Hi! I'm from Italy and I can say that you wouldn't receive a bad education here,especially at Polimi. Yes, Italian univesities are quite old and not up to date like Harvard or Columbia, but you would have a solid preparation on every aspect of architecture: history, technology, restoration, urbanism. In Milan you have excellent architects as professors, cino zucchi or stefano boeri for example. I don't think you would have a bad time as an engilsh speaker since there are a lot of Erasmus and international students.

I don't know about acceptance rate in us, but here in itali it was 1 in 10 when I enrolled, today is way more easier because now everybody knows that it is not easy to find a well paid job with architecture, so not so many people choose it. When I was enrolled there were always some places specifically reserved for international students.

About living in milan, I think you can easily compare it to nyc, milan people feels like they are the newyorkers of italy and you can find trendy hipster places and shops opening every week such as mexican sushi or organic products for beard and mustaches. Of course milan is very small as a city, but for a student it can be nice because you can move by foot or bike.

I'm not experienced with people studying architecture in us, but from what i heard from people studying in american universities here in rome, the amount of studying is way less if compared to italian universities. For example for history exams my cousin didn't have to study at all, because the american program was the same as in italian high school. In an italian history course you would have at least 3-4 books to study and a few more to read.

So maybe, if you don't have a solid maths and physics preparation, you might have a hard time here in italy because that exams are really hard, structural exams as well. History exams are also very hard and restoration as well, you need to study at least 1000 pages for every exam.

@it.architect

thank you. I suppose you do a lot more book work than us schools. I am use to this because my high school was the same way. However, being an architecture program, isn't there a great of hands-on projects and such. It is an architecture program after all. 

If I may ask, what american universities in rome do your friends go to? 

They go to John Cabot University, I'm well aware that it doesn't represent every us college, but in general the methods are very different.

All this theory doesn't mean you don't do projects as well. You have at least 2 different projects each year, one in architecture (housing, museum or similar) and another one in urbanism for first 3 years, on the 4-th and 5-th years you mainly do projects. This is speaking about rome, but everywhere in italy it's similar. The "problem" is that, for example, for the restoration project it isn't enough the project itself, you also need to study a bunch of crap, same for urbanism, you need to study the city rules etc.

I also forgot to tell you that, from what I heard, in milan they have a multidisciplinary aproach, so instead of having different courses, for every project you have 3-4 professors and develop with one the project, with another the technical part, the structural part, sustainability etc.

Generally speaking, with an italian degree you would come out highly competent, skilled architect, but it wouldn't help you to develop your artistic side. Anyway, you can develop that by your own, you are also allowed of up to 24 months of Erasmus, so you can choose some other universities to develop that side, in eastern europe for example or Portugal or france.

I would actually prefer the multidisciplinary approach far more. My current studies in nyc are similar to that where our classes communicate and work with one another.

I also like the idea of studying at an american university like john cabot but unfortunately I don't believe they offer an architecture program. I was trying to find other american schools in italy with some form of reputation but I wasn't having any luck. I was also recently looking at roma tre but I think I saw that one needs to pass an italian proficiency course prior to enrollment. 

Aside from the immense amount of reading/coursework, how much free time would you say you and other students had outside of school. I have been talking to admissions, faculty, and students at sciarc in los angeles, another school I'm considering, and to summarize they explained they had virtually no free time. Would you say polimi would be similar? 

Just came back from MIT - impressed by U Milan - do it!

I think there is no architecture school in the world where you have any free time :) Usually you have some free time in the beginning of the semester, every week passing you have less and less, until you have to pull all-night during exams. Classes themselves are about 25-35h a week, plus homework. In Rome for architecture there is Cornell university as well, I think it's pretty good, they have cool guests lectures all the time, sometimes I sneak in. But the fees are way higher than Italian ones.

Thank you.

Im having a hard time decrypting the curriculum page for Polimi.  Is Polimi similar to that of USC or more so like sic-arc. What I mean by that is do they teach a very well-rounded education or is it very focused on your major?

https://www4.ceda.polimi.it/manifesti/manifesti/controller/ManifestoPublic.do

I believe I found whats required