WHY CHOOSE DAD?
A BUYER'S GUIDE TO PORTFOLIO SCHOOL
This page is a lot. On purpose. Choosing a school is a big decision, so we’d rather give you too much to think about than too little — starting with the question we know is already at the top of your list...
COMPARE / JOB PLACEMENT
All three schools are putting grads into the industry. So instead of obsessing over slightly different placement numbers, ask the question that matters more: which school will prepare you best for the job once you have it?
97%
DAD grads from 2020–2025 who looked for a job and found one.
88%
Class of 2025 survey respondents who reported receiving at least one job offer within three months of graduation.
90%
Miami Ad School reports that 9 in 10 graduates are hired within six months.
DAD / YEAR BY YEAR
2020
100%
2021
100%
2022
100%
2023
94.3%
2024
97.1%
2025
96.2%
Our all-time placement rate from 2020-2025
97.5%
“[DAD students] are exactly the kind of talent a creative-first agency like OKRP wants to hire. And we’re not the only ones noticing — just look at the list of agencies the grads are joining. It’s awesome!”
Amy Juel
BarkleyOKRP
Head of Creative Services
COMPARE / THE BETS
Portfolio school can feel like a gamble. "Will it be worth it?" is the eternal question. And when every school asks you to spend very different amounts of time and money, it's hard to know which choice will hit the jackpot. So before we dive deeper into every choice, know what you're betting on.
THE BET:
Do more relevant reps produce better creatives and better portfolios?
TOTAL TUITION
$27,000
15 MONTH PROGRAM
THE BET:
Does your creative career actually benefit from a master's degree?
OUT-OF-STATE TUITION / 24-MONTH PROJECTION
$55,678
24 MONTH PROGRAM
THE BET:
Are you getting the Miami now or the Miami two decades ago?
NYC TUITION
$38,000
24 MONTH PROGRAM
COMPARE / THE SIMILARITIES
VCU and Miami built their reputations on big-agency placement, industry access, professional connections, and award-winning student work. Those things still matter. They're also not exclusive to them.
Place grads at major agencies
Put students in front of top recruiters
Build an industry network before graduation
Learn from working agency creatives
Get real agency experience while in school
Win major student awards
“DAD is a newer portfolio school, but you wouldn't know it. The talent of their graduates competes on the same level of other competitor portfolio and design schools. DAD is definitely a go-to when I'm looking for emerging talent.”
Allison Lu
Pereira O'Dell
Director of Talent Acquisition
COMPARE / AWARD RANKINGS
We're the first to admit, awards aren't everything. But when a major industry awards show evaluates student work from schools around the world, the results give us one useful outside signal of what students are producing right now.
SOURCE: THE ONE CLUB FOR CREATIVITY / 2026 YOUNG ONES COLLEGE RANKINGS ↗. MIAMI TOTAL COMBINES THE SEPARATELY REPORTED MIAMI AND NEW YORK LOCATIONS.
DAD and VCU finished one point apart. That alone isn't proof that we're better than them. It's proof that DAD belongs in the same conversation as one of advertising education's established heavyweights.
We messed around and put up a triple-double on Miami Ad School. DAD doubled up the point total of both Miami Ad School locations in the U.S. We scored 117 points. Miami scored 31. New York scored 25.
Not all Miami Ad Schools are the same. MAS Madrid scored 281 points, but the Miami and New York locations only combined for 56. If you're applying in the U.S., judge the locations you'd actually be attending.
DAD / AGENCY PIPELINES
Awards tell you what industry judges think. Jobs tell you what industry employers think. Our best repeat customers are the 11 agencies below who have hired DAD Grads not once, but over and over again.
AGENCY DESTINATION
CITY
DAD GRADS HIRED
GS&P
SF
12
VML
CHI/KC
07
DAVID&GOLIATH
LA
07
RPA
LA
06
HIGHDIVE
CHI
06
BARKLEYOKRP
CHI
06
DENTSU
NYC
05
DEUTSCH
LA
04
ANOMALY
NYC
03
HAVAS
CHI/NYC
03
OGILVY
CHI/NYC
03
COMPARE / THE PORTFOLIOS
We've shown you what industry judges and agencies think, but now you decide what you think of our work. Open all three, compare, and decide which school is making the kind of work you'd like to see in your future portfolio.
“There is something magical about this school right now. The energy of the founders is infectious and you can see it in the students as well as their killer portfolios.”
