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MLA decisions: GSD vs. UPenn vs. Berkeley
Hi!I am accepted to the MLA1 programs at the GSD and Upenn and MLA2 at Berkeley. It's very hard for me to make a decision.
Any insight from former or current students and people in the field would be much appreciated!
I am particularly interested in ecology/environmental science, urban ecology and environments, inter-disciplinary connections/learning (it'll be great if the school's other programs such as ecology/horticulture, engineering, etc are strong and are easy for me to take cross-disciplinary courses), school culture, and faculty; but any and all information/opinions would be extremely helpful to me.
Thank you!
a) go to the open houses
b) i did not apply to penn or berkely so i'll leave them out. concerning the gsd, your points in their order of presentation:
1) ecology and urban science. at the gsd this is a means to an end, not an end itself. we have outstanding practitioners who teach these courses (matt urbanski, steve handel, laura solano) but the focus is always ecology and urban science in the service of design.
2) interdisciplinary connections. in gund you sit next to architects and urban designers. we don't interface at all with engineering and ecology students. harvard isn't known for either and most research in that field occurs here at the post-doc level. with that said, you can take classes at any harvard school, attend talks, join student groups etc. you can also register for classes at MIT. cross registration is limited to your last year as an MLA I, but it is very common.
3) school culture. it is harvard. be ready to work hard. but there's a lot of student support provided by the staff, who are excellent. there's a party in the trays (or chauhaus, anyway) every friday evening. a pleasant surprise for me has been the relative lack of competitive assholes, at least in the student body.
4) faculty. great. look at bios to get more information. but everyone here has been kind, helpful, and very, very good at teaching.
as i said earlier i can't give a comparative analysis, but everyone knows that penn and berkeley are outstanding schools. you're in a good spot.
but seriously, attend the open houses
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