UNSW Portfolio Entry Early Conditional Offer Scheme

Yes. An application for Portfolio Entry is not an application for admission to UNSW. You must lodge a UAC application at the same time as submitting your Portfolio Entry application.

Note: To have your Portfolio Entry application assessed and be eligible for an early conditional offer, you must have lodged your application via UAC and provided your correct UAC ID. If successful for an early conditional offer, you’ll need to meet the adjusted ATAR requirements and list an eligible UNSW degree preference as your highest eligible preference in UAC for the specified UAC offer round to receive a firm offer.

For information on UAC and applying for admission to UNSW, visit the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC) website.

Once your portfolio has been submitted, applicants are unable to edit their submissions. Please ensure your application is complete before submitting. 

Please note: only your first submission will be assessed. Any additional applications will not be assessed.  

You can only submit one application across both rounds. Any additional applications will not be assessed. 

When reviewing portfolios and critical reviews for Criteria A, this is what we're looking for:

Crafting your portfolio

Your digital portfolio submission is the main component of the application. Your portfolio is a summary of your best creative work and provides evidence of your creativity and technical skills. You can showcase a range of different mediums including photography, sculpture, digital artworks, paintings, drawings or previously undertaken design work. Include the written or visual work that best captures your creative approach and technical abilities. The portfolio should be a maximum of 5 x A4 pages. Hard copies or physical pieces cannot be accepted - the portfolio is a digital submission, which is limited to 100MB. 

Your portfolio should be curated and crafted to showcase your best work in an interesting and engaging way. We want to see your individual style and creative approaches, and encourage risk-taking and originality. Be sure to consider how you’ll lay out and organise your work – you’ll be assessed on the quality and interest of the work submitted as well as the visual quality of the portfolio. Use the portfolio as a way of communicating your creative process, not just the final outcome. We’re interested in seeing the process sketches, technical drawings, prototypes and drafts to communicate the design process, rather than just the outcome. 

We want to see your unique and inquisitive mind, your original work, and your best technical and crafted work. 

If you’re interested in more than one degree, you’ll be prompted to submit a separate personal statement and portfolio for each degree. They may share some content, but you should ensure that they’re tailored to each degree.

Critical review topic 

Imagine you’re a critic for a newspaper with an educated but non-specialist audience and you need to write a review of a current temporary exhibition or festival program. You can choose broadly, including art and design exhibitions or new media displays. The purpose is to inform your audience and to provide some context or background for the work. You’ll need to both describe and comment on the work. The purpose is to foreground your interpretation - you’re not required to do any additional research or provide biographical details for the artists or producers. 

General tips

• Have someone check your work for spelling and grammar, but ultimately the work must be your own and not copied from someone or somewhere else. 
• Submit only your best work if you have lots to choose from.
• If making or assembling is not your best skill, showcase what is. We want to know what you’re passionate about!

When reviewing portfolios and written critical reflections for Criteria B, this is what we're looking for: 

Crafting your portfolio

Your digital portfolio submission is the main component of the application. Your portfolio is a summary of your best work and provides evidence of your ability and interest in studying your chosen degree(s). You can include written articles, essays, blogs, social media posts or campaigns, built websites or webpages, photographs, videos, a school report or letters of recommendations. The portfolio should be a maximum of 5 x A4 pages. Hard copies or physical pieces cannot be accepted - the portfolio is a digital submission, which is limited to 100MB. 

Your portfolio should be curated and crafted to showcase your best work in an interesting and engaging way. We want to see your individual talents, abilities, originality and risk-taking. Be sure to consider how you’ll lay out and organise your work - you’ll be assessed on your innovation, creativity and project skills. Use the portfolio as a way to communicate your technical proficiency in your chosen field. We’re interested in seeing the process and drafts to showcase your project skills, considerations and experimentation, rather than just the outcome. 

Critical reflection

A reflection is a form of personal response to experiences, situations, events or new information. It’s a 'processing' phase where thinking and learning take place. There are no right or wrong ways to be reflective - just questions to explore. In your 500-word critical reflection, you should reflect on a problem you've faced and tackled, and describe the impact you had on the outcome. Your reflection should include description (what, when, who) and analysis (how, why, what if). This could be done by discussing a problem that you set out to solve in a relevant subject, drawing from your experience at school, work, family or in the community.

Consider including answers to questions such as:

• What succeeded?
• What didn't?
• What did you learn?
• What could you do differently? 

The critical reflection is your opportunity to demonstrate your writing skills and help make comparisons or connections between what you’re learning and your prior experiences. 

General tips

• Have someone check your work for spelling and grammar, but ultimately the work must be your own and not copied from someone or somewhere else. 
• Submit only your best work if you have lots to choose from.
• If making or assembling is not your best skill, showcase what is. We want to know what you’re passionate about!

We’re interested in your reasons for applying for UNSW Engineering. If you’re interested in a particular area of engineering, then this should be reflected in your Portfolio Entry application and your UAC preferences.

You can also indicate a generic interest in engineering. The Faculty of Engineering has a flexible first year program (UAC code: 425000), following which you can elect to study the engineering discipline of your choice* from Year 2 onwards. If you’re undecided, let us know and we can discuss your choices and interests.

Interested in Computer Science? While most early conditional offers will include a range of degrees students are eligible for, due to competitiveness applicants will only be considered for an early conditional offer that includes Computer Science if they select a Computer Science degree or double degree as their preferred option when applying via the Portfolio Entry portal.

^{*Subject to academic performance and available places in preferred program.}

Your video submission will be assessed on its content, not the video or editing quality. Beyond ensuring the above mandatory format requirements are met, applicants can respond to the video prompt freely. Examples might include:

• Speaking straight to camera
• Speaking over a PowerPoint presentation/video
• Picture in picture, applicant speaking to camera over a PowerPoint/video montage

Some questions you could consider when creating your video:

• Why do you want to study engineering? 
• How and why would you be a successful engineering student?
• How did you become interested in engineering? 
• Why do you think you’ll be a good engineer? 
• What have you done recently to explore your interest in engineering? both in academic and extracurricular settings.
• Have you overcome an academic difficulty? and if so, how will you apply these lessons at university ?
• Why UNSW Engineering?

You can also talk about:

• Any engineering related projects you’ve recently been a part of
• Types of engineering subjects you’re passionate about in high school and why
• Engineering fields or topics you’re interested in and why