## Welcome and who this training is for [00:00] What's up, Avon? Coach Tony here. In this training, we're going to talk about digital portfolios. We're going to talk about who this training is for and who this training is not for. This is spoilers. This does not apply to every single person applying, but there is a group of you that's going to really like this training because it's going to help you guys out a lot with this admissions process. And we have some a few tips to help you guys for those who are going to be using a digital portfolio. How to navigate these next uh your portfolio process itself. If it's the very first time meeting, my name is Coach Tony. I'm actually a former UC Berkeley admissions reader on the back end, former UCLA director uh actually current founder, co-founder of a high school as well here. And over the last 16 years, I've been helping families with the college admissions process. That's kind of what we do in these trainings. demystify the process, teach you guys the things so you guys can um help your family out with this process as well too. Okay, without further ado, let me go ahead and jump in and share my screen so you guys can see. Let me uh you guys can see this on your side. I guess I'm help for those who are joining me live for you. If you're watching the replay, hello from the from the past. Uh but for those who are here live, you can help me out. Let me know in the chat really quick if uh you can see the screen. Quick little yes is all I need. Uh to make sure we are good to go here. Uh we got a little under 100 people who are here for this training. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um wow for 100 people no one to respond as well too. So all right I'm hoping my audio is good, video is good as well too. So let's go ahead and jump in then. So again uh this train again is not for every single person. It is for a group of set of people though. So what group are we referring to in this training here this is the schools that are going to be asking you for a portfolio when you guys go off when you guys submit your college application. So one of the ## Majors that usually require a portfolio [02:00] big field that this would apply to is going to be the creative and design fields. Right? So the big one here is the very traditional uh arts and fine art majors. Graphic design, fashion design, interior design, industrial design, photography, film, video production, animation, architecture, and creative writing with writing as a like a focus as well too, right? Keep in mind as I'm saying this, right? Does every single school offer a portfolio for these specific majors? No. But that just means that be on the lookout. So when you guys are are applying to these majors, some schools will ask for a portfolio, some schools might not, right? So that's something to keep in mind as well. But I guess if you see, like for example, I'm a graphic design major and I'm applying to college. I might expect to see that as a requirement when I submit my applications. Right? Besides creative and design fields, the next big one that will ask for a portfolio is going to be performance and media fields. like theater, like drama, music performance, composition, dance, broadcasting studio, media studies, and journalism. Right? So, keep in mind all these are different little study. Again, some of them will require them, some not, but these are good good little indicators that like hm let me double check to see if they do have this as well. Okay, next one is technology fields, right? computer science, uh, digital media, game design, web development. Keeping in mind, you're like, well, does every computer science require it? No. This is this is one of those nuances. So, you'll see that some schools do, some schools don't. Actually, a lot of schools don't, right? But some schools will ask for like a portfolio of projects that you've been working on. So, that's kind of what this section is is is for. And some other portfolio things that some schools might ask for like culinary, marketing, communications, education as well, too. So these are the more common fields right the mostly you'll see it in lot ## Majors that usually do not [04:00] again the creative designs ones and the performance media ones is going to be the key uh over here uh for you guys that's going to be the biggest one um in this area. Okay so that's going to be the biggest thing over here is the first one and then um so what are what is the training not for? So if you're like hm my field hasn't been listed yet so it's probably under here I would call the traditional field. So if you are for example a premed, a bio, a chem, physics, math, history, psychology, political science, economics, business administration, engineering, law, pre-law, nursing, accounting, any of these majors and more, right? You probably won't need a portfolio, right? Colleges won't probably ask you for anything. So you compiling a portfolio is not going to be useful or helpful in any way because they don't consider it. So again, don't do things that's a waste of your time. So, if you're any of these majors and you're watching this, you can kind of click the X button or click on to the next video of ours uh to go on to the next one. But again, for the purpose of this training, we're going to be focusing a lot more on the fields that do require a portfolio. Okay? So, let's assume if you're still watching at this point, you are one of the students or one of the families that again is applying to a a field that does require a digital portfolio. In that case, right, what are the what's the process? What does it look like when you guys do this? Right? So, the first step you got to do and you're going to apply to the program, right? You're going to apply to the program. So, again, you apply ## How the digital portfolio process works [05:30] seniors, right? Usually applications