Didn't go to Cincinnati but hired from there, Ohio firms like co-op grads, makes so much sense.

Having seen student work from both schools Virginia Tech to me churns out better designers on the whole.

The work from Cincinnati appears very conventional, but those co-ops provide plenty of real work to show off in your portfolio. Plus living in a city allows more access to opportunities.

Both solid schools, if VT is far cheaper I would go there, but if the difference is minimal then it's down to preference.

I did my undergrad at Cincinnati and my masters at Ohio State. I can’t speak to VT’s master’s program, but UC’s program is geared towards the practical over the theoretical (which was a big shift for me when I went on to OSU). The co-op program was a big help to me; it allowed me to come out of school with a pretty solid resume and about twice as much experience compared to just working summer internships. I wouldn’t count on co-op being much of a financial help though. When I was there, the co-op office often told us that we should expect to break even during co-ops (i.e. the income would balance out living expenses, etc. for that semester), but that largely comes down to cost of living wherever your co-op is located. I agree with Carrera that Ohio firms are big fans of co-op grads, and even out-of-state firms familiar with the program’s reputation see that experience as a plus.

That said, Cincinnati is a fantastic city and has a beautiful campus with some great architecture from Michael Graves, Morphosis, Eisenman, Hargreaves and more. I visited the campus before I was even considering applying there and fell in love with it.

You need to find a way to visit Cincinnati.  This is 2+ years of your life and certainly worth a plane ticket and a sick day.

I don’t know, just gave it a little peek….guess it would matter to me where I was going to exist for the next X years….like old buildings, but……

I will try to make it out to Cincinnati. I only got my acceptance last week and the deadline for both schools is the 15th. I visited VT already and I liked the program. I know the programs have different approaches and interest me in different ways, so I will need to look into them further.