IMA Application

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I wanted to share a bit of what I put together for my NYU IMA Low-Res Application. This was the only graduate school that I applied to, so I was able to put all of my efforts into catering my application for this specific program. Reading through the application requirements, I decided to put the bulk of my efforts into the development of a really strong Statement of Purpose. (I also knew that I would be able to put together a portfolio of work with relative ease.) For the portfolio section of my application, I wanted to include a range of work that I had done, from visual work to UX design, and programming. You should note that our cohort has a wide range of students. While some students started the program with extensive programming or design experience, many other students started with little or none.

If you are considering applying to this program and want to speak with someone who has been through the process, please feel free to send me an email: beth@politetype.com.

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The Goods

My Application

1. Statement of Purpose
2. Digital Portfolio (This was my planning doc)
3. Letter of Recommendation
4. Transcripts
5. Video of Introduction

Statement of Purpose

I got a lot of value from the resources and mailing list here: https://writeivy.com/. Specifically, purchasing the $10 pdf of The Structure is Magic was absolutely worth it. It took a lot of the guessing our of the SOP writing process and gave me an easy to use structure.

I also went through what IMA provided and during the drafting process would ask myself questions based upon their success critieria:

1. Does this provide a sense of who I am beyond what can be inferred from my resume?
2. Does this show how my experiences, successes, and failures have shaped how I see the world, what ideas I have and what I want to do?
3. Does this clearly explain what my interest is in pursuing this Low Residence Global MA?
4. Does this demonstrate my personal interest in the in-person/online and global format of the program and show how I envision the sequence progressing over the 12 months of the program?

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Digital Portfolio

I ended up going with 6 projects in all. With a variety of working interactive demos, visual work, video recordings, I found the application's digital portfolio uploader a bit restrictive. I had to rethink how I wanted to present each of the pieces, but wanted to emphasize the most impact in the shortest amount of time. So whenever possible, I consolidated the work into one standalone visual or link to try and encapsulate what I worked on, thought about, and learned from the process.