself. The most basic requirement is reasonable and beautiful. On this basis, students can also add some small details to improve the quality of the entire collection.
07. Prepare paperwork and background improvement in advance
Taking the paperwork of British and American graduate students as an example, it will probably be divided into three parts, one professional oriented essay, two to three letters of recommendation and self introduction. Most colleges and universities will require that the paperwork be submitted together with the portfolio.
At this stage, many students will focus on the most important collection of works, leaving little time for the preparation of documents. However, documents are a key link in our application process, which can most directly show our comprehensive strength and past experience. Moreover, many famous comprehensive schools attach great importance to the gold content of documents, so we must prepare them in advance.
Natural light overseas alliance course site
And we must not make up templates, because the documents are actually application materials that highlight the personal style more than the collection of works. We can learn from the experience of previous applicants in grammar and writing logic, but it is absolutely impossible to copy the content mechanically. The document materials should be prepared according to the personal situation, and we can properly optimize and polish them, and write them out on the basis of "avoiding the heavy and taking the light", But pay special attention not to deliberately exaggerate or plagiarize.
Natural light has always attached great importance to providing students with "customized courses". Since students came to natural light, our consultants will communicate with students about school appointments and keep in touch with their parents at any time, so as to understand students' application needs and conditions at the first time. When students lack social practice or academic project background, The application teacher and the educational administration teacher will also communicate with the student service officer at the first time, set up targeted background improvement projects for students, and improve the success rate of application for studying abroad.
For example, Natural Light has been linked to the three sessions of summer design and construction workshop project. This short-term landing practice project, on the one hand, can efficiently help students harvest high-quality project works that can be included in the collection of works, on the other hand, can also show our practical ability and social ability.
Construction site of this summer's design and construction workshop
There are many projects such as natural light, such as the review of the admissions officer's works collection, which can control the quality of our works on the one hand, and may also help students get highly valuable recommendation letters; In addition, short-term internship projects, design competitions, interdisciplinary practice courses, charity activities, etc. are all effective ways to help us comprehensively improve our competitiveness.
Natural Light Overseas Alliance Parents Sharing Meeting
08. You must apply for scholarships in time
For many students, it is also very important to get a scholarship, so we also need to know how to apply for a scholarship in advance. Of course, the most important thing is our achievements, but here the achievements are divided into two parts. The first is the collection of works. Undoubtedly, high-quality collection of works is the key to our application for a scholarship;
The other part is the rigid indicators of colleges and universities. For example, British colleges and universities attach great importance to language, that is, IELTS scores. In addition, our past work experience and document value are very important references.
Another point is that we should apply in a timely manner, because there are many categories of scholarships, you can query the official website of the university in advance, apply according to your own conditions, and follow up the follow-up information at any time.
09. Selectively participate in the review of works
In natural light, in addition to critical, each student will have at least four portfolio reviews in the process of portfolio creation, including professional tutors, department heads of "six major departments", teaching and research centers, and members of overseas alliance admissions officers. Each portfolio review is a guarantee to improve the admission probability.
So how can students who have not chosen DIY Arts to apply for study abroad help themselves to obtain such college level security in the final stage? Generally speaking, from the end of September to November, all major art study abroad institutions will continuously invite in-service recruiters from overseas art schools to come to the institutions for review and "enrollment presentation".
For example, this year, Natural Light also invited in-service admissions officers from 20 colleges and universities including Parsons, MICA, SAIC, ACCD, SCAD, and jointly launched activities in various forms, including portfolio review, mock interviews, Open Days, and so on. (Students who want to participate in natural light can continue to pay attention to us~)
These lectures are basically free, and we don't have to worry about whether these recruiters have an interest relationship with the institution. Because they all come here with the attitude of recruiting high-quality students for the institution, this is a very good opportunity for students to help themselves to do the final review of the collection of works before applying, To help us control the overall direction, optimize the details of the portfolio, and guide us to make full preparations for the application with true audit standards!
10. Adjust mentality
Finally, I know that many students may be more anxious as they get closer to DDL, but this is the moment when they need to calm down, because most of the students' project works have been completed, and more is the adjustment of some details, and the overall optimization. These things may not seem so important, but they may become a "temporary kick" before the final draft of the collection, which needs our more comprehensive and macro attention!
How to improve the success rate of studying abroad application? Today, Natural Light introduced 10 art tips to help you double your application for art study abroad. In addition, we should also pay attention to the combination of work and rest in our busy study. After study, we can appropriately participate in some social activities, see exhibitions, communicate with "comrades in arms", and share timely information of colleges and universities. Maybe there will be unexpected gains!
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