1400 sounds fine to me....

As I found out in the process, GRE/GPA is only a small part of the equation. Your scores are certainly good enough to apply, you will not be a laughing stock. More important are your recommendations, personal statement, and portfolio. Or so I've been told. I spent a lot of time on my portfolio and my personal statement. I'm applying to top-ranked schools as well, though I've already scratched Columbia off my list...

Marc

mpsyp--> i noticed from a previous post that you did very well on the GRE as well..but I'm curious as to why then you scratched Columbia off your list? I heard somewhere that it's not as selective as some of the other ivy league schools....

Well, I started with about 9 schools on my list and a few had to be eliminated. Columbia was one of them because of my impressions after visiting. I was not as interested in the student work and I got a sense that the program was geared more toward the theoretical side, which isn't necesarily a bad thing but it didn't quite resonate with me.

Several students that I spoke with weren't so happy with the school's organization (one student mentioned that they were not exactly greeted warmly at orientation and mentioned scheduling conflicts, etc), and I also got the impression that it was one of the more expensive schools, less scholarship money available. Also, I didn't see all of the facilities, but they were fairly cramped in comparison to some other programs.

Of course, a first impression is not always correct, and Columbia was the first school I saw... but it's all I've got to go on and I just had to eliminate a few. Parsons was the other that got scratched. U of Cincinnati was recently added.

Marc

marc

why did you scratch parsons off your list? i am applying but haven't visited yet (planning to do that if i get in...)

I visited on a studio crit day and was mightily underwhelmed. Much of it was just first impressions based on what I sa that day.

In one studio, a student was proposing a project that looked like he spent about 2 hours on it. It was a 3/4 semester crit, which means the project was supposed to be pretty far along, but the kid had one sectional drawing that looked like it had been copied from a bar napkin and some sort of unintelligible map drawing. The professor was visibly upset and totally reamed the kid, which was what he deserved, but the way in which he was reamed was pretty ridiculous.

The professor actually lectured the student on some sort of discussion about how his road-cover-bridge was not ecologically sound, and what about the frog that needs to cross the road? He went on and on about this stupid frog analogy, repeating himself over and over to no real end. I don't know, I guess I was hoping that the prof would just say "This is totally unacceptable."

Perhaps it wasn't the profs fault but I didn't find it particularly insightful, nor was it a pleasure to see both student and prof sink to such a low level. I actually just left the crit because it was taking so long and nothing was getting accomplished.

Another crit was what they call a "silent" crit. I liked the sound of it -- students put up their boards and sat down, not saying a word. They were not allowed to talk. The 3 critics looked at the boards and simply discussed it aloud. I like the idea because I think it's good for a student to hear what someone will think of one's presentation without being able to present or defend it in words.

Unfortunately, the projects were so abstract that the critics' conversations were pretty silly. "I think it has something to do with flight." "Or maybe those lines represent some sort of sound wave, and perhaps there is an effect that is reproduced in the structure's form?" It was like they were grasping at straws. Personally, I think that the whole format would be better suited to more coherent, developed projects. The ones they were discussing were very much the "architectural collage" variety, in which one is not quite sure what the building's purpose is.

I guess I found it to be too theoretical and wispy for me. Of course, it is hard to judge from a single day, but I just got the feeling that the whole environment was not really my thing. Lots of attractive young ladies walking around in the lower East Side, though... :-)

Marc

P.S. I saw an undergrad crit and thought that it blew away all the grad crits I had seen...

marc

hmmm...that's sort of disheartening - were the graduate students and undergrads in the same studios?

Nope...

On the silent crit, I have to give some benefit of the doubt, though. Perhaps I was the only one in the room who didn't know what the program was. It very well could have been clear that all of the projects were supposed to be air-traffic control towers. Who knows. I just knew that what I heard sounded like a whole lot of B.S.... =(

But look... you might as well apply and go see the school for yourself. You may have a completely different experience.

Marc