About Your Portfolio
Portfolios should be submitted when you apply to Susquehanna, or shortly thereafter — however they must be received by June 15 so that new students can be enrolled in the appropriate fall semester art classes. Portfolios are evaluated shortly after they are received, and applicants are typically notified of their status by mail within four weeks, provided they have been formally admitted to the university.
If you have questions about the status of your portfolio or the department in general, please email department chair Amanda Lenig at leniga@susqu.edu.
Guidelines for Preparing Your Portfolio
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Include 8–10 pieces of your best current work.
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Please create clear, high-resolution digital images of physical work.
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Work does not have to be from high school art or graphic design courses. If you haven’t taken a lot of these courses, don’t worry! Neither have many of the world’s best artists and graphic designers. Send us what you have — especially those amazing personal projects sketched on the back of your chemistry notebook!
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Graphic Design and Studio Art portfolios must contain at least four drawings or paintings.
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Photography portfolios must contain at least two drawings or paintings.
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Exercise caution if submitting work from high school graphic design classes or from yearbook. A few pieces are fine, but don’t submit a portfolio composed primarily of, for example, Photoshop exercises or yearbook layouts. We do not expect you to know how to be a graphic designer already… or even how to use the software.
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Do not submit work in only one medium, unless it is painting or drawing.
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Do not submit original artwork. Portfolios will not be returned.
Submitting Your Portfolio
River Hawk Admissions Portal
Once you apply, and are accepted to Susquehanna University, you will be given access to your River Hawk Admission Portal. There, you will find a copy of these instructions, a sample portfolio and have the ability to upload your own portfolio.
Acceptable submission formats include:
- A working URL to a personal portfolio website (Behance for example — but all platforms are acceptable)
- Upload individual images to Dropbox
- A single PDF file