Does it hurt your acceptance to an Ivy League school if you submit an art portfolio if you are not an art major?

Answered

It used to be that everyone thought that portfolios couldn't hurt your application but might help it: kind of like "the icing on the cake".

Now people know better.

Basically, these portfolios are almost never looked at by the actual AOs. Instead, they are automatically sent off to the heads of the respective departments, and those people usually view the portfolios and give them a ranking, usually on a scale of 1 to 5. The thing is, these people are professionals in their field who have decades of experience with film, creative writing, visual art, theater, whatever. They typically have very high standards. I would only recommend submitting an art portfolio if your art is really good, from a professional standpoint. If art is something you love to do, but you aren't really really good, don't worry! There are ways around this--usually by talking about art in your essays and maybe getting a supplemental letter of rec from an arts teacher.

Basically, if you have exceptionally good pieces of work, submit a portfolio, otherwise don't.

@bendajew's answer may be correct, but it still certainty won't hurt your app. Showing interest in art by creating your own work, and taking many art classes shows your artistic side that may be different from your major, and it shows off some of your great traits -- creative, hardworking, thoughtful. These traits won't hurt at all. Even though they may not help a ton (especially with Ivy league schools where soo many factors are in play), it won't hurt to submit an art portfolio.

That being said, however, if cost to submit a portfolio is an issue, dw about it too much. Good luck :)