Has anyone been seeing an influx of new kids with this new online architecture master degree? We have two kids in our office with this online master degrees. WTF is this bullshit? Personally think it’s a crock of shit and a student loan mill. It offends me really... i dedicate and sacrifice so much and hear these kids say it was a breeze walk. What had our profession come too? Plus NCARB making the exams easier in my opinion... what are we doing flooding the market with architects? My university you had to make the cut after the first year... now if you have a pulse your are in!
"what are we doing flooding the market with architects?"
Are we [they] flooding the market with architects? My understanding is that a lot of the changes, especially on NCARB's side, were in response to dwindling numbers, not simply bar-lowering to bring in the masses.
I've never heard of an online degree program. Do you have examples? Are they accredited?
May 14, 18 6:13 pm ·
·
OneLostArchitect
They are a few where you don’t even need to be near campus. You just show up to “studio” for like 5 days and that’s it. Yes they are accredited somehow.
May 15, 18 7:46 pm ·
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thatsthat
I was thinking this would be a more cost-effective option, but that LTU program is still $41k!! That's not cheap!
May 17, 18 2:46 pm ·
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shellarchitect
Rick, Now that you're an expert on online university options, are you going to complete a degree? I think you mentioned that you were making progress awhile ago, not sure where that stands anymore.
I've seen/heard of them mostly through interns and college kids who either can't or won't do the formal 2 to 4y M.arch. There is apparently one offered out of some uni in Detroit (I think) with quite a low bar for entry. I don't think these online wankers are coming for my job.
My Master's in Architecture is from an 'on-line' school. It is a traditional school that offers on line degrees. I had to fly to the school for 5 weekends (which wasn't cheap or easy). I received my undergrad from a traditional non-on line school. If I had to compare the two, I learned more from the on-line school than the traditional school. I couldn't go the traditional route for my master's because I am married with two kids. I had to work while going to school and there are no local architecture schools that would work for me. I enjoyed every minute of doing my master's and wouldn't trade that experience for the world. It was a necessary step towards getting my license.
I believe that you learned a lot. I've taken online language courses (although they were community college so much lower caliber) and I learned a ton. What did you do during the 5 weekends? Were you creating, presenting, critiquing projects? Or something else?? I'm just curious how this works out. I've seen some hypotheticals on how the curriculum for an online MArch could be structured but never met anyone who's gone through one.
The online colleges need to be made to put a bar sinister on the online degree they award to distinguish themselves from the $60,000 a year tuition Ivy crowd. Perhaps the graduates, female anyway, could start out as scullery maids in the break room?
I did some research on this 4 or 5 years ago for an article (which ended up having a somewhat different focus, because of the difficulty in getting info about grads from online architecture programs - see below). At the time the Academy of Art University was offering the only truly online NAAB-accredited degree. All of the others required some amount of in-person crits each semester, and/or some minimum of in-person short courses or summer intensives.
I'm surprised you're seeing anything approaching an "influx" of grads from online programs. When I contacted the Academy of Art they couldn't put me in touch with even one person who had successfully completed the degree program or any current students, and they hemmed and hawed about "unavailable statistics" regarding how many architecture grads they had - so I wasn't sure there were any at all. I located a few current and former students, none of whom had stayed long enough to receive a degree. At least some of the prospective architecture students were required to complete several courses of remedial or general college liberal arts "prerequisites" before they were allowed to enter the architecture degree program, despite having completed previous degrees - so maybe there is some gate-keeping, and on the other hand maybe that is a scheme to keep students in the for-profit university longer.
May 16, 18 11:35 am ·
·
kjdt
As I stated: my research was for an article that I wrote approximately 5 years ago. All but one of the links you provided are profiles of people who graduated or left this school within the last two years. In 2013 when I sought this information, I could only find a few current or former students - no graduates.
my M.Arch is from LTU, which offers an online degree. I have a low opinion of the online program. there were some good professors at LTU, but the online students don't really have access to them.
My undergrad is from Detroit Mercy, which seems like a much better program by every measure.
LTU isn't completely online - the "Critical Practice Studio" requires several weekends of in-person attendance in the summer.
May 16, 18 12:40 pm ·
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OneLostArchitect
I
Do you live in Detroit metro? I currently have my feelers out in the market and have run into a lot of LTU
May 17, 18 7:29 am ·
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OneLostArchitect
...online master grads... I also went to UDM on 6 mile for acouple classes
May 17, 18 7:30 am ·
·
shellarchitect
I am in metro Detroit, shouldn't be too hard to find a spot here if you are looking to move back.
May 17, 18 3:09 pm ·
·
shellarchitect
i'm not sure I can give advice on great firms to work at, but I can certainly tell you where not to go. I've worked at 7 firms since 2004, a couple were pretty short stays
May 17, 18 3:20 pm ·
·
OneLostArchitect
Hi Shell we might have crossed paths at one of those firms.
I agree it is quite a departure from when we needed to have cots under our studio desks. But that part probably wasn't part of the accreditation req's. :)
May 16, 18 12:55 pm ·
·
kjdt
Probably not. But I remember going through the accreditation visits at my schools, both as a student and as faculty, and some of the requirements were things like having at least 10,000 architecture books in the school's library, having a minimally appointed wood shop, and other facilities-related criteria. I wonder how a program that's completely online can meet those things.
