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<p>Yale does not “recruit” artists in the same way it recruits athletes. (Someone with the name recognition of, say, Lang Lang, might be an exception.) A really good art portfolio can help your application, but first you have to get past a certain gate with the basic academic elements. For the vast majority of applicants at the most selective schools, if you don’t make the first cut on the big three – grades, rigor of curriculum, and test scores – the admissions committee will not send your art portfolio on to the art faculty for review. Fine arts faculty just doesn’t have time to review the portfolios of students deemed inadmissible on academic grounds. </p>
<p>So your portfolio will not make Yale “mind your Bs less.” But a few Bs on a transcript are not an automatic deal breaker at schools like Yale. It all depends on the rest of your academic profile.</p>