AP art students are pursuing their skills and aspirations by applying for art scholarships and majors in college.

Students who want to continue their love for art are doing so by submitting certain pieces of art or  collective portfolios to colleges.

“The benefits of choosing art as a major in college is the ability to become part of a community that I would enjoy, and part of the culture of the college I end up attending,” senior Marie Marchant said.

While it may be stressful to put together a portfolio, it will be rewarding in the long run, senior Dominic Frost said.

“By applying as an artist, I hope to get into schools that my GPA and SAT scores alone would not give me access to,” Frost said.

Because a transcript or record of achievements do not really describe art as well as other pursuits, a lot of schools like to see a digital portfolio, Frost said.

“I have a website, dominicfrostart.com, which has served as my digital portfolio for all Common App schools,” Frost said.

Marchant said that compared to the regular application process, it is typically the same in her case since she is not only applying to art schools, but also to traditional colleges, so the portfolio is just an additional aspect to stress about.

“When I applied to UC’s and other public schools, I needed to upload my art to Squarespace, which is an internet sharing space like Tumblr or Flickr,” Frost said.

Frost said that sending in portfolios to Squarespace and other official portfolio or art app review places instantly makes one eligible for scholarships.

Junior Olive Werby already applied to two colleges last year for a summer intensive, which gave her a glimpse into how applying works.

“It’s really difficult to choose what art pieces represent me the most, so choosing what to put in the portfolio is hard,” Werby said. “Also getting every aspect together and in place takes a lot of work.”

Marchant said that some difficulties in the process include creating a portfolio that well represents the artist.

“Looking back at all of the work I’ve done in high school, it’s a smaller pool of work to choose from than one would think,” Marchant said. “This makes it difficult to pick the pieces that I’m most proud of and exemplify myself as an artist. It’s just like any other application only it’s in pictures and not so much words and test scores.”

Werby said that she wants to study visual art like film making, production design, photography, studio art or art history.

“I don’t really want to go to a school that is explicitly art because I don’t want to limit myself, ” Werby said. “Where I want to go could all change next week.”

Werby said she is interested in schools like Skidmore, where her parents went, Bard and Ithaca.

“I have always loved art and I am a really visual learner. I really enjoy it and it is theraputic most of the time,” Werby said. “It’s hard to put into words. It just feels right.”

Marchant said that she is planning on either majoring in art or something involving art, possibly digital media or design. She is applying to schools mainly on the west coast, such as the UC’s, Chapman and Occidental. The art schools she is applying to are Otis, RISD, Ringling and possibly Cal Arts.

“My passion my entire life has been centered around art,” Marchant said. “It’s the one thing I really enjoy doing and if I could study that and possibly make it into a career, why not?”

Frost is applying to Tulane, Lewis and Clark, University of Oregon, Fordham, DePaul, Lesley, USC, UCSB and a few other colleges and universities.

“If you care about art and feel that it is integral to you as a person, and you want to really pursue it, you should definitely apply as an artist,” Frost said.