<p>For example, would it be harder to get into RISD or UCLA’s fine art program based on portfolio alone?</p>
<p>Portfolio alone??</p>
<p>Your school choices are very specific so I can’t say but my S found university art schools to be more concerned with traditional college application items like SAT, GPA, class rank, etc.</p>
<p>The art schools were more concerned with artistic potential.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean that a university art program can’t be equally as critical of a portfolio though but there is probably much more variability between one university program to another.</p>
<p>My advice is to know yourself. Seek a teacher more than a school. Find a place that can get you from where you are to where you want to be.</p>
<p>You need to think about whether the uni or art school route is the one for you then consider where to go. University art courses will give you non-major depth, great if you have wide interests and can inform your work too. </p>
<p>Art school is a particular experience. You need to be quite focussed and have confidence in your own work when surrounded with other talented artists. Its not a typical college experience but rewarding in its own way. </p>
<p>Also, there are lots of universities which don’t require a portfolio until the end of the sophomore year when you apply for the major. Any art school that doesn’t require one for admission, I’d be very wary of.</p>
<p>Although for the most part art schools tend to give a more art focused curriculum as noted by highlyland_poppy above, there are plenty of universities that give a strong emphasis on art courses. For example, Temple University merged with the Tyler School of Art. Thus, taking art and design courses at Temple is akin to attending an art school. However, with that said, you generally can take more art related courses at art schools than at universities, who generally have more gen ed requirements and less art and design offerings. However, the operative word in this post is “generally.” You do need to check out each school’s offerings.</p>
<p>As to admission, art and design schools tend to be much more portfolio oriented than a university which tends to be more GPA and SAT oriented. That is not to say that no university requires portfolios, but most may not.
NOTE OF CAUTION: Although many universities may not require portfolios for admission, they might require them later on in order to be fully accepted to their art program. Getting into a college doesn’t necessarily mean that you will also be accepted into their art and design program. I have found that universities that don’t have portfolio requirements for admission, tend to have screened majors that require an acceptable portfolio and acceptable grades in intro art and design courses before you can be admitted into their art and design program. Sadly, there are other programs that this arises too such as communications accounting etc. When you apply to any university, you need to ask if your major interest is a screened major, which means that not every current student can get into them.</p>