Fall is typically our largest incoming cohort. That means more perspectives, more energy, and more art directors and copywriters to partner with, learn from, compete with, and make better work with.

Fall tends to bring in more students coming directly out of college. You're entering with more people who are at a similar point in life and asking a lot of the same questions you are.

A lot of people finish college, send their work around, hear some version of “not quite there yet,” and decide to give it another six months. But six months by itself doesn't fix a portfolio. Six months of briefs, critique, creative partners, and making a ridiculous amount of work does.

Maybe you find a job while you're waiting. Maybe the money is decent. Maybe it's not exactly what you wanted, but you tell yourself it's only temporary and you'll do it for a year and figure things out later and... then life gets comfortable, leaving gets harder, and the creative career you actually wanted keeps moving further away.

If you miss Fall, the next new DAD cohort doesn't begin until Spring. That's a long time to spend thinking about the creative career you could already be working toward.