will open a October, August 1st, and you submit it. They have different deadlines as well too, sometime in October, November, December, any of those deadlines. But you're applying to the program. When you apply to the program, right, there'll be the regular application where they ask you for your information, your academics, your classes, your grades, your activities, but they may also ask for a digital portfolio. You'll see that some schools will recommend one and some schools will require it or some fields will require it. So, it depends on what you guys are doing as well, right? For this uh here then behind the scenes, by the way, little pro tip. If they recommend it for your major, you should do it is the thing, right? So, if they are going to recommend it, I would recommend doing it. If it's optional, again, that's the difference, right? Optional means me, it's you can or cannot do it. Uh recommended means let's see if we can do it is the key, right? Then your portfolio will get reviewed by the faculty or the admissions committee, the people who are in charge of that kind of field uh as well. And the last step is the portfolio does heavily influences the admission decision for majors and fields that are portfoliobased. Your portfolio is what's going to speak out for you. Uh as well too. So that's a really really big thing. Keep in mind that the people reading it will be specialized in this field. It's not like ## Why recommended portfolios are not really optional [07:00] people like me who don't know much about art or dance or music as well too. They are heavily trained on this. So they would know good, bad, whatever else as well too, right? So that's the big thing. That's kind of the basic 101 process for you guys to consider if you're going to go down the portfolio kind of route. Okay, so what are what should students be aware for and look out for? Okay, so the first thing is that you'll see that there's different deadlines for different things. There's the regular deadline and there's going to be your portfolio deadline. There might be an audition deadline as well too. The deadlines are non-negotiables, right? Do not, right? Do not try to apply towards the end. This is just a good blanket statement for all college apps, right? Don't submit it at the very very end. Try to submit a little earlier uh as well. Just if you want to follow our deadlines, we typically recommend our students apply to the early schools around October 1st, the UC schools around uh November 1st, the private schools around December 1st. So if you see your deadlines, right, or say, "Hey, ## Who reviews your portfolio and what they look for [08:00] that the portfolio is due on November 30th." Don't wait till November 30th. Try to get in latest by the 15th if not even earlier. So you don't have to stress out about deadlines are very timesensitive. If you are late, they will not consider you. Uh because so competitive, right? Next thing for a lot of you guys who will be submitting things, we live in a world that you don't like mail in you don't mail in your art anymore. You don't mail in a CD anymore. It's all uploaded. Because of that, the technical specs matter. If they want it in a certain format, you give them that. If they want it under a certain size, you give them that. Again, they get so many of these that if the answer is no, if they if it's a match, they're not going to go through the work of trying to figure out because again, if you can't follow directions, right, how do they expect you to to do college is the thing. I think that's the big takeaway here. Okay, so that's the big thing. Basically, you want to go ahead and um and give the the text away. Then double check it, triple check it, make sure everything is done correctly and you're uploading the right file uh correctly when you guys are submitting this next. Okay, next one. Keep in mind that every school is different. This is the one thing similar to the why us why major prompt. You can't and you shouldn't use the same things for every single school because when it comes to portfolios, every school will ask for unique things. still they might ask for three of the most recent. Some people might say give me a your beginning, middle and end. So they'll I will ask or give me something in this format. Everyone's going to ask for different things. So it's very hard to try double dip right as as well too. And if you are don't just kind of blindly send in because again how much effort are you going to put into that and the schools the schools will reciprocate there. If you don't tr care as hard they won't care as hard is the thing too. Okay. And last big tip here is that it's not about just your skills. It's about potential ## The impact of portfolio strength on admission outcomes [10:00] and teachability. Keep in mind, they're not expecting you to be perfect. And if you were, you don't have to go to college is a thing, right? So keep that in mind as well, too. Some of our students like, "Oh, I'm not the greatest. Oh, my thing's good, but it's not like the best." I'm like, "No, that's okay. That's why you're going to college, right? When you go to college, they're going to help you craft these skills, hone these skills in is going to be the key. So keep in mind it's not just like yes they are expecting I would say a certain level right of each of the things you're applying to but the big key here is focus on hey where can we take this for you right what's the next step what's the next level for you that's going to be the big key over here okay the big thing I do want to share especially when it comes to portfolio students as well is this big reality check the portfolio is your make and break just like we tell for our our non right for all these non- majors, these um premed, biochem, physics, math, history, psychology, polysai, e, econ, business, engineering, law, these students, we tell you your essays are your make it and break it factor. For these portfolio students, your portfolio is your make it or break it. If, right, and we've seen this firsthand as well, too. We've seen students with 4.0 no GPA who get rejected because they had a weak portfolio and we had a a B student right with an amazing profile get into everywhere that has happened consistently every year just like same thing with the the the more uh non artsy ## Real examples... 