“Portfolio” means different things to different admissions offices. For art and architecture courses it is a formal requirement with its own rules. For everything else it is an informal word for the evidence a student can show for what they have done. This guide is about the second kind: how a sixteen-year-old with a real project builds a record of it that serves every application form, whether or not the university ever asks to see the file.
In the UK, the personal statement and interview are where the evidence goes; a file is rarely requested outside art, design and architecture. But the evidence still has to exist, because the statement’s third question asks what the student has done outside education and why it was useful, and interviewers at Oxford and Cambridge draw on the statement and, for some courses, on written work.
In the US, a group of universities accepts optional uploads. MIT accepts a maker portfolio and a research supplement. Caltech accepts engineering, coding, maker and science-fair portfolios. Columbia accepts up to four maker items and a research abstract. Harvard, Yale, Brown and Dartmouth accept research abstracts or academic work. Others accept nothing beyond the standard form, and there the portfolio’s job is to feed the Activities line, the 300-word Additional Information section and the essays.
So the portfolio has two audiences: the few who will open it, and the many who will read a sentence distilled from it. Build for both.
Six things, and no more.
A one-line description of the problem. What the student noticed, and who has it.
What was made. Photographs or screenshots of the thing itself: the prototype, the stall, the campaign material, the film still. Not mock-ups; the real thing in use.
Evidence of testing. Who used it, how many, what they said, what they did. A table or a chart if there are numbers; quotes if there are not.
What changed. Version one beside version two, with the reason.
The result. One paragraph, honest, including what did not work.
The reflection. What the student would do next, and what the project taught them that relates to what they want to study.
Universities that accept uploads mostly want them short: Dartmouth asks for a one-page research abstract and no lengthy submissions. A single page, then, is the format to build first, because it serves every application. Title and one-line problem at the top. Two images. A short paragraph under each of the six headings. The student’s name and the dates. If a university wants more, the page can expand into four items for a maker portfolio or two pages for a research abstract; if none does, the page is still the source for every 150-character activity line and every essay.
Polish before substance. A designed cover on a project with no test data impresses nobody who reads applications for a living.
Claiming the team’s work. Interviewers ask what the applicant did. The portfolio should say “I” where it is true and “we” where it is true.
Leaving out the failure. The failed first version and the fix are usually the most convincing part.
Building the portfolio after the project. Evidence gathered at the time is specific; evidence remembered later is vague. Keep the ledger, the feedback slips and the photographs as the project runs.
A project finished by the end of Year 12 (or the equivalent) gives the student the summer to write it up and the autumn to use it. A project finished in Year 11 can be revisited and extended. Starting in Year 13, with applications due, is late.
Title: Homework Club, Year 7, autumn 2026. Problem: Year 7 students had nowhere to ask for homework help after school; I noticed because my brother is one. What I made: a weekly 45-minute session for up to six students, with a sign-up form, a plan for each week and a feedback slip. Image one: the sign-up form and the room. Evidence: eight sessions, attendance 5, 6, 6, 5, 6, 6, 5, 6; 44 feedback slips; the most common request was worked examples, not explanations. What changed: from week four I prepared three worked examples per session and cut the talk to ten minutes; confidence ratings rose from an average of 2.1 to 3.8 out of 5. Image two: a feedback slip and the confidence chart. Result: the head of year has continued the club with a Year 10 volunteer I trained; my own weakness was timekeeping in the first three weeks. Reflection: I want to study education, and this was my first experience of planning teaching, changing it from evidence and handing it on. Name, dates, and a line: “I planned, ran and evaluated the sessions myself; the head of year approved the format.”
That page takes a reader ninety seconds. Every 150-character activity line, every essay paragraph and every interview answer can be drawn from it.
For those courses the portfolio is a formal requirement with published rules on format, number of pieces and content, and interviews are often built around it. Follow the course’s own guidance to the letter. The advice in this guide is for every other course, where a portfolio is evidence rather than a submission.
No. A PDF is enough, and a link to a live website or app is a bonus where one exists.
Only where the work is visual or moving: a device working, a presentation. Carnegie Mellon accepts a short video for engineering and computer science applicants; Washington University accepts a ninety-second hobby video. Otherwise a photograph and a paragraph do the job.
It can, but it should lead with independent work. Princeton, unusually, asks for a graded paper marked by a teacher; that is a separate requirement, not a portfolio.
Some do, as an optional upload, and most do not. Every college reads the activities list and essays that a portfolio feeds. Build the one page for its own sake; upload it only where a university accepts it and it adds something.
The problem, what was made, evidence of testing, what changed, the result including what failed, and a short reflection tied to the intended course. Two images. One page.
Not sure what to build? The CURIOO Project Finder asks a student ten questions and suggests three projects sized for twelve weeks: one practical, one ambitious, one for a cause they care about.
Parents: the Signature Project guide is a five-page PDF you can forward, at curioo.com/signature.
Sources. Quoted from UCAS and each university’s current admissions pages. CURIOO is not affiliated with or endorsed by any university named. Requirements change each year; check the university’s own pages before applying.
