DAL has a much stronger undergrad program than UBC therefore most students are already well-prepared and choose to stay. It's a smaller school and community too. It helps if you have a thing for McKay-Lyons.

Since Canadian tuition is virtually free (compared to our southern neighbour's), consider stepping out of your confort zone and take the different school for M.arch. I did the same 10 years ago (although with different schools) and never looked back.

Thanks so much for your advice! I guess I will have to wait another month to find out. I really like the idea of choosing another M.arch program too.

The Dal program will get you into their Masters program (you can't do Dal's masters if you do ENDS at UBC).  However, if you already have an undergrad degree why are you going back for another undergrad degree that will most likely not give you advanced standing when you later pursue an M.Arch degree?  

You should be applying for Masters of Architecture programs, not undergraduate programs like Environmental Design (unless you definitely want to go to Dal for your Master's).  You can apply to Masters programs at UofT, UofCalgary, and UBC with your current undergrad degree.  Going through the ENDS program (despite it being a fantastic program) is just prolonging an already extremely long process if you wish to pursue licensure in architecture as a final goal.  If that is your end goal I would get in contact with UBC's School of Architecture ASAP and see if you can be reviewed for admission to their Master's program for the upcoming school year instead of the ENDS program.

Congrats on getting into the ENDS program though.  It's extremely competitive!  Only twenty were admitted the year I entered the program out of apparently hundreds of applications.

beds grad here. i can demystify the "why beds grads stay" question. it's pretty simple: once you finish the last term you know that you're very close to going on an 8-month work term (which can be extended to a year and eight months). The last term also has a reputation for being the toughest. So even if you're sick of school and/or halifax at that point, you don't really need to be in school or halifax for a large portion of your masters.

People do apply to other masters programs and get in, but for the reasons i outlined above, they often decide it isn't really worth their time to do something like go to Toronto for 3.5 years.

I think that "sustainability" is such a nebulous term that you shouldn't use it as a factor when deciding between these schools. do you -need- to be doing computational/parametric stuff? dal doesn't actively discourage this but they don't have a strength in it. so that might be something to consider.

A bit of reality for you...

I graduated from UBC in 1989, no one ever cared what school I went to, never looked at my "interesting" drawings from school, most only cared about my skill set and could I make them money i.e. drafting skills reigned supreme in the day.  I look at resumes and portfolios all the time and really don't care about school projects, or where they went to school.

In the real world where we actually build stuff, detail stuff and don't care about paper architecture it's more about what your skills are and what kind of project experience you have. Learning to be able to design is critical but learning how to translate an idea into reality is way more important..... because I am guessing you'll want a job once you complete your studies????

Before making your decision I would suggest you consider summer employment or intern opportunities too. I was always more interested in what my summer job was and where I could get real working experience. Vancouver offers a huge selection of office types with plentiful work, something a large city can offer. I would encourage you to ask architects what they want or need.... it's unlikely you have thought that far in advance but if I were investing time, money and effort in an education over next several years I would think you might want to understand about the end product you'll end up with.  

whistler- I assume you work somewhere in the Lower Mainland?  What schools seem to be putting out the most useful Masters students in your opinion (UBC, Calgary, UofT, Ryerson, McGill, Dal)?  Do any schools in particular seem to be behind the curve?  Would really appreciate some insight if you're okay with providing it!

The best employees I have ever had came from a school that had a co-op program.  A couple recent grads from Waterloo were particularly good. I don't hire fresh graduates as they are too "green", mostly because I don't have a firm that has the ability to hold their hands too much. 

Once they get some good basic skills and know their way around a basic set of drawings we offer a pretty good environment for learning. ( good variety of project types, good opportunity to "own" the project and ability to manage the project from the design development stage through construction. )

Co-op programs or good summer intern jobs are great to get up to speed with what it takes to bring a project from concept through to Construction Documents. I personally believe small firms are better at that than large firms. Even a small summer cottage / cabin makes for a start.  We often take on a really small project just for young designers in the office to design and manage the whole thing.  Important to know how to put a complete package together.  In large offices you can often get stuck doing the same kind of task over and over especially when just starting out... at least that was the issue when I first graduated.

Lastly, I never did a co-op program myself but always had great summer intern positions from second year undergraduate right the way though my masters and often part time jobs through the school year to help out a few profs with competitions or deadlines etc.  I built up a great network of past employers ( 5- 6 established  firms ) by the time I graduated which made it possible to always find work or get good referrals.

Thanks for the comment Non-Sequitur and cheers for the detailed response whistler!

I'm unfortunately out of the running for Waterloo since I have a non-B.Arch. undergrad.  I'll try to make the most out of co-op and summer gigs once I'm back in school!

Your firm sounds nice whistler.  Taking on smaller projects for the greenhorns is a really great idea.

Hey - I did the Dal BEDS program (2015) and I continued onto the M.Arch.

I wanted to stay at Dal for the following:

1. out of the 4 full years (2 BEDS, 2 M.Arch), you get 2 degrees and 1 full year of co-op. I'm currently on my M3-M4 workterm in Guatemala City at Taller KEN and I was in Berlin at Zvi Hecker Architects for my B4 work term.

2. Familiarity with the faculty. It's a pretty tight knit school, the director occasionally has drinks with us when we have our Friday night Liquid Lounge. People are approchable, and you can figure who would get along with you best during your thesis years way early on. I really wanted Catherine Venart but she's on sabbatical when I get back in September, so I'm thinking Diogo Burnay, Christine Macy and mayyybe Roger Mullin. I work well with all three and I think going into thesis I have an idea of what to expect from them.

3. Emphasis on building. I'm not the best at technical drawing but I love building. During the Freelabs, our 2-week design elective at the end of the summer semester, I've had the opportunity to build a house (partway) and public furniture on the waterfront. It's seen as somewhat as an homage to the Ghost labs started by BML. Even when we don't have freelabs, I've been asked to produce a 1:1 detail multiple times which I think is really helpful to see at that scale.

What frustrates me about the school:

- The faculty need to communicate more. Seriously sometimes it gets way frustrating. The students have an unusual amount of power and deadlines get changed constantly during BEDS. Things can get pretty disorganized, the kind of shit that UofT wouldn't deal with during my undergrad years.

- Our co-op coordinator didn't give us ANY help during our search for work. This year was particularly hard and on top of that I was not organized enough to get my portfolio out. The coordinator would just post shitty jobs on our job board (seriously, I have no desire to work a government job in Gatineau for 6-8 months).

- Facilities. Its annoying when the laser cutter is down, the spray room is not ventilated and thus cannot be used. We had little use of the CNC for the longest time until James Forren came around. I imagine UBC has a fantastic facility.

I'm obviously biased so take that into account, but I really like it at Dal. Hali is a weird city but it can be lots of fun. Especially considering the East Coast (drinking) Lifestyle

-S

Hii , first of all congrats for getting accepted into b.ends program!! :D

I have been searching around and I could barely find any information online related to the b.ends programme admission at ubc. (Only read from few forums that they only select 30 applicants this year from hundreds of application.)

I am planning to apply for the program next year, that being say can you please tell me some recommendation on preparing for the portfolio, or when applying? I would like to transfer to the program from ubc's visual design program or arts program.

Your reply will be greatly appreciated!

no, I am not in ubc yet. I am planning to transfer to their Arts program next fall , and then from there planning to transfer to the ends program. I wonder which one did you decide in the end.