Gone are the days when students are expected to focus just on academics. Drawing from Western and European influences, the Indian education landscape has also evolved to account for several other parameters that indicate a student’s capabilities beyond just their marks. Many colleges take a holistic perspective while evaluating a school student.
What do I mean by portfolio building?
Your portfolio is essentially a representation of who you are, in terms of the various activities you have engaged in the past couple of years. It includes your academics, school projects, competitions, sports, events participated in, events organized, etc. Portfolio building refers to the process of engaging in such activities that add to your learning, experience, and exposure.
Why is it necessary?
There are two ways to look at this:
One of the key objectives of your school life and education is to build yourself as a well-rounded capable individual. While the educational curriculum does cover a huge chunk of that, there is so much more beyond the curriculum that can contribute significantly to your personal development. Engaging in activities beyond classroom studies will give you the necessary exposure and open up new avenues for learning and development. Through these activities, you also develop an understanding of what you find interesting and what you don’t.
Another perspective is to look at what colleges expect from students. A large number of colleges in India do look at a student’s entire portfolio and not just their grades to give an admissions offer. This is further elaborated in the next section.
Which colleges look at a student’s portfolio?
Let’s look at a basic segmentation of college admission procedures:
(A) Colleges that offer admissions just on the basis of either your marks of an entrance exam. Examples are IITs, BITs, AIMs, most Delhi University colleges, etc.
(B) All other colleges. This includes colleges that do look at your marks or take an entrance exam but at the same time look at multiple other factors while selecting a candidate. Examples: Christ University, Symbiosis, Flame University, IIM, etc. Such colleges look at what students have done beyond their core curriculum.
Type A above doesn’t care about anything apart from your marks/ performance in an entrance test. The type B colleges are ones that look at student portfolios.
How do colleges look at a student’s portfolio?
A few of the basic ways in which colleges look at parameters beyond just your marks are:
Taking interviews
Asking students to write essays as a part of the admissions process
Collecting information from the candidates on parameters like achievements, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, etc. in their application form.
You now have a basic overview of what portfolio building means for school students, why it is necessary, which colleges look at student portfolios, and how such colleges look at the student’s portfolio.
In the next article, we will discuss more about portfolio building and cover questions like, when to start, how to go about the process, what kind of activities to engage in, and whether to focus on breadth or depth.
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