I don't even know what RPI is but given your wishes, and the time savings, I would be inclined to pick Clemson. My guess is that 10K scholarship will cost you more because of the extra 1.5 years and the time you would be out of work.

Rennselear (RPI) has top notch technical programs from an engineering standpoint.

If you are into taking electives in that sort of thing, might be a good place to go.

Oh, I wasn't aware of the acronym. Good school, but more for engineers if you have are interested in that; probably not going to find it at Clemson.

clemson has strength primarily in healthcare architecture, both with respect to teaching and funded research. i don't know how much of that filters through to the general MArch, as the healthcare MArch is a separate track. Once you are here, I believe you can apply to move into the healthcare track, or you could have applied directly to it. Worth asking about.

other active faculty teaching at the MArch level work on sustainable design related topics, including computational fluid dynamics for energy modeling thermal energy migration through homes, zero energy homes for the southeastern climate, design-build topics related to sustainable design --- lot of energy by these young faculty with some solid results.

there is a small contingent working on rapid prototyping/algorithmic design/information modeling related topics, who have had some sustained success, either winning awards or getting things built.

and there is a small contingent working on interactive environments, primarily related to office, healthcare and educational settings, which has succeeded in winning some NSF grant money, as well as some substantial in-kind gifts from tool vendors and institutions.

one key strength of the faculty in all of these areas of focus is that they go out and find collaborators in other disciplines, in other colleges and schools, and at other universities. work tends to be truly collaborative and transdisciplinary. current collaborators have included electrical and computer engineers, mechanical engineers, software developers, human factors psychologists (ergonomics), systems engineers, industrial engineers, material scientists, bioengineering researchers, various business and finance professionals, doctors, physical therapists, occupational therapists, nurses, and computer scientists.

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i don't know as much about rpi. but i do believe that they have a particular strength and focus in lighting as it relates to architecture. my understanding is that this has been the distinguishing component of their program for some years.

Thanks for the responses. I've done a lot of research and talked to the graduate directors, but it has been hard to find graduates of these programs to speak with (particularly RPI). If there are any M.arch graduates from RPI on these forums I would be interested in connecting with them.

I was just accepted to RPI as well, and I just wanted to thank you all for your input - even a little bit helps!  I don't know about funding yet, but I'm leaning more toward them than the other school I was accepted to (UColorado-Denver).  I was also waitlisted at Cornell and Syracuse - any thoughts on those over RPI?  Not to turn the discussion another direction...

Thanks for the help already given!

Clemson it is.  RPI was generous with additional scholarship money (roughly half tuition) and really worked with me financially, however, the additional year still adds quite a bit of direct and indirect costs to my education. Hopefully they will be able to extend that scholarship money to someone else who wants to go there more than I.   Good luck to those still deciding- tomorrow is the deadline for most programs I believe!