Do you want to become licensed? If not, Cranbrook or the AA might suit you.

I'm not totally sure about license. I have thought about the AA, for sure.

The reason I ask is that accredited programs that would allow you to become licensed are obligated to spend a lot of the curriculum teaching technical and professional topics to satisfy NAAB. Even though weird, speculative work dominates peoples perceptions of schools like Columbia and Sciarc, it would only make up about half of your classwork. If you aren't interested in that sort of thing, you might be better off in a more focused, non-accredited program.

I'm interested in the technical side of things as well, but I see what you say about the possible advantage of a more studio-focused, non tech program, given my stated goals.

so Sci.Arc, Cranbrook, AA DRL, anyone got any other schools? I met some people who went to Univ. Of Michigan and referred to it as Mi.Arc, anyone know if this holds true?

i was referring to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djBKQNVj5Cc

If you are an artist with $200K burning through your pocket, then Columbia is a no brainer. If not, going to Columbia is a no brainer of a different kind.

You may be better of continuing to freelance for free. You'll learn just as much and will save a bundle by switching to geico.

I'm not freelancing for free? I'm paid fairly well actually. you mean to say i should do internships rather than go to school?

interesting idea if so, the problem being that I really want to teach at the college level. I've got some teaching experience already and I quite love it.

penn, maybe? this sounded a lot like what was going on when i was there, but it's been a few years now, so maybe the program has changed somewhat. although i would never call my education technical, i ended up choosing penn over columbia partially because i thought having a little more practicality would be good for me. penn also has a semester at the AA, which sounds like it could be of interest to you.

I hope you realize that you can teach at a college level and not necessarily get an actual architecture degree-- you could look at getting an urban studies, art history, economics, fine art or even a planning degree for your masters or doctorates degrees.

Those fields would allow you to profess at architecture colleges while allowing you to apply any variety of stylistic concerns to your course of studies. That's because those things are mostly target neutral and not necessarily confined to any technical or aesthetic standards.

In either case, CUNY is suppose to be a relatively good school (that's cheap) in Brooklyn.

http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/ssa/portfolio/student_work.html

It being a smaller (less important) school but with the incredible amount of access (i.e. NYC) may allow you to get away with more than you might be able to swing at Columbia (doubtful).

If I were you, I'd very, very seriously consider one of either AA or Bartlett. The two schools, while on some levels very dis-similar, have both positioned themselves at the top of the non-traditional arch world. Depending on the exact degree program and studio, your experiences will vary greatly.

Depending exactly where your interests lie, the Staedeschule Frankfurt or die Angewandte Wien might also be up your alley.... Although I'd argue that those two programs are less interested in a purely art-based discourse, but rather a speculative architecture that's heavily technology / media influenced.

I am looking at AA, and bartlett has been circulating in my head. Interesting thoughts on teaching, unicorn ghost. After many years studying and teaching in art schools, I'm not interested in an MFA, but urban studies could possibly be interesting. Iamgray, i'm actually pretty interested in the tech/media stuff. and I dont want a purely art based discourse, I just want to have flexibility and freedom and to not be put through the mill to be an industry slave.

thanks everyone, btw

I think you would be better off going to a school with a faculty that is researching what you want to research...you can dream anywhere and if you have taught that degree isn't all that necessary. Take say terreform (cool cutting edge research) where does the dude with dreads teach, assuming you wanted to work therm?

well a dude with dreads certainly isnt at the top of my important factors list, but i think i get yr point. "you can dream anywhere and if you have taught that degree isn't all that necessary. " worked well for a while but now i wonder. seems the next level takes more school, perhaps i'm wrong.

on a side note, 4 of the 7 terreform people went to harvard, but in my understanding harvard is a very narrow industry school?

iamgray, what program were you thinking of at bartlett? it's a bit hard to make sense of what the programs actually are.

anyone know any good schools in berlin?

sarmath, sorry for the ambiguity regarding the Bartlett. They've got a number of different courses aimed at students with differing levels of experience and wanting differing outcomes.
The Diploma course is the only one for example that leads to Professional license in GB. There are post-grad M.Arch degrees as well, but they most likely require a first degree in architecture.

It's really up to you to discover which program is best for you.

As for Berlin, they've got the TU (technical uni) and UDK (Art uni) which are the two big ones. I suggest spending some time with google and their respective websites.