this is for the ones applying to their MLA without a design background and truly at a loss of how to proceed. these are my 4 tips of how to orient yourself when beginning to think about making (probably) your first portfolio.

this comes from myself, a Bachelor of Commerce graduate (BCom '21) from McGill University who applied for her 3year Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA 1) at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and University of Toronto (UofT). for statistical purposes, i was accepted to RISD with 50% merit scholarship, but rejected by UofT.

here are the shortcut time signatures because i do like to think between my sentences:
0:00 // basic context (who am i, what is this)
2:26 // tip 1: what is the school/program asking for? (technical vs. contextual)
4:41 // tip 2: how are you making your portfolio? (programs to use, projects to include, misc.)
7:10 // tip 3: what is your perspective? (your signature, your purpose, your expertise, your interest & lil expo of my own perspective that is shown through this portfolio)
13:51 // tip 4: what are you showing us? (flow, content, amount, your strength/weakness being an applicant w/o a traditional design background)
21:15 // summary & bonus tip (perhaps the only tip you need)

this is only my experience (and at a 50% success rate, i understand if you don't trust me!) but a scour through the internet reveals 4.67 google searches for anything remotely close to being of some advice/aid to anyone applying to a MLA, nevermind those without a traditional design background. i only make this because this would have helped me out tremendously if it existed then.

find me anywhere online and i'd love to try to help you out:
www.rashalama.com