Expert: Sean Trapani - 9/22/2009

Question
Hi, Mr. Trapani,

I'm a 25-year-old editor working in the Language Arts department of a giant textbook publishing company. What I want to be, however, is a great copywriter. With that goal in mind, I hope to enter a graduate-level advertising/copywriting program as soon as possible. What concerns me though is that I have no advertising experience, and thus, no portfolio. Additionally, I have long since been removed from a college campus, and I can't really think of anyone to ask for a letter of recommendation other than my current boss. I know I will need more than that to impress an admissions committee. So, my real question here is: What should I begin doing now to make myself a strong candidate for grad-level advertising studies? What do you like to see on applications? And, how soon can I expect to be ready?

Thank you.

Answer
William,

I cannot give you a blanket response for this question. Every school - and every department within that school - "likes to see" different things on their applications.

For example, we offer a grad-level copywriting program here at SCAD. We generally don't look for someone with any experience in advertising. We're more interested in finding great communicators, and then teaching them the ad part. We look for samples of creative, technically sound writing; and, if the applicant has no ad background, we ask them to come up with at least three ads from scratch (to see how the applicant thinks).

Other schools, like VCUs Brandcenter, has a more involved application/writing test as part of their application process.

These are the only two accredited graduate degree copywriting programs I know of (not to say that there aren't more of them). But again, each school looks for something different. So first find a program that interests you, and has a good reputation - and then see what you need to show them.

Best of luck,

ST