4.0 GPA student rejected vs. B student admitted [11:30] students right uh your essay your port your essays your responses is a big key same thing here this is going to be a big key itself um as well okay so that's going to be the big thing make sure you kind of hone in on this this could be a big factor for you guys. Okay. And then last thing to kind of close us off here, I have three strategies for you guys in case you guys are going down uh this path as well. Strategy number one is going to be quality over quantity. Okay. So, most students think you need to show everything you need. Uh like here, let me give you let me give them like a hundred pieces of music that I wrote. let me give them uh like like all the art that I've drawn or all these videos that I've put together as well too right keep in mind right you don't need that just pick 10 or 50 of your best things that shows again keep in mind growth skill development and range that's why again you don't want to just do only your tops right you want to see an evolution of them right what's the what's the journey again we'll talk story right what is the journey of your portfolio So if I look through the whole thing, what am I supposed to learn about you, who you are and everything else? Okay. So when it comes to the strategy, the biggest question you want to ask yourself is, would I be proud to show this to a professional in my in my field? And if the answer is no, don't include that as well too. Right? So ## Strategy 1... Quality over quantity [13:00] again, if you're interested in art, whoever your favorite artist is, right? If they were you were meeting them for the first time and you're like, "Hey, here's my stuff." Would you be proud to show them? Yeah, this is this is mine as well too or would you be more like Probably not as well too and that might not be it. One little caveat here as well too. A lot of our students last 5 10 years, right? A lot of our students are very much more humble, much more quiet, right? Much more reserved students as well too. So keep in mind that's different, right? That's different than being embarrassed than just being shy. you can be shy and still proud of what you're doing uh is the key there. So that's that's a big difference between the two of those factors. Okay, so big thing quality over quantity. The other thing also a little star here as well. 10 to 15 is like the average we've seen for a lot of schools but do what your school asks. If they ask for five don't give them 10, right? They if they ask for five you give them five. You give them what they are looking for is the key here. Okay. So that's going to be the the quality quality here. The second one this is the big one, right? ## Strategy 2... Tell the story behind the work [14:00] This is the story behind the work. Keep in mind when you're setting this in, this is all they can see, right? The readers can this is like a reflection of who you are as a person. So again, admission authors wants to understand you, right? Your creative process, your problem solving approach and your growth, not just the final pieces as well. So when you're doing the portfolio as well to this an area you can share, right? Two, three share again. What was your challenge or the prompt there? What's your approach? What did you learn? How did you overcame it? By the way, spoilers. If you guys have been following us, this is the exact same thing that we teach for the essays, right? Not just what you did, but again, the the who you are under all that as well too. Give me the context of you, right? Tell me how you like and how it made you, who you are. Who have you become as a result? Right? That's the key of all this. Again, you see it's the same exact thing. One's in a written form, one's in an art form as well too, ## Strategy 3... Follow the format and deadlines for each school [15:00] right? They're both very similar in that way. And then I skipped ahead a little bit that the the last thing is that make sure you follow the school results, right? Every school is looking for different things. Not every school is going to be looking for the same thing. For example, let's say you apply as an art major, right? An art field student. You look at all the schools. There might actually be a few schools that might not need a portfolio for you, right? and then you don't need to do it. For those that do, some might ask for five things, some might ask for 15 things. Some might ask for a specific field of things like a type of uh of uh things to gather. Some people think it's like a much more broader thing as well too. Okay. So, the second thing here is if uh some again I say somewhat a lot, somewhat little as well too. But the most important thing make sure you follow what they're g they're telling you. Okay. So again, what we recommend, just create a little spreadsheet. You can look it up. You don't have to wait till senior year if you're interested in this field anyway. Start looking up the schools you're interested in. It'll have a little portfolio for you. Like we mentioned like computer science. There's some schools it's called a maker portfolio uh that some schools will want to see your code and they'll they might they may include it as well too. Again, does every school do it? No. Right. But uh if you want if you know ahead of time, you can kind of plan for it. So, what you could do, again, create a little spreadsheet just to track um what the