Anonymous asked: Is it hard to balance school work and free time at Cooper? Is it hard to have a social life/time for yourself?

It is hard to balance school work and free time. Usually you end up using most of your time on projects, so you’re working, and the spare time you do actually get is either from slacking off, some sleep, or when you need to eat. It’s possible to make it work though and still have some sort of social life/time for yourself, you just have to have good time management skills.

Anonymous asked: Did you write descriptions for your hometest works?

I’ve already answered this question, please use the tags to find the answer.

Anonymous asked: if an applicant is accepted, does cooper union also keep the physical portfolio work sent in with the hometest? i really want to send in my best things but I don't necessarily want to throw them away for the next two years if i'm blessed with an acceptance letter

They keep it and give it back around the end of your soph year/beginning of junior year.

You are allowed to get back your original portfolio work before that, but they keep the actual home test pieces for two years.

lavenderkingluther asked: Hey, so I was one of the (lucky?) ones to get deferred from Cooper Union. Could you tell me a little about the school? I've never had the chance to visit and most likely never will unless I get an acceptance letter (wishful thinking ah). What are the students like? The teachers? The dorms? Is it really as god awful sleeplessly hard as all of college confidential claims? Is it worth it? Can a laid back and kind (but very hardworking and passionate)hippie kid from Madison Wisconsin thrive?

You’ll be fine as long as you can handle the workload.

Everything can be done in a manageable time frame, it’s up to YOU though if you’re going to make it all at a timely pace or procrastinate and do it all last minute (which would thus result in many, many sleepless nights). 

For the dorms/social life, and teachers, please take a look at the tags to find the answers to those questions, as well as how the school is like.

Good luck!

Anonymous asked: can you help clear up what (besides the hometest) they want me to submit. 'At least five (5) examples of your original art and/or design work. These examples may be drawing,painting, graphic design, printmaking,sculpture...' how are my sculptures or paintings going to fit in the box? if I submit pictures of the peices I wouldn't be submitting the original art... hmm

Home test: the 6 assignments they gave you.

At least 5 examples of original work: anything you’ve been working on during these past few years (preferably most recent work) either in art class or at home for your personal enjoyment or projects.

You have to put in as many of these original works as you can, and if there is something you want to submit but is TOO BIG to fit into the box, you must take a very good quality image(s) of the work and submit it on a flash drive that will GO INTO the box (don’t forget about it!!!!! VERY IMPORTANT!). You would still be submitting the original art, it’s just too big to transport. It’s totally reasonable and the admissions people totally expect you to send a USB with images if your work is too big—heck, they don’t want huge sculptures in their admissions office…

Anonymous asked: hi! so every hometest i've seen online has a description of each prompt, but do you submit a description to them to review? it doesn't say in the instructions but i would like to provide an explanation

No, you don’t need an explanation. 

Think of it this way: do artists usually leave explanations of their work in the museums and galleries on those white little notes that are shown next to their works? (It’s usually the curator or someone else who writes those in museums…). The answer is no, so you can do the same for the home test. 

You should include instructions if your piece is to be handled in a specific way by the reviewer in order for them to fully realize what the home test piece is trying to convey.

Good luck!

Anonymous asked: In your opinion, do you think it's important to have a common theme throughout the home test while still completing the prompts?

I don’t think it’s important to have a common theme, I think it hinders someone’s thinking process and doesn’t allow them the full range of ideas that they can possibly come up with if they have a theme for their home test.

Anonymous asked: Can you give descriptions for your artwork?

What kind of descriptions? As in what I focus on conceptually, or what materials I use? Please be more specific as to what you’d like to know.

kikityembe-kukutyomba asked: How would you describe Cooper's residence hall?

Having not lived there, I can’t describe it perfectly, but I have been there plenty of times to hang out with friends and to sleep over when I would have big projects that required all nighters…

I think it’s very convenient to have it just a block away from Cooper, but the rooms are really small and it’s much more of a living space rather than a working and living space. There’s not a lot of room and it can get cramped if there are just too many things. Some rooms have better layouts than others and you just kind of get lucky if you get a larger dorm room than someone else on the same floor as you.

Anonymous asked: Hey! I noticed how willing you are to answer everyone's questions so I thought if ask one, too. I know they say to have at least five portfolio works, but how much would you say is too much? I have about 12 pieces that I'm sending, and I'm also sending a book with my photography in it which has about 40. Do you think I should cut down the amount of photography I'm sending? And thank you so much if you answer this!

I think you’re fine, but if you’re unsure, you can have someone who is an artist/art teacher who knows about photography that can take a look through your selection of works that you’re presenting in the book and he/she may be able to help you either cut down or rearrange them in a way that best shows your skills in the medium.

Good luck!

Anonymous asked: hey dumb question most likely but where the education summary asks for a high school average, is it referring to the applicant's weighted or unweighted average?

I guess weighted, but ask a guidance counselor just to be sure.

Anonymous asked: i already turned my hometest in but i realized that i didn't include a works description list for my supporting portfolio on the usb because they didn't explicitly ask for it is this ok do you know???

I think you’re fine as long as you have the USB labeled in some way as “Your Name” and the files in some way “Your_Name_#” or something like that so that it’s SUPER DUPER OBVIOUS that ALL that work is YOURS. 

:o

Haha just like if you’re over the top about it, then it’s good, ya know…

Anonymous asked: why do all of these hipsters keep asking you about home tests? do you work in admissions or something?

Haha, no, I don’t! I made this blog in hopes of showing my home test and artwork, and I wrote that I go to Cooper (I made it right after I got accepted). I never really posted any of my actual projects, just some photos, and people began to ask me questions about the admissions and home tests, etc. I went to the Saturday Program Portfolio Prep class, which helped me a lot with the portfolio and home test, so I kinda blame them for getting in, so I guess that also helps me with answering the questions people ask (although it is very logical most of the time…). 

So I eventually deleted all of my photos and now I just answer questions, while still having my home test available to look at! I’m only trying to help people out. :)

artsysavvy asked: Sorry to ask another question, but I had another thought. Am I supposed to be making 6 new pieces in addition to the hometest to send to them?

The 6 pieces ARE the home test. The other work they require is original portfolio work that you’ve done before the home test, e.g. class work, personal (hobby) work.

Anonymous asked: Hi! I was wondering how intense the work/projects actually are at Cooper. Like, do you have very much time for socializing/exploring the city/working a job or is most of your time spent on school work? And how intense are the core classes like humanities or science?

Most of your time is spent on school work, you may want to get a job in order to pay for supplies and rooming, but I would suggest a job that would be once a week (like one day a week only) so that you can have maximal time on projects and essays.