FAQs

You must submit an application for admission before you can access the Optional Arts Supplement on your Princeton Applicant Status Portal.

If you are applying through the National College Match, we will be unable to review your arts supplement or conduct alumni interviews during the Match application review process given the early timeline. Students considered in our Regular Decision review process will have their arts supplements reviewed and may be offered an interview at that time.

Your completed Optional Arts Supplement will be reflected on your Princeton Applicant Status Portal within 24 hours.

If you've excelled in architecture, creative writing, dance, music, theater or visual arts, and would like us to consider your talent, you are welcome to submit an optional arts supplement. To the best of our ability, we’ll have arts faculty review your submission and advise the admission staff regarding your abilities.

On the "Your Portfolio" tab, you can request an optional arts reference. A reference request email will automatically be sent to that individual. Please note: An arts reference is optional and will only be read by the arts faculty evaluating your supplement unless you submit it as an additional letter of recommendation along with your application to Princeton.

On the Common or QuestBridge Application, please indicate your intention to submit an optional Arts Supplement in Princeton’s member questions. You will be able to access the link to submit an optional Arts Supplement in your Princeton Applicant Status Portal.

As one of your media uploads, we encourage you to include a resume if you think that will add to an understanding of your training and experiences. Please keep in mind, information you provide in the Optional Arts Supplement will only be read by the arts faculty evaluating your supplement unless you submit it as additional information along with your application to Princeton.

You may only submit multiple Optional Arts Supplements as long as they are in different programs. For example, you can submit arts supplements for dance in performance and choreography, but you may not submit two performance arts supplements.

We support media files as large as 5GB, but please be advised that larger files will take longer to upload from your Internet connection and may stall if you are on a wireless connection or one that cannot sustain a connection for the necessary period of time. We support the following file formats:

•  .3g2, .3gp, .avi, .m2v, .m4v, .mkv, .mov, .mpeg, .mpg, .mp4, .mxf, .webm, .wmv • .aac, .m4a, .mka, .mp3, .oga, .ogg, .wav
• .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tif, .tiff
• .doc, .docx, .odg, .odp, .odt, .pdf, .ppt, .pptx, .rtf, .wpd

You may also include external media from YouTube, Vimeo and SoundCloud.

File size limits vary by format (video, audio, PDFs). Please be sure to check your arts supplement type for file size guidelines. You may also include external media from YouTube, Vimeo and SoundCloud.

The Princeton University community is rich in many types of artistic talent, but our faculty can only provide evaluations of genres for which formal instruction is offered on campus. We encourage applicants to adhere as closely as possible to the submission guidelines.

If you have questions about your Optional Arts Supplement, you may contact us at uaoffice@princeton.edu or phone 609-258-3060.

There is no fee to submit an Optional Arts Supplement.