portfolio requirements
All applicants are required to submit samples of their academic work and, if possible, their professional work. The following guidelines have been prepared by the Graduate Admissions Committee to help applicants select and prepare these samples.
- Number and Type of Samples Samples of work should be chosen to cover the breadth as well as the depth of the applicant's knowledge, abilities, and interests. The Admissions Committee is interested in work that demonstrates knowledge, interest, and ability in technical areas, human and social concerns, and symbolic and aesthetic issues. The Committee considers the following types of work to be suitable for inclusion with an applicant's samples: urban design, landscape design, urban planning projects and reports, graphic design, photography, paintings, freehand drawings, analytical investigations (structural and environmental systems), building programming, measured and working drawings, computer generated drawings, and other types of work which best represent the applicant's knowledge, aptitudes, and experience. The portfolio should be considered a design problem.
- Preparation of Samples The Committee encourages applicants to submit reproductions of work instead of originals and to be judicious in the choice of reproduction methods. The Committee will assume that copies represent the actual quality of the original work in regard to line character, color, value, finish, and other visual characteristics. Slides, transparencies, CD's, blueprints, or videos will not be accepted. Each exhibit should be labeled neatly with information describing the medium used, whether the work represents an academic, professional, or other type of project, and whether the work was undertaken independently or as part of a group effort. For professional and group projects, the label should indicate the type and extent of the applicant's personal involvement.
- Size and Format of Samples The collection of samples submitted with the application must be securely bound or fastened together in a durable folder, binder, or box, whose overall dimensions do not exceed 8 1/2" x 11. Do not use a mailing tube. When you submit a portfolio as part of your application, it becomes property of the University of Michigan. If you would like to have your portfolio returned to you after admission decisions are made you must submit one of the following with your application materials:
- A prepaid, self addressed/labeled envelope
- Proper postage to cover the cost of returning the portfolio to you
- A check made payable to: The University of Michigan, to cover the cost of returning the portfolio to you
Please do not send international postal coupons. Taubman College will not return portfolios to applicants unless one of the above mentioned procedures is followed.