Is an over-reliance on portfolio school grads hurting diversity efforts? Portfolio schools are expensive, majority require private loans. This is how you get nothing but wealthy white people.

I've found some of the best young creatives aren't from portfolio school. In fact, they don't have a traditional portfolio to begin with. So hopefully that mindset is changing.

I didn't go to a traditional portfolio school and I worked my ass off to get my book where it was before I got an internship. The other CW in my intern group went to VCU so I was super intimidated.... until he started taking frequent naps on the office patio.

I went to portfolio school in NYC and we were a pretty diverse bunch. Guys & gals. Sweden. Canada. India. Americans from all walks of life.

That is definitely part of it. When I was in portfolio school, I'd say 75% of the students were completely bankrolled by their parents - from tuition to gas money. And that's AFTER having already attended a 4-year institution. So you had not only racial homogeny, you also had socioeconomic sameness. Which doesn't really make for a lot of diverse thinking. Also, from what I've seen, most agencies don't even entertain the idea of visiting or recruiting from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). The talent in those schools is a precious resource that oft goes untapped by larger institutions. There's really just a general lack of interest from the industry. No one really prioritizes diversity. No one really understands it's benefits.

I don't care where you went to school. Can you do the job? Are you not an asshole? Cool. Let's work together.

@Arnold agree completely. Not recruiting at HBCUs is a major oversight. One only needs to see what mostly young black people did with vine to learn that.

Went to portfolio school and while there were definitely some people being bankrolled, nowhere near the majority were. Lots of people taking out big loans or using a chunk of savings from working previously. It was also pretty diverse.

@Strategist 1 I would imagine everyone's experiences differ. So yes, in my experience, the majority of students were bankrolled. If your experience was different, I'd be interested to hear about without you devaluing my experience. Being that we don't know one another, you can't really speak to the validity of my experience, can you? P.s. I'm one of those people who took out big loans and used savings...and I worked the entire time I was in school to supplement what loans wouldn't cover. So, I had a pretty good knowledge of who was going through similar things while in school.