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1 yr M.Arch vs. take year off?
Hey all,
I'm a senior in a B.S in Arch (preprofessional degree program) in Boston. Got accepted into the 1yr M.Arch my school offers. I'm 40K in debt and the 1yr would double my cumulative loans to 80K. I've heard polarizing opinion (between this forum, professors at my school, and contacts at other arch. schools).
Professors at my school are recommending I stay and do the 1yr M.Arch. Contacts at other schools are advising I take a year off, see if I can find work (not hide in grad school) see if I like the profession, (since my co-op experience was limited [I've heard its mainly CDs and very little design]) and pay off that 40K of debt while reapplying to other schools, since I never really looked into other programs (I'm not totally sold on my school's M.Arch).
I'm fine with the lifestyle architecture brings (I've heard its a lifestyle with long hours, little free time, and comparatively little pay) , but the scary thought is the potential six-figure debt along with the accompanying lifestyle that comes with $400 vs. $800/mo loans payments, because I don't want to drag the loans out 30yrs and pay essentially double with interest.
What I'm trying to find out from here:
1. Does taking a year off and working/ studying for GREs sound insane when I could get my M.Arch in 1yr?
2. How difficult are other graduate schools to get into? I have both a 3.2 ARCH and undergrad gpa to go along with an above average portfolio.
Any advice is really appreciated, cheers!
Professors at my school are recommending I stay and do the 1yr M.Arch.
the loan doubles from 40 to 80K in one year? Yeah, my car salesman would tell me to buy now. Work first.
Professors at my school are recommending I stay and do the 1yr M.Arch.
Come back for one more year, then stay, get another masters, and then come back and to do a phd, then stay and teach :)
Can't see how a masters from the same U would help you tremendously (could be wrong, though), since you'll already have a prof degree.
Come back and tell us your "fine" once you've lived it for a while ;-)
1. its not a bad idea to take a year off. If you get ANY job whether architecture or not, I dont know how possible it is to pay off that 40k in a year. It would be good to have a financing plan.
2. Im not the biggest fan of going to the same school twice. Ivies take some work to get into, but getting the money to go there is whats important to focus on, thats another financing plan.
You could defer and reserve your spot in the M.Arch program at your school and test the waters for a year. The worst thing that could happen is you have some more free time
Why not try and do both? Sounds like the opportunity to find a good work experience that will benefit you is still pretty speculative. Otherwise, postponing a career for a year to wait tables doesn't sound like a real helper of the debt situation.
If you have a decent high paying job lined up, sure. But since I've been searching for one for two years since I got my BS Arch Studies and have yet to find one, I think you'd be crazy not to take an additional year to get a masters if you have the opportunity. Taking a year off in this economy generally means you'll working at Best Buy or making lattes at Starbucks, and you're really not going to put a dent in that 40k debt with that. So unless you have some specific plan of what you want to accomplish in that year that will somehow be better than a graduate degree, I'd stay in school, get a masters and at least give yourself some more options.
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