I spoke with Lorraine Serra of Portfolio College Counseling (portfoliocc.com) about attending a National Portfolio Day (NPD). We spoke over Zoom during the pandemic in November 2021, so some answers refer to how the NPD was run then. Learn more about NPD HERE. Watch the Interview HERE if you wish.

Maureen: Okay, hello. Thank you for joining us here at my art lesson. Tell us a little bit about your business and your work in portfolio management.


Lorraine: Thanks for having me today. This is really exciting. I’m Lorraine Serra and I’m the founder and director of Portfolio College Counseling, its portfoliocc.com. We have been around since 2008 and we are dedicated to working with Art and Design students who are applying to both college and graduate programs worldwide, actually. So we help both on the academic side and the artistic side and a big part of what we do is helping students to develop and prepare their portfolios. 

Maureen: Fantastic! So, I have some questions about portfolio development. Can you tell us what you recommend for a physical portfolio for students?

Lorraine: That’s an interesting question. Most students to apply don’t need them. There are no in-person interviews. But for a portfolio Day, for instance, it really does not have to be anything elaborate or expensive, you know, something that can accommodate the largest work that you plan to bring. It can be, you know, a cardboard folder, or they have these pleather ones with zippers and plastic sleeves. So, something like that, something that will accommodate your 2D work.

Maureen: And how many pieces of work do you anticipate a student should have in their portfolio

Lorraine: To bring to a portfolio day?

Maureen: Yes. 

Lorraine: So I actually have asked some of my students what they did. There does not seem to be a limit, but most of my students have brought between 10 and 20 pieces, and they seem to be able to get through that with the time that they have with each college. Between 10 and 20 is fine. 

Maureen: How do you recommend they prepare that work for that portfolio? 


Lorraine:I would definitely recommend that they organize it and edit it out work that duplicates other work. Work that they aren’t comfortable with. Really present your best work. If you have three-dimensional pieces or large pieces, I suggest photographing them and bringing the photographs. Some students bring a laptop or an iPad, so you can put your work into Google Slides and show it that way. Just in case there is something wonky with the internet in the hall, I also suggest making a PDF of the work.

Maureen: Agreed! Should students bring a sketchbook?

Lorraine: Definitely! Definitely, and I think that’s one of the things that they often leave out. It gives a lot of information to an experienced reviewer. As they flip through it, they can chronologically see your development, what things interest you, what ideas you attempt and abandon, and what ideas and concepts you move forward with. It’s really good to show your development and visual thinking. Highly recommend bringing one. 

Maureen: Excellent. Now, how do you prepare students for going to a portfolio review at a college or a portfolio day in terms of being prepared for what they could hear? 

Lorraine: Well, it’s a good experience for what they’ll have in college, which is critiques all the time. In every studio class, you’re going to have critiques. Really, they really need to learn not to take the critique- if there are some negative aspects- personally. And understand they and understand that it’s really designed to help them advance their work and improve it, so… And also they’re going to hear different to their work from different people to their work from different people because part of it is subjective, no matter. So, just be prepared for lots of different points of view about your work.

Maureen: Good, just a quick follow-up to that. I know that, with my students, I’ve heard some unfortunate stories from them about receiving harsh feedback. Fortunately, in my experience, that isn’t typical, but I often do describe to students that, you know… depending on the schools that you see and what their experience in a day could be, they could be grumpy, cranky, and sometimes harsh.

Lorraine: Right, right. That’s really unfortunate, and that’s really not the role of the reviewer, whether it’s someone from admissions or someone from faculty. So you know, you try to bring the student back to a level of confidence about their work and just say basically what you just said is, you know, having a bad day or you know they were pressed for time or something like that, but definitely don’t take it personally. 

Maureen: Good, excellent, thank you. Should parents come? 

Lorraine: Parents can come, and this year, they’re only allowing one extra person to come beside the student as more or less as a placeholder, not really as emotional support, but for somebody to stand in one line while you’re being reviewed at another college.

Maureen: So, it’s good to have a second person but it doesn’t necessarily have to be mom or dad?

Lorraine: Correct. Well, you know, Mom and Dads are usually good for transportation, and… Yeah, otherwise, you really spend a lot of time waiting online, especially for the really popular schools. You can hit more schools if you have a placeholder person, and it’s totally acceptable; nobody objects to that.

Maureen: And now my question is, what mistakes do you see students make? I know [in an earlier conversation] you were flipping that question and discussing the best strategies for having a good day. So, do you want to go through some of… the things you’ve garnished over the years?

Lorraine: Sure, I always advise students to know what they’re asking for in terms of what schools they want to apply to. So, I would… the list of who will appear at each of the NPD (National Portfolio Day) is listed. So I advise students to select the schools they want to be reviewed by before they go because it can be very chaotic when you walk in. 

Maureen: And to prioritize, right? 

Lorraine: Yeah, because if you spend two or three hours there, you may only end up seeing three or four schools between the lines, and this goes for online, too. It’s not a quick process. Have questions, be prepared when when the reviewer is flipping through your portfolio if there’s a little space ask questions that you’ve been wondering about.. Can you change majors? Is there a foundation year? Anything. Let them know that you know a little bit about their school. Very important to have your work organized, which we touched on before, and be able to talk about your work. Really important, they may stop as they’re looking through your work and say, “Well, tell me a little bit about this; what inspired this? How did you make it?” Be comfortable talking about your work, and sometimes that takes practice with students who are a little shy about their work or a little more introverted. They need to rehearse that, you know, what they want to say about their work. One thing that students forget to do is to take notes. In the rush of the day… they see a bunch of schools they all say different things they come back, we talk about it, I say okay so what did the school say and they “I don’t remember.” Take notes, take names, take business cards, and send a little note that says, “Great to meet you today. I look forward to applying.” Those are just good little professional tips that I pass along.

Another thing is to- students often go to more than one NPD,-and if you’re only going to one, go early enough so that you have time to revise your own work. Don’t go like the day- they’re scheduled through the fall- but don’t go to one that’s two days before your application deadline because then you won’t have a chance to incorporate any of their suggestions into your work.

Maureen: Thank you for joining us today. 

Lorraine: Thank you so much for having me it was a pleasure!