the work looks like for you guys. You guys make sure you're not going to fall behind. Okay? And last thing, a few uh bonus tips for you guys when it comes to here. The first one is you want to show the progression, right? Like I mentioned earlier, if you show only here's where I am, right? Cool. I know where you're at. But it's about the journey, right? Learning about you. What if you couldn't even draw a stick figure, right? And now you can paint the Mona Lisa. That evolution of the stuff shows a and then in a short amount of time. Wow, your skills grew really fast. Again, apply it to like not other things, right? Imagine ## Technical tips for file formats, links, and uploads [17:00] you played soccer and then you went from uh regular team to captain of varsity in two years. Wow, that progression of stuff. And that's kind of what you want to demonstrate to the readers is the first part. Second thing is going to be make the make it technically flawless meaning right again I always say art is in the eye of the beholder right so how do you know it's perfect that's up to you and the than the the reader on the other side but right make sure technically meaning the links work for each one don't have a broken link make sure again they ask for an MP4 file don't give them anov file they ask for a uh a JPEG under two megabit um megabytes don't give them a PNG that's like 20 megabytes, right? There's free tools online to compress, to change, to do all this stuff anyway. So, feel free to use those to meet the conditions, but again, you don't want to be disqualified automatically just because they couldn't open your thing or is not what they were looking for, uh, is the key, right? And ## Why you should get feedback early—but stay true to your voice [18:00] last tip for you guys is get feedback early, right? Again, the people who know this best is will probably be like your your art teacher, the professionals, the current college people in your field as well too. Go ahead and ask them for feedback. Ask them for thoughts as well too. And keep in mind though, this is the one part that's a little hard. Keep in mind, it still needs to be you, right? If you get everyone's feedback and everyone's saying different things and it changes up completely, it's not who you are. Same thing at the rest of your college apps. If you just do things to look good for college, right? There's no there's no heart and no soul behind it. It's hard to talk about versus again showcasing who you are, what you want to do. That's going to be the key. Okay, that was a little quick little master class when it comes to portfolios. If anyone has any questions, feel free to drop it uh in the chat. Looks like no questions so far, but yeah, basically the idea is uh each school will have different requirements for different things. Make sure you doublech check what the requirements are is number one, right? And once you understand what the requirements are, start gathering. You can start gathering now and you can pick and choose later on, right? So start putting together a little database of them, putting together a little area depending on what the the portfolio is, right? Start doing that. Start collecting things um is the thing here. Okay, perfect. Looks like we have no questions. So you guys are good to go. Uh for those who join live, I'll give you a copy of the the doc. So you guys can uh take it from here right away. And ## How to start building your portfolio this summer [19:30] for everyone else in the replay, you guys can go ahead and ask our team and our team can grab this for you as well too. Okay. Um one question here that's a really good one as well is um right, do the colleges want all the pieces from the four years of of college or does it matter when you're done? That's a great question. The answer is it depends per college. Depends per college, right? We have seen examples ## Final takeaways and student Q&A [20:00] where some people are some colleges are okay with like yeah, anything is fair game and some students put like a eighth grade thing that they've done they're really really proud of as well too. However, right, however part, right? However, you may want to consider only picking from high school. Uh, if you had a choice, right? So, if you have like I have so many things I do, you would want to pick a lot in high school just because again, that shows the most recent like uh evolution of you if that makes sense is the key. So, again, it would depend on the school. Check it up. We've seen both scenarios like open-ended doesn't matter. We have some if the school doesn't tell you by the way um you can also always call um feel free to call the admissions uh office to ask right as well too they they'll let you know hey we prefer this and if they prefer that give them that as well too if they don't give you an answer then you can kind of be more open-ended but again typically we do recommend from our point of view try to stay within the high school years the analogy is do you trust middle school you with your life is a thing or do you trust like high school version of you, the most recent version of you is the thing. So, we typically have our students aim for like the high school range stuff. But again, it's something if you're very very proud of something you did like in middle school and uh the the school is open to like yeah, go ahead submit that as well too. Doesn't that there's no hard rule not to is the key. Okay, cool. That is pretty much it on this trading. I gave you guys the link to the doc uh uh so you guys want to go ahead and grab it, feel free to do that. That's pretty much it for me on this session as well. Again, Coach Victor wasn't uh he's medical leave today, so he'll he'll be back by next week, so you guys will see him again. But for everyone else, hope you guys enjoyed this training and I'll see you guys on the next one. Bye everyone.