Take the shorter route and there is no need to add more schooling. Dal's reach and influence is far greater in eastern Canada/martitines and has it's particular ... how do I saw... McKay Lyons flavour... if you're into that sort of style. I don't know much else about that part of the country.

Carleton has an excellent digital studio with CIMS and although Ottawa may not be the most busiest of social cities, it's construction scene is skyrocketing... both commercial, residential and huge transit investments. Something to consider if you plan to stick around for a few years afterwards. Carleton's abroad program is pretty well known.

Hi Tuck,

I graduated from BEDS.Arch and subsequently did my M.Arch at Carleton (2-year), so feel free to ask away. Lots to say on this, but I'll just address your questions directly.

First, don't concern yourself on the timeframes. Dal is 3 years and 8 months, while Carleton is I believe 3 years and 4 months (?) - there is only 1 semester of difference between the two. You get two degrees at Dal instead of one - something to consider. Having the co-op is excellent, IF you can get a good job; that's not a guarantee - but with your prior experience you'll have no trouble. Halifax is a much more lively place than Ottawa, and generally a nicer city to live in - but there's also very little work there, whereas Ottawa has a very good job market right now.

Regarding re-applying to the M.Arch - there are always tears on admission day, as a few people who planned to be there for M1 are informed they aren't accepted. Sounds like you probably don't need to worry about that (it tends to be 'bubble' prospects who don't quite know what they're doing).

I found Carleton to have much higher-caliber student work, generally. Its a bigger school with more diverse staff, more courses, more options, more facilities. They also have more exchange opportunities. Students come out with both excellent design abilities, but also very tangible practical skills that make them extremely employable right out of undergrad. Specifically, the last ~3 years of graduating bachelors and masters students have been exceptionally talented, and were getting job offers to high-profile firms all over Canada and throughout the world. I never really got that impression from the alumni out of Dal; I seemed to have more classmates struggling to find 'real' work from there. I identify much more with the Carleton program than the Dal program, as I think it had a much greater impact on my success. There are a number of ex-Dal graduates now studying in the Carleton M.Arch who I've spoken with, and I think for the most part they all have similar sentiments.

Let me know if you have other questions.

About me: I'm a Canadian with an undergrad and masters (oops) in Civil Engineering who, after working in an architecture office for about a year, has decided to get a MArch degree

Oops is right. They say that you make 12-15 major life changing decisions in life...Will you look back 10 years from now and go, "what the fux was I thinking"?

I was in Halifax once. They have a museum there that actually has some of the deck chairs from the Titanic in a large glass case that were recovered after the sinking. I almost asked the cupcake there if I could rearrange the chairs if I gave a donation to the museum, but then thought better of it.

Hey! I'm a M.Arch student at Dal, currently on my 6 month work term [M3-M4] in Guatemala City. Bear in mind I'm obviously biased when you're reading this haha.

Coming from a B.A. from UofT (Human Geography/Fine Art History), I think the BEDS program was a great way for me to integrate into architecture. What I really enjoyed is that the class is pretty diverse - tradesmen, microbiologists, art kids - all approaching architecture differently. Also the design-build opportunities (I'm talking student-led as well) are plentiful - I did 3 builds between August and November, one being the freelab.

I really felt like I was coming into my own after my first work term in Germany and the transition from B5 to M1. M1 and M2 were pretty dope, and I was doing stuff that I was really interested. I'm looking forward going into thesis in September. There are opportunities to travel abroad for work and there are scholarships and grants that you can get for that. I received a $2000 grant for working abroad both times and I got $4000 for a research travel scholarship for thesis, both of which are pretty easy to get.

What I really get frustrated with the school is the way in which it is organized, as in they are not organized whatsoever. We found out whether we were in the M.Arch program a week before it started, and 3-4 people had to figure out other arrangements for the summer. Same thing happened to this years class. And since the faculty don't communicate, the deadlines and extensions result into a clusterfuck.

We had 9 transfers last year, 2 from Carleton. They seem to get the techy stuff quite easily (I'll admit here, I'm not so techy myself - see my degree). Some of them came for the BML-y stuff, but many don't. It depends on what you're interested in.

That's just been my experience at Dal, though I hear Carleton is fantastic too.

Thanks for all of the great info everyone (except for Volunteer - your info was not great, but at least was worth a lol)

Anyways after way too much deliberation, I've accepted Carleton! 

To add to this conversation for other prospective students looking for insight, I really wanted to like Dal, but there were too many problems to overlook. After completing Dalhousie's BEDS degree, I took a break from school and transferred into an American M.Arch program. My assessment is about Dal which is mostly in line with what Bench has had to say. Firstly, Halifax as a city was great with amazing people, and the province is beautiful to explore when you get out of the peninsula. But other schools do a better job in teaching principles of critical regionalism in a culturally relevant way that won't limit your competitive edge and ability to experiment. So be wary of the romantic pull of seaside vernacular architecture as I understand many students have dreams to go down that path. It’s a novelty that wore out fast.

Dalhousie was far behind with the quality of their student work when I compared projects with those of other schools. The work was mostly limited to their regionalist theory in the same way that your grandma refuses to stop using that one brand of perfume. Not that it’s a bad thing in that it's practical and "it works...sometimes". Students seemed restricted both in construction methods and just basic architectural comprehension. Overall design work looked unresolved and rushed. Learning basic architectural competence at Dal felt like a risky endeavor. During my attendance, theoretical freedom was obviously a joke given how narrow the school's focus was. You either did your project a certain way or you were implicitly dismissed and left fending for yourself in a library with a dated collection for whatever scraps of guidance you could find. Of course, for several individuals and profs, this was not the case. Even then you would rely on good luck to be paired with the right studio instructor.

In regards to student culture, Dal was a party/fun times school first, small-town politics second, and an architecture school third. I had a great time, but in gauging student interests, not all but most of them just didn't care about architecture. To maintain their “positions”, class "elites" would exercise misinformation by making distinctions between Dal and other schools as a measure of "computer skills" or technical knowledge about building science while ignoring all other traits. This worked well in vilifying outsiders or guest lecturers who advocated a different approach to design. I remember weekly arch. student association meetings to work the same way as an oligarchy. Students could be easily riled and convinced of any position without basic reasoning. Student association positions were hegemonically controlled by the same clique of students every year who would keep key positions and information among themselves. Any dissent to propose a different direction was met with being ostracized.

It's expected, to a limited degree, that every school has an academic bubble or a culture that is removed from reality, but Dal's insanity precipitated through all levels of their program. They are good example of why diversity, contrasting ideas and difference of opinions are critical in combating stagnation.

But that donair sauce though...