Researchers, performing artists, visual artists, and makers may submit optional portfolios for review by MIT staff or faculty through SlideRoom. For more information on each type of portfolio, please review the descriptions below. Creative portfolios are truly optional, and should only be submitted if they feature work that is both significant to you and relevant to your MIT application.
Portfolios must be submitted by the same deadline as your corresponding application cycle for both first-year and transfer applicants.
Research Supplement
Students who have worked on a significant research project outside of high school classes may consider submitting the Research Supplement via SlideRoom. If you have worked on more than one research project, focus on one project that is most significant to you.
- Please answer a brief questionnaire about your research experience.
- Include a PDF of your abstract or research poster, if available. If the work being submitted has been published, provide a citation.
- Nominate your research advisor, mentor, or Principal Investigator to submit a letter of recommendation directly through the SlideRoom portfolio.
Note: only one Research Supplement is permitted per applicant.
Music & Theater Arts Portfolio
Students with exceptional musical, theater arts, or performing arts talent who would like their work to be reviewed by professional faculty from the MIT Music & Theater Arts department may submit a portfolio via SlideRoom.
- Musicians: Submit two recordings representing contrasting styles or periods, 10 minutes total combined duration. Each selection must be an unedited solo performance, and accompaniment may be included if appropriate. (Shortening the length of a video or compressing the file size is permitted.)
- If you play two instruments equally well, you may optionally choose to submit a separate music portfolio for each instrument. Please create a second SlideRoom account using a different email address to submit a separate portfolio for your second instrument.
- Composers: Submit one recent composition score in PDF format.
- The composition portfolio is currently designed for musicians who compose music using Western musical notation. If possible, we ask that submissions that feature music production or electronic beats provide some musical notation, scores, or arrangements.
- Actors, dancers, directors, and designers: Submit up to three videos or images. 10 minutes maximum total combined video time.
- Screenwriters/playwrights: You may submit one or two scripts. Submissions should be no longer than 10 pages total. If your work was performed and recorded, you may submit up to 10 minutes total of video.
- This portfolio option is meant for screenwriters/playwrights only. While MIT values creative writing, we do not currently offer a portfolio to review creative writing, essays, poetry, etc.
Visual Art & Architecture Portfolio
The Visual Art & Architecture portfolio is designed for students with exceptional creative talent who would like their work to be reviewed by professional faculty and staff at MIT. You should consider submitting work via SlideRoom if your work is a significant part of your application and demonstrates strong creative talent for a young artist.
- We encourage all types of media art, including design, drawing, painting, mixed media, digital media, photography, sculpture, and architectural work.
- You may submit a portfolio of up to 10 images of your work for review. Include the title, medium, a brief description, date completed, and a brief description of each work’s concept or inspiration.
Note: only one Visual Art & Architecture portfolio is permitted per applicant.
Maker Portfolio
The Maker Portfolio welcomes engineering, crafting, or coding projects of your own design and making that are substantial, original, and technically creative. Although submissions are not restricted to stereotypical engineering topics, we will still hold projects to the same kind of critical thinking standards as engineering projects. Maker Portfolios are reviewed in SlideRoom by the MIT Engineering Advisory Board. We evaluate portfolios on the basis of creative ingenuity, technical skill, and potential impact on the maker community at MIT. We are most interested in the relationship between what you make and why you make it.
The Maker Portfolio questionnaire
The Maker Portfolio begins with a questionnaire about what you make, how you make, and why you make. The questionnaire offers space to share highlights about a featured project, details about your collaborators, and additional context. Your responses in the questionnaire help us match your portfolio to the reviewer best equipped to take a first look at it.
Media uploader
After the questionnaire is completed, you may submit up to 20 media attachments to your portfolio. The media you upload should provide clarity on relevant goals, setbacks, learnings, and decisions. Remember, we want to know about your build process—not just your visible end result.
- All media attachments must include clear explanations.
- Do not upload more than 2 minutes of video total across your entire portfolio. ONLY include video clips if they help us understand your project better than photos (like if your project has moving parts that are hard to understand without seeing them move).
- There is no bonus for submitting a video reel, showing yourself on camera, or producing flashy work in the style of a content creator. Consider using a voiceover explanation or overlays to make your video more time-efficient.
- Be clear about what work is completed versus still in progress. It is fine to submit works in progress, but we can only review the work you have completed so far.
- We can only review projects where you have provided sufficient evidence and documentation of your build process. For code projects, we can only review them if your code is provided, ideally version controlled.
- Assume your reviewer has general expertise in your Maker Portfolio category—but please explain things that might not be obvious if we have not done the exact kind of project you are submitting.
Note: only one Maker Portfolio is permitted per applicant.
Portfolio fee and fee waivers
The fee to submit each portfolio is $10.
If the submission fee presents a hardship for you and your family, you may qualify for a fee waiver. To request a fee waiver, send a brief email to our SlideRoom portfolio team with the subject line “SlideRoom Fee Waiver” at least 3 days before the corresponding application deadline. Include your full name and date of birth in the body of the email.
Your SlideRoom portfolio must be in progress to receive a fee waiver; we cannot proactively grant fee waivers for portfolios that have not been started.