Zach Canfield
Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Associate Partner, Director of Talent
COMPARE / THE TRAINING
All three schools are trying to prepare you for a creative career. Toggle each training mode off and on to see what your time inside that school is designed to feel like — and what it believes will make you better.
EXPOSURE MODE
More creative tools make you a stronger creative.
A broader creative-school experience where core advertising concepting shares the schedule with adjacent classes that expose you to skills you won't necessarily use in an ad agency.
Go too wide and you risk getting stretched too thin. Every class spent getting exposed to another adjacent creative skill is time you aren't spending going deeper into the agency job you're actually trying to get.
Do you want to spend more time learning more things, or focus your time getting better at the exact job you're trying to get?
ACADEMIC MODE
More school makes you a stronger creative.
Brandcenter is a two-year master's program inside VCU's School of Business. Alongside concepting and portfolio work, you're completing graduate credits, semester courses, lecture and laboratory hours, program requirements, and a major project presented before a committee review panel.
You came to learn how to work in an agency. But you're learning it inside the structure, pace, and requirements of a university. More school may earn you a master's degree. It also means spending two full years as a graduate student before you leave school and start doing the job full-time.
If you want an agency job, should your training feel like a university?
AGENCY MODE
More practice makes you a stronger creative.
A school deliberately designed to behave more like an agency environment than a traditional classroom.
DAD doesn’t feel much like college. Ideas get killed. Feedback can be blunt. Partners rotate. Deadlines come fast. If you’re expecting a traditional classroom experience, practicing the job before you have the job can be a shock.
Do you want to practice agency life before you live it?
COMPARE / THE MASTER'S
Bachelor's degree
Not required
Master's degree
Not required
Strong creative portfolio
Required
Agency creatives are hired to make creative work and your portfolio shows how good you are at generating that creative work. A master's degree just shows you're good at paying for lots of school. If you wanna become a professor at a university after your ad career is over, then sure, a master's would help make that happen.
Agencies don't care about degrees.
They care about portfolios.
“I’m always amazed at the level of professionalism when I’ve attended a DAD portfolio event. [They] really go above and beyond a traditional presentation, the student’s portfolio work is super polished and ready for the next level — a job at an agency. DAD staff is KILLING it.”
Eddie Woolsey
VML
Talent Acquisition
COMPARE / THE TIME
We get you working while the other two just keep going. DAD is 15 months. VCU and Miami are 24. That’s nine months less that you're stuck in school and nine months sooner you can start the career you came here for.
COMPARE / THE SHORTCUT SCHOOLS
Getting good takes time, right? Your early work teaches you how to make your later work better. That's just how life works. DAD gives you enough time to make a lot, throw away the stuff that sucks, and then spend an entire final quarter focusing on only your absolute best ideas. A shortcut school gives you less room to practice, less room to improve, and fewer chances to discover the work you actually want in your book.
A STRONGER PORTFOLIO
60 briefs with us means 60 chances to find the best six for your portfolio.
Your best six can show up anywhere in Q1-Q4. More reps give you more chances to find them. Then Q5 gives you 10 weeks to polish and produce what survives.
Shortcut Schools
Will you find your best with them or just what you had time to make?
Fewer reps mean less choice. You may end up polishing what showed up first, not what you were ultimately capable of.
A STRONGER YOU
LEARNING IN SCHOOL
More practice.
JOB HUNTING
A better portfolio.
WORKING IN AN AGENCY
A more prepared creative.
The goal isn’t just to leave with a strong portfolio, it’s to also become a stronger creative while you’re building it. A stronger portfolio helps you get hired. More training helps you feel ready once you are.
COMPARE / THE PRICE
Cheaper doesn’t automatically mean better. More expensive doesn’t automatically mean more valuable. After comparing the work, the training, the time, and the outcomes, ask yourself what are you really getting for the money?
$27kDAD tuition
$27,000
TOTAL TUITION / 15 MONTHS
+$11,000
$27kDAD baseline
$38,000
NEW YORK / TOTAL TUITION / 24 MONTHS
+$28,678
$27kDAD baseline
$55,678
OUT-OF-STATE / 24 MONTH PROJECTION
COMPARE / FINAL REPORT
You questioned everything. So we put everything on the table — the work, the training, the time, the price, and where it can all lead. Now you make the call.
Denver Ad School is a 15-month advertising portfolio school for future art directors and copywriters. Attend in Denver or live online. Leave with the ideas, portfolio, and experience to compete for creative jobs at the biggest advertising agencies in the country.
