For pretty much the past 2 years my college career has been leading up to this point. What is "this point," you might ask. To put it lightly, the point where a second-year architecture student is put to the test, the point where everything he or she has done will be carefully sifted through with a fine-toothed comb, the point of (almost) no return, the point where the fate of their college career rests in the hands of a few under-paid college professors that barely recognize their names (if they're lucky). I could come up with more, but the creative juices just aren't flowing today. This point is the end of the second year and the hopeful beginning of the third.
There are three points in the architecture program here at the University of Idaho where the students must undergo an application process to continue in the program. The first is after the first year. This is where they weed out the weaklings based only on their grades. The final is after the fourth year, when the student must apply to graduate school. But by far the most grueling, the most nail-biting application process is at the end of the second year. This is when the students must submit not only their grades but also a design portfolio consisting of their original work to be scrutinized by a few select professors. This is when they weed out the rest of the weaklings that only made it this far by their GPAs.
You can tell a lot about an applicant by their portfolio. Firms look at a portfolio more closely than they will a resume. Not only is it a type of resume but it is also a practical way to evaluate the basic principles that all design is based on. In essence, the portfolio says whether or not someone is a good designer or not. A bad portfolio is just that, bad. It will show. Nothing will say, "Hey! look at me! I'm a cool design." And the reviewer will say, "Wow! what a piece of junk." On the other hand, a good portfolio will take even the poorest design and make it seem like a work of pure brilliance rivaled only by Notre Dame du Haut by Le Corbusier or the National Assembly building in Dacca by Louis I. Kahn.
For the typical architecture student, the pressure to create a work of art in portfolio form slowly builds from his class at the University of Idaho (probably ARCH 151), and usually culminates at around 3:00 pm on the friday following finals week when either the student says, "I'm done..." or says, "I'm done messing around with this thing and I'm going to kill myself!" (For me, it was closer to the first).
So without any further rambling I give you the weight off my sholders (at least the cover for now, I can't upload the .pdf so I'll have to figure out some other way to show it off).
12 years ago
