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UCLA AUD M. Arch II vs Columbia MSAAD

ksadiyyah

Hey,

Ive been accepted to both UCLA's SUPRASTUDIO M.Arch II program as well as Columbia's GSAPP's Master of Science in Advance Architectural Design. Ive been doing my own research on both programs, but I wanted to know what others thought of both programs?
And if there were any alumni of either programs, what they could tell me about their experience? 

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 
Mar 22, 14 7:17 pm

1 Featured Comment

All 7 Comments

batman

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE AFTER THIS?

Mar 23, 14 1:52 am  · 
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Remember focus on budget plan from American dolllars into sense!

Oct 21, 16 6:29 pm  · 
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Which one did you choose finally? 

Mar 11, 17 5:48 am  · 
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Featured Comment

Hi there,

I study at UCLA's M.Arch II program. First of all, it was a great experience but your education depends on whose studio you take. This year, there are 4 different studios: Thom Mayne, Mark Mack, Craig Hodgetts and Guvenc Ozel. We learn a lot of advanced design tools

Thom Mayne studio has the lowest population building an island over 1million square meters in China. They do a lot of advanced architectural design studies and analysis. Once a week, every student go to Morphosis. They do, a lot of diagrams, plans, section, and renders. Many great architects in LA join their midterm and final reviews such as; Tom Wiscombe, Neill Denari. Some people may go join Morphosis after graduation.

Marc Mack studio does a lot of music and video projecting works integrated with architecture. They have a lot of fun and do too much noise :) Mark Mack's assistant Steve Lee is such a cool guy. 

Craig Hodgetts' studio experiments on extreme environment conditions. It is pretty fun as well and they do a lot of material works.

Ozel Studio which I take has the highest population and the one I know most. It is more about kinetic, motion, artificial intelligence and design. Very extraordinary. We do a lot of material experiments, 3D fabrication, animation, AR-VR. This studio is the one that you will sleep least and you will have the strongest tasks and deadlines. (This is very well known by all the students on the campus.) Our project at the first quarter was building a cyber-physical skylight which means it responses to solar energy and change its form. We started from scratch and built it until the end. It was a design-engineering subject like MIT does. Feel free to check it out from my blog responsivearchitecture.tumblr.org

Besides these studios, there are tech seminars which are more about experimenting the cutting-edge technology, materials, application methods.

It will be very hard for many people to find a suitable job this education because most of us will not be happy for going a regular architecture office. You can be an entrepreneur, develop some architectural technologies or you can find a work in very few firms in LA they start doing these kinds of works.

Btw, not the mention but LA is great with great artists, creative, smart people. You can surf and design almost any day

But the school is expensive and all those materials cost you a lot. Plus this is not on the main campus which isolates you sometimes being a real UCLA student.

Too many words to say but it should be enough for now. You can contact me anytime. Wish you good luck.

Mar 11, 17 9:01 am  · 
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dhwanigogri

Hello Serhat

I have been accepted for Studio Ozel for the academic year 2017-18. I am in a dilemma between this one and U.Mich M.Arch II.

Can you tell me a little more about recruitment avenues at the completion of the course? What kind of job openings are there apart from a conventional architect. I really like the program here but as an international applicant on visa, it could be a challenging to find a god job.

Also, Michigan form this year is a stem designated program. Really confused which one to choose. Please help.

Apr 3, 17 3:26 pm  · 
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Can USA cover everyone for architectural jobs, service, and for the country?  I don't think so.  Accounting matters to the backgrounds of those who began filing taxes within their reach... Look for existing settlement for 30 years due to foreign market. 

Apr 3, 17 4:57 pm  · 
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Dear Dhwani,

I would be happy to share my experiences. Ozel Studio has the highest population between 4 studios. It is more about kinetic, motion, parametric design artificial intelligence, machine vision, and design. Very extraordinary. We do a lot of material experiments, 3D fabrication, animation, AR-VR. The studio is the one that you will sleep least and you will have the strongest tasks and deadlines. (This is very well known by all the students on the campus.)

The program starts in August with 6 weeks of software practicing and introductions like Maya, Grasshopper, Rhino, Illustrator, Arduino, etc. Then, the first quarter -it is the hardest one because of a lot of technical learning- we learn fundamental design techniques, methods of machine vision, motion etc. and build models based on them. For example, cyber-physical skylight models. The second quarter is a link project between the final and the first quarter, where the design scale gets bigger like designing a moveable living space or a small living car. The third semester will be the space-station design where all these skills merge into a single project.

Besides studio courses, there are tech seminars where students experiment new technological design techniques.

Btw, the curriculum changes every year so, I do not know what will be taught when you are in UCLA.

I have been working as a shop assistant as well. Where we help to manage CNC, 3D printing and another type of fabrications. The wage is not that good but it is a great experience to learn all the digital fabrications.

For job profile, it is the hardest thing because not many people are looking like tech-architects nowadays but there are still options out there. I know alumni from last year work as a VR Architect, another one is an assistant in the studio. There are also some innovative architecture offices in LA that uses VR-AR, parametric design, and digital fabrication. Also, it possible to be an entrepreneur by developing some digital architectural tools. Honestly, nobody is in the stage of professional job hunting yet.

My individual goal is having entry level designer-developer job on high-profile tech companies and there are some open positions in LA, San Francisco.

For further questions, I would recommend you to contact to Benjamin Ennemoser and Mertcan Buyuksandalyaci. They are lecturer assistants of Guvenc Ozel.

Finally, you can visit responsivearchitecture.tumblr.com​ which is my blog about this year.

Wish you good luck,
Serhat Yildiz

Apr 6, 17 6:46 am  · 
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