Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Overview

Your portfolio says a lot about you: your level of enthusiasm and how you interpret ideas through art. The College of Art and Design is interested in reviewing your best work. This helps us in evaluating your ideas, creativity, and potential. For submission into a BFA program within the School of Art, School of Design, and School of Film and Animation, a portfolio of your artwork is required.

Acceptance of your portfolio does not guarantee acceptance to the university. 

Programs that do not review portfolios as part of the application process are the BS in motion picture science, BFA in new media design, BFA in photographic and imaging arts, and BS in photographic sciences.

*Information on this page relates to undergraduate portfolio requirements. All of the College of Art and Design's graduate programs also require a portfolio. View graduate portfolio requirements

Portfolio Evaluation Opportunities

An overhead view of RIT faculty reviewing portfolios.

Prior to submitting a portfolio, there are several ways for prospective students to receive an evaluation of their artistic skills from acclaimed faculty in the College of Art and Design.

National Portfolio Days

National Portfolio Day (NPD) events connect young artists interested in pursuing an education in the visual and related arts with experienced college representatives from the top art and design schools across the country. Students receive feedback on their portfolios and learn about academic programs. Students receive feedback on their portfolios and learn about academic programs. No admissions decisions or scholarship awards are offered at NPD events, but RIT’s College of Art and Design can accept your portfolio as the visual portion of your application.

NPD events are offered in-person in cities across the country as well as online.

RIT Open Houses

Portfolios can be reviewed at RIT Open Houses.

Connect and Critique

This virtual event for high school seniors allows students to schedule a one-on-one, 20-minute Zoom appointment with an RIT faculty to have their portfolio reviewed. Learn more about the annual fall event at: rit.edu/artdesign/undergrad-connect-critique. 

Requirements

An instructor works a student through their drawing.

What is the College of Art and Design Looking For?

Creativity and Original Ideas

The ideas you present are just as important as the work itself. You can demonstrate creativity through innovative ideas and content, interesting composition, and proficient use of materials. Portfolios will be reviewed on the basis of pictorial composition, storytelling, creativity/originality of ideas, drawing and design ability, a sense for the use of materials, and attention to detail.

Portfolio pieces could include but are not limited to: 

  • 2D work: paintings, drawings, collages, photographs, digital art, prints
  • Sculptures made from any materials
  • Fiber and mixed media work
  • Design-based artwork
  • Marker renderings
  • 3D modeling and renderings (both digital and physical)
  • Animations or storyboards
  • Original character designs or sketches 
  • Puppets, wearables, and/or installation artwork
  • Graphic novel spreads
  • Video files of sketchbook page turning
  • Video or scene from a film

Since drawing is the foundation of many disciplines within the College of Art and Design, our BFA programs in illustration, medical illustration, painting and printmaking (studio arts BFA options) require that applicants include drawings from direct observation. This means drawing, rendering, painting, etc. where you are creating the piece from directly observing the subject, not mediated through a photograph or digital tool. The use of materials is up to you — anything from working on a tablet to materials such as pencil, charcoal, or paint are welcome.

Please include in your portfolio: 

  • 7-10 pieces of your best visual art work
  • For motion work, limited length of work to no more than 3 minutes in total per application
  • Create an individual file for each piece of artwork, making sure the artwork takes up the full image frame
  • Title, medium, and description (your role in any collaborative work) should be typed into the Description Box within the RIT Portfolio Submission Portal

Please do not include:

  • AI-generated artwork. All work must be completely original. 
  • Artwork copied from photographs, comics, fantasy, movies, or pop culture
  • Fan art or clips from video games, or pieces made in gaming platforms
  • Mood boards or screenshots from the internet
  • Scripts, creative writing, short stories or written code
  • Performing arts pieces such as dance, music, and theater unless your contribution to the performance is towards creating visual elements (props, backdrops, or costumes) 

Submitting Your Portfolio

Portfolios can be uploaded electronically via the RIT Admissions Portal. An authenticated login will be required. 

• If applying with the Common App, you will receive instructions for creating your RIT Admissions Portal account via email. It could take 24-48 hours to receive the email.

• If applying with the RIT Application, use the same login credentials. 

• Portfolio submission is due at time of application deadline.

Submit

Frequently Asked Questions

Please feel free to email any questions you have to portfolios@rit.edu.

That’s fine! We recommend submitting what you feel is your overall best artwork. If you are looking to supplement with more artwork, we recommend sitting down and looking at objects directly and drawing from direct observation.

You are welcome to take photos of a page spread within your sketchbook and submit each page as individual portfolio pieces. Additionally, you can submit a short video of you flipping through your sketchbook if you have multiple pages. This would count as one portfolio piece if submitting a video. 

The 3-minute time limit is the total amount of combined media time in your portfolio. 

We highly recommend applicants to the College of Art and Design attend a portfolio review event listed at the top of this page.