Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc)
Pratt Institute
University of Southern California (USC)
Tulane University
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Temple University
University of Oregon
Cranbrook Academy of Art
New York Institute of Technology (NYIT)
Kansas State University
Learning Experience in Manchester school of architecture
I would like to share some experience in MSA.
Facility
we notice the new Benzie building (Manchester school of art) is attracting some student to come to study here. But as architecture student you will be staying in the old building (Chatham) side which only have new facade but nothing changed as you will not have individual space/desk/room. You will be sharing the room with other years. And there are no studio culture and even enough of lockers. Most of us choose to do work at home.
Course organization and teaching
The course timetable changed every year and the organization has not improved even student complain about wrong timing of some deadline. If you are dreaming about what the course will teach you I can tell you the answer: NOTHING. The only thing we learn from the school during all those years are: learn by yourself. Barch skills(drawings and computation skill) session is not structured properly that student only learn half of the thing. And March does not have any skills session at all (except one group).
Tutors
The school is dominated by many senior tutors that large percentage of them don’t have much working experiences, academic contribution and computer skills. Some atelier agenda are outdated, meaningless, shallow and not established. It reflects on the quality of the tuition and common you get from studio also. ‘I like….’ ‘I don’t like….’ ‘It looks like…’ ‘It doesn’t looks like’……Some tutors even have bad temper that cause student’s mental problem. 1/3 of the student in a year apply for deadline extension. Many reason I heard is mental illness.
Marks
The marking process is not transparent. 90 out of 120 marks are all based on tutor’s opinion on the project. This is not a problem, the problem is the mark between atelier and tutors are every every different. The same standard of work marks 10% different by different tutor in different atelier. The external examiner has recognised the marking situation here already.
I also studied at the MSA. I have just finished third year. This is true. Not having studio spaces makes it much harder to work together, there is no studio atmosphere, as a result there is not much discussion or even SEEING/KNOWING what everyone else is doing in your own atelier, let alone other ateliers.
Third year grading at the end of each term is dependent heavily on cross-atelier reviews. You get reviewed by a tutor from your atelier and another tutor from another atelier. The problem is when one tutor is more senior than the other. This means that if you're unlucky, the other tutor will rip your project apart and your spineless tutor will agree along with what they say regardless of the fact that they have been giving you tutorials for the past X weeks. Everything you do will then have to adjust to the other tutor's opinion, which is hardly even relevant to your atelier's agenda.
Tutors have shallow ideas about architecture and so students have shallow work - this is probably the worst thing about the school. The work is not interesting, and does not form a part of today's discussions on architecture. The design process taught by the school is old, outdated and boring. They have a hard time accepting other design methodologies.
Yes far too many students apply for extensions... mostly because the system is rigged. All you need is a note from your doctor.
The only way you get to learn how to design is by yourself.
Advice for students there now: read up on academically relevant books and ideas, look at work by OTHER SCHOOLS such as Bartlett or AA, try to get into the schools where relevant academics teach, even ones like London Met, Westminster, Greenwich - don't be deterred by the overall ranking or the 'name' of the school. Be acknowledgeable about who's who, who teaches where, who does interesting work.
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