<p>AdvMom, although some schools require portfolios after the freshmen or sophomore year in order to continue the major, many schools only require a portfolio for admission. In fact, this is the rule and not the majority.</p>
<p>Examples of schools that only require porfolios for admission are RISD, MICA, Pratt, Syracuse, Wash U St. Louis, Otis, UCLA, Tyler, Art Center College of Design et.al.</p>
<p>Check out the following: <a href=“http://www.npda.org/colleges.html[/url]”>http://www.npda.org/colleges.html</a></p>
<p>I should note that University of Cincinnati School of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning (DAAP) doesn’t require a portfolio for both admission or continuation of progress in the school. However, they are very academically oriented for admission requiring at least a 3.5 GPA and, in many cases, more for design and architecture.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I personally would not want to send my kids to a school that requires a “good enough” portfolio in order to continue with upper level courses. This puts too much stress on the kids and provides too much uncertainty in college planning. I do know kids who attend University of Delaware who has ratings and rankings of kids in each class for each year. They must achieve a sufficient portfolio for each year in order to continue to the next year. Most of the people that I know there hate it for that reason!</p>
<p>Moreover, design projects in the real world are normally a group endeavor and not a competition.</p>