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Art Portfolio Review Days and National Portfolio Review Days

The Cooper Union School of Art application for Fall 2013 will be available in Fall 2012. Students interested in applying and requesting information should review the application information at the Office of Admissions. Applicants for freshman and transfer admission will be required to complete and send in a hometest of visual problems and a questionnaire along with an optional sketchbook, additional original work and/or slides as support materials. Details on the hometest will be e-mailed to applicants in late January. If you apply regular decision and do not receive the hometest by the second week in February, please call the Admissions office at (212) 353-4120. High school and/or college transcripts and SAT I scores are submitted separately.

Each application is reviewed by a faculty committee representing a cross-section of disciplines in the School of Art. Final decisions are made by the School of Art Admissions Committee based on all the elements of the application, with substantial weight given to the hometest problems. Admission is offered to approximately 60 students. Admissions decisions will be available in early April.

The School of Art holds a series of Art Portfolio Review Days in the fall, at which prospective students bring portfolios for review and have the opportunity to learn more about the school from faculty and alumni. The Art Portfolio Review Day consists of an orientation, a guided tour of the facilities and an individual portfolio review by faculty or alumni of the School of Art. The dates of the Art Portfolio Review Days will be announced in early September.  

Each year, faculty and alumni of the School of Art also visit portfolio day events throughout the country sponsored by the National Portfolio Day Association. Like the Art Portfolio Review Days, portfolio days are not a formal part of the admissions process but often play a role in successful applications. Art work is reviewed by faculty members and alumni who advise potential art students. A large percentage of students accepted to the School of Art have been reviewed by faculty or alumni at a NPDA Portfolio Day, an Art Portfolio Review Day or through the Saturday/Outreach Program.

Cooper wants to see sketchbooks, actual work, as well as work appropriate in digital format.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.