I just wanted to wish everyone the best of luck. The next few months will be miserable, but hopefully they will lead to some good news!

Good luck to all of you guys!

Don't forget, and I can't stress this enough, to get your portfolio reviewed before you submit it! I met so many people who were rejected this past year (a lot who didn't even get on AnimatedBuzz), who said they didn't know you could have your work reviewed in advance. It helped me so much, really, and don't hesitate to ask a lot of questions. This is your future you're dealing with. Don't be shy about asking if you're doing something right or wrong.

If you're not going to be progressively updating your portfolio, having a book professionally printed is always a great way to go. It may cost you a bit, probably a little upwards of fifty dollars, but there's something about a good quality print and an actual stitch-bound book that can't be beat.
 lulu.com offers portfolio book printing. I have not purchased printed works from them before, though, so I cannot vouch for their quality.
 
If you ARE going to update your portfolio regularly and you are intent on using something other than the generic plastic portfolio that you can pick up at the craft store, I highly suggest spending the money on a portfolio from a high end photography store or finding a post-bound scrapbook with an undecorated cover.
 
if you have trouble finding something that you legitimately like, I reccomend making your own post bound album. When I applied for CalArts I got really decorative and fancy, but going for an actual job I think you should make a post bound book with a cloth or faux leather cover material. There are several online retailers of book cloth, which looks really attractive and high-class when you finish it. One pro about making your own post bound book is that you can choose your own page size. You can have pages printed and then you can have them cut to size and then you can punch the holes yourself. Doing this, you can add and remove your own pages whenever you want, but it'll still be the closest to to an actual book.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egOdRIoAc8g <-- its very... crafty but it's a good tutorial.
http://www.hollanders.com/supplies/BrowseCategory.aspx?CategoryID=6e5c8672-968c-44b0-8e06-7215054d5b53 <-- Hollanders is a great bookmaking company to purchase from. You can get your binding boards, screwposts, and bookcloth or imitation leather through them.
 
I don't know. Something about page protectors seem very... tacky to me unless you invest in the high-grade matte finish protectors. If you are going to have pages printed, it's going to be even less neccesarry to actually have them. So long as you're printing on high quality paper (which you always should when dealing with professional matters) you should have no need for plastic sheet covers.
 
Hope that helped. Good look on your venture!

In the end it's all about compatability issues, really. Everyone and their grandmother knows that Macs are WAY overpriced until you get up to their full-on Mac Pros. Saving for compatability between operating systems is doable but, in my experience, can lead to the occasional hiccup and a lot of work that's just not worth it.

Another thing, about Laptops. When you're working with video, let alone rendering animation, your computer doesn't have to be a little bit beefed up, it has to be a lot a bit beefed up. I know individuals with computers that run around 3 or 4k made specifically to work with video, and they can still hardly function when it comes to editing and finishing high quality video work. If you're only going with a laptop for the sake of convenience, my advice is to not do it. Get an actual computer. A 3k desktop gets you a lot more than a 3k laptop will any day, and honestly, the only deciding factor between a mac and a windows operating system should be what your school uses in its video department. At least this is my approach with CalArts. Plenty of people still use Dell and HP, but the few people i've talked to said that Macs were just the industry standard and that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon, even if all the specs are the same between computers.

Jamie Tan said:
It does, however, suck for those who spent all those years studying their brains off to get straight As, only to find out later that they are of no value. Wasted Asian determination.

I wouldn't say it was a waste. You're probably a lot more likely to get external scholarships than people like me who ended up being average in school.

Good grades play to your advantage elsewhere, but I think I'm particularly greatful that CalArts places such an emphasis on portfolio.  I spent my free time taking online classes so I could get out of the hell-hole that is High School and work on my portfolio.I'm glad of all schools they understand that because  even though I was one point short of an A in AP World History and I made a B in a REALLY SUCKY Chemisty class , that it doesn't mean I suck at critical thinking or am incapable of achieving things or am any less motivated to do what I want than anyone else. I KNOW I was on par with the valedictorian.

I would have gotten better grades had I known that I had any sort of opportunity to win scholarships, but in all honesty, with average grades, no disabilities, and not falling into an ethrnic minority, I'll probably be lucky to get 200 bucks from any sort of company.