Your personal statement and portfolio are your ambassadors to ACAD. The faculty committee who review your portfolio don't get to meet you in person, so they rely on examples of your work and your personal statement to tell us who you are, what you can do right now and how you might benefit from the ACAD experience.
- General personal statement guidelines
- General portfolio guidelines
- General submission guidelines
- Advanced standing portfolio guidelines
- Internal Applicants to VCD or Photography
General personal statement guidelines
Tell us about you – your background, ambitions, inspirations and goals. In a statement of approximately 500 words, explain your reasons for wishing to study visual arts and design. Include references to your artistic interests, specific influences and educational background in the arts.
General Portfolio Guidelines
Carefully select and submit 12-15 (MAXIMUM) current pieces which include the following:
- DRAWING | Demonstrate your skill and understanding of representational drawing. Show us how you handle the fundamental problems of drawing from observation. Explore perspective, light, line, shape, texture, colour and composition. Technical drawings based on the figure, landscape, and/or still life are recommended. Do not draw from photographs, magazines or other artists' work.
- VARIETY | Show an exploration of various art-making materials, tools and techniques and how you utilize their characteristics and limitations, Show us that you're not afraid to think creatively in a diverse range of media.
- ORIGINALITY | Reveal how you express ideas and concepts in your work. Include self-initiated, imaginative and creative works that communicate or respond to issues, ideas and/or themes of personal interest. Some class projects are acceptable though self-directed projects done independently of the classroom are preferred.
Portfolio deadline for Winter applicants is October 15.
Portfolio deadline for Fall Early Consideration applicants is February 15.
Portfolio deadline for Fall Regular Review applicants is April 15.
General Submission Guidelines
Applicants must submit their portfolio to us online at Slideroom. Applicants may upload images (jpg) or video (mov, wmv, flv), music (mp3) or PDF documents. For good image quality and fast upload, your image files should be sized around 1024 x 768px @72 dpi. Please keep video files under 60 MB each. Our Slideroom portal offers additional instruction for submitting your work.
For technical assistance contact support@slideroom.com. You can also access a help desk at slideroom.com/Support. Slideroom will allow you to log in and edit your portfolio as much as you like; however, please note that once you have submitted it, you will no longer be able to make changes. A $10 USD fee will be charged to the applicant at the time of submission.
Advanced Standing Portfolio Guidelines
Applicants to the Bachelor of Fine Arts Program at the 200 level or to a major at third year should submit 20-25 pieces of work with a personal statement. The portfolio should reflect the skills relevant to the program and adhere to the Portfolio Submission Guidelines.
Please note that the application deadline for BFA Advanced Standing applicants is March 15 (Fall) and October 15 (Winter).
Applicants to the Bachelor of Design Program at the 200 level should follow the guidelines below for the Internal Applicants to VCD or Photography.
Please note that the application deadline for BDes Advanced Standing applicants is March 1 (Fall). Applications for BDes are not accepted in the Winter semester.
