After receiving a rejection from a top art school, some Korean students wonder whether they should appeal the decision. This is a nuanced question — appeals are possible at some schools under specific circumstances, but they are rarely successful and must be approached correctly to be worth attempting.
The Honest Starting Point: Most Art School Rejections Cannot Be Appealed
Unlike some academic universities that have formal appeal processes for rejected applicants, most art schools — including RISD, Parsons, and CalArts — do not have structured rejection appeal processes. The portfolio review is the primary evaluation, and admissions committees generally do not revisit completed decisions without significant new information.
“I disagree with your decision” is not an appealable basis. Appeals are not debates about the admissions committee’s judgment. They are formal communications presenting information that was not available at the time of the original decision.
When an Appeal or Reconsideration Request Is Potentially Appropriate
There are narrow circumstances under which contacting an admissions office after rejection may be appropriate:
Significant new information that was not available at the time of application. This is the primary legitimate basis for a reconsideration request:
- A meaningful award, recognition, or exhibition result received after the application deadline
- A significant error in the submitted application materials (wrong file uploaded, Hometest materials that were corrupted)
- A medical or personal circumstance that affected the application submission without being addressed in the personal statement
Procedural errors. If you have reason to believe a required component of your application was not received or was evaluated incorrectly (for example, the portfolio platform showed submission errors), contact admissions to request verification of what was reviewed.
What is not a valid appeal basis: “I have been making stronger work since submission,” “I believe my portfolio was undervalued,” or “RISD is my dream school and I really want to go.” These are understandable feelings, but they are not appeals — they are the basis for reapplication.
How to Submit a Reconsideration Request Correctly
If you have a legitimate basis for reconsideration:
Contact the admissions office in writing. Email the admissions director or office (not a general inquiry address) with a brief, professional communication.
Be specific and factual. State precisely what new information you have, when it arose, and why it is relevant to your application. Do not use emotional language or argue against the admissions committee’s judgment.
Keep it brief. A reconsideration request should be one page or less. A lengthy letter reads as desperation rather than as a legitimate reconsideration basis.
Do not expect a response. Most reconsideration requests do not produce changed decisions. Sending the request is appropriate if you have genuine new information; expecting it to reverse the outcome is not.
The More Productive Response: Reapplication
공식 정보: College Art Association
For most Korean students who have been rejected from their first-choice art school, the most productive response is not an appeal — it is a gap year and reapplication with a genuinely stronger portfolio.
Reapplication after a gap year is legitimate, common, and frequently successful. Students who use the rejection as a diagnostic moment — “what does my portfolio need that it didn’t have?” — and then spend a focused year developing exactly that, often produce dramatically stronger applications in their second cycle.
The gap year portfolio development should be guided by an honest critique of the specific materials that were submitted — not general portfolio improvement, but targeted development of the specific qualities that the rejected portfolio lacked.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will contacting RISD after rejection hurt my chances of reapplication? Politely contacting RISD to ask whether there is a feedback or reconsideration process is unlikely to hurt your reapplication chances. Sending an emotional or demanding message may reflect poorly. Keep any post-rejection communication professional and brief.
Is it worth asking for feedback if the school doesn’t offer it? You can ask — the worst outcome is a polite decline. Some schools will point you toward portfolio day events or open critique sessions even if they don’t provide individual rejection feedback. The information you get from those events is often more useful than what a rejection letter email would contain.
If I was waitlisted and then rejected, can I appeal that? Waitlist rejections (when the waitlist is cleared without an offer) are not typically appealable. They represent the same committee decision-making process as initial rejections.