The portfolio is the most meaningful indicator of serious artistic commitment, ability, and potential to succeed in MICA's rigorous studio environment.
Images of recent artwork (made within the last two years) that represent your artistic interests and demonstrate your technical skills and ability. Include examples of artwork that reflect the full range of your ideas, interests, experience, and abilities in the arts to date.
The portfolio can also be used to evaluate your post-secondary art experiences in order to determine equivalency to MICA coursework. In some cases, work completed in a class can be used to determine transfer credit.
For example: strong examples of finished work completed in Drawing 1 at your previous college can verify transfer credit in MICA's equivalent class "Drawing: Tradition & Innovation"
Work made in series/concentration is appreciated.It shows the reviewer how you think through an idea. A series may be connected by subject matter (for example, portraits) or media (charcoal drawing)--or both. Digital images of finished work, rather than studies or sketches, should be included in your portfolio.
Yes. Images of 2D and 3D artwork should be in focus, lighted evenly, color balanced, squared-off, cropped and not have distracting backgrounds. 4D media should be cued to a two-minute selection of the piece. For accepted file formats go to: https://support.slideroom.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1883320-file-sizes-and-types
Transfer portfolios are reviewed on an individual basis, in the context of your specific educational background and experience, and in relation to the program of study you wish to pursue.
What should I include in my portfolio?
Students transferring to MICA are expected to have had formal art instruction (in high school, college or at an extracurricular art program) prior to application and will be able to demonstrate ability in the fundamentals and principles of art and design.
Your portfolio is one-half of your admission rank and will help determine your standing as a freshman, sophomore, or junior-level transfer student.
No. We don't give you prompts or requirements. What goes into your portfolio is your choice. Upload images of completed work from the last two years that shows us your technical strengths and personal voice/direction in art/design.
Your portfolio supports your college transcript. To receive credit for coursework equivalent to MICA's First Year Experience, we will evaluate your portfolio alongside your earned credits. Your portfolio should include examples of post-secondary work completed in drawing, color theory, 2D design, 3D design and 4D design. Please note that many students transferring to MICA have not yet completed the full equivalent of our First Year Experience and are therefore placed in a combination of first-year and second-year courses. To receive credit for coursework equivalent to MICA's sophomore-level courses, your portfolio should include examples of artwork completed in the equivalent courses, including work that demonstrates any specialization in your intended major. In assembling your portfolio, review the description of MICA courses similar to those you have completed. For example, a course titled "Typography I" is required of MICA sophomores in graphic design. If you have completed a similar course be sure to include work that demonstrates your mastery of the subject.
Yes. SlideRoom allows you to include the title, year, medium, size and additional details for each image.
Because you will be uploading digital images of your artwork to your SlideRoom portfolio, make sure your images are good quality. Your images should be focused, lighted evenly, squared-off and color-balanced. Flat work should be cropped to the edges of the image itself (no frames or matting). 3D work should not have distracting backgrounds.
The admission committee will look at the work in your portfolio in the order that you create in SlideRoom. We recommend that you group similar images of work together. For example if you have portraits and still lifes, you’ll want to group the portrait images together and the still life images together. If you have a narrative sequence, then it will be important to upload the images in sequential order.
Check out the Media/Portfolio Applicant Step-By-Step Guide
In MICA's Program Materials section of CommonApp find an integrated link to SlideRoom. You'll create a new account by following the instructions.