Spotlight on UT Austin: College of Fine Arts
For the second year in a row, UT Austin’s Department of Art + Art History runs portfolio submission and review completely online (no exceptions). Many schools try to be accommodating by also allowing for items to be physically mailed in, but this really hurts the review process and administrative efficiency. Because UT Austin has established themselves as a thought-leader in this realm, I would like to highlight them here. They have done a marvelous job of streamlining the whole process for applicants and reviewers. In particular, they have done a good job at separating information from instruction, and displaying each at the appropriate time in the process (rather than all at once).
Their process starts with a very complete informational overview for applicants on their admissions website. Then, they use very brief instruction on their SlideRoom portal. This maintains a very smart division between information and instruction. When applicants are trying to first get oriented, their website provides all the information necessary. And just as important, when their undergraduate applicants arrive at their SlideRoom portal, they switch to giving very concrete instruction.
Shane Sullivan is the man coordinating their undergraduate admissions. And most of the compliments above can be attributed to him personally as well. He states:
The system is very easy to work with from both sides…I tested it out in student mode and administrative mode on my end and found it very easy to use and to train faculty on (yes, the faculty did learn how to use it) … As for mode of submission, SlideRoom is the only form of submission we now accept for undergraduate and graduate portfolio-driven admissions and for studio-based faculty searches. This has saved us HOURS of processing time in that we are not having to sort and open mail, log mail, keep track of SASE returns, AND most importantly to me, no more paper cuts and my office doesn’t look like Kodak exploded in my office.
– Shane Sullivan, MFA
Senior Program Coordinator
Undergraduate Programs, Recruitment, Admissions