Pfft, it's just a piece of paper...or a pdf for that matter. Lighten up, thought you anyhow hated your job and were planning to work for Yeezy, so what does it matter to you? If they have the skills, ideas and determination it doesn't really matter if they have a degree or not, why even bother, I'd focus on my own career if I were you.
Not sure if an online degree in architecture is as useful or can make you skillful as going to a physical university. I think these colleges just want the $$$$.
not sure what the issue here is. Especially right now that EVERYTHING is online and remote. Technology is changing everything. This is like making fun of people that use Revit or CAD instead of handsketch to do a floor plan.....because that’s how architects used to draw. And it’s always the older people that complain that new technology won’t give you the same experience
Online Masters Degree
Has anyone been seeing an influx of new kids with this new online architecture master degree? We have two kids in our office with this online master degrees. WTF is this bullshit? Personally think it’s a crock of shit and a student loan mill. It offends me really... i dedicate and sacrifice so much and hear these kids say it was a breeze walk. What had our profession come too? Plus NCARB making the exams easier in my opinion... what are we doing flooding the market with architects? My university you had to make the cut after the first year... now if you have a pulse your are in!
What is your opinion on this crockery?
sorry for grammar... fuming here
I would be interested in how they perform compared to the traditional graduates that you hire? Is it noticeably different ?
"what are we doing flooding the market with architects?"
Are we [they] flooding the market with architects? My understanding is that a lot of the changes, especially on NCARB's side, were in response to dwindling numbers, not simply bar-lowering to bring in the masses.
I've never heard of an online degree program. Do you have examples? Are they accredited?
They are a few where you don’t even need to be near campus. You just show up to “studio” for like 5 days and that’s it. Yes they are accredited somehow.
I was thinking this would be a more cost-effective option, but that LTU program is still $41k!! That's not cheap!
Rick, Now that you're an expert on online university options, are you going to complete a degree? I think you mentioned that you were making progress awhile ago, not sure where that stands anymore.
I've seen/heard of them mostly through interns and college kids who either can't or won't do the formal 2 to 4y M.arch. There is apparently one offered out of some uni in Detroit (I think) with quite a low bar for entry. I don't think these online wankers are coming for my job.
Yes one in Detroit suburbs.
My Master's in Architecture is from an 'on-line' school. It is a traditional school that offers on line degrees. I had to fly to the school for 5 weekends (which wasn't cheap or easy). I received my undergrad from a traditional non-on line school. If I had to compare the two, I learned more from the on-line school than the traditional school. I couldn't go the traditional route for my master's because I am married with two kids. I had to work while going to school and there are no local architecture schools that would work for me. I enjoyed every minute of doing my master's and wouldn't trade that experience for the world. It was a necessary step towards getting my license.
I believe that you learned a lot. I've taken online language courses (although they were community college so much lower caliber) and I learned a ton. What did you do during the 5 weekends? Were you creating, presenting, critiquing projects? Or something else?? I'm just curious how this works out. I've seen some hypotheticals on how the curriculum for an online MArch could be structured but never met anyone who's gone through one.
The online colleges need to be made to put a bar sinister on the online degree they award to distinguish themselves from the $60,000 a year tuition Ivy crowd. Perhaps the graduates, female anyway, could start out as scullery maids in the break room?
I did some research on this 4 or 5 years ago for an article (which ended up having a somewhat different focus, because of the difficulty in getting info about grads from online architecture programs - see below). At the time the Academy of Art University was offering the only truly online NAAB-accredited degree. All of the others required some amount of in-person crits each semester, and/or some minimum of in-person short courses or summer intensives.
I'm surprised you're seeing anything approaching an "influx" of grads from online programs. When I contacted the Academy of Art they couldn't put me in touch with even one person who had successfully completed the degree program or any current students, and they hemmed and hawed about "unavailable statistics" regarding how many architecture grads they had - so I wasn't sure there were any at all. I located a few current and former students, none of whom had stayed long enough to receive a degree. At least some of the prospective architecture students were required to complete several courses of remedial or general college liberal arts "prerequisites" before they were allowed to enter the architecture degree program, despite having completed previous degrees - so maybe there is some gate-keeping, and on the other hand maybe that is a scheme to keep students in the for-profit university longer.
As I stated: my research was for an article that I wrote approximately 5 years ago. All but one of the links you provided are profiles of people who graduated or left this school within the last two years. In 2013 when I sought this information, I could only find a few current or former students - no graduates.
my M.Arch is from LTU, which offers an online degree. I have a low opinion of the online program. there were some good professors at LTU, but the online students don't really have access to them.
My undergrad is from Detroit Mercy, which seems like a much better program by every measure.
LTU isn't completely online - the "Critical Practice Studio" requires several weekends of in-person attendance in the summer.
I
Do you live in Detroit metro? I currently have my feelers out in the market and have run into a lot of LTU
...online master grads... I also went to UDM on 6 mile for acouple classes
I am in metro Detroit, shouldn't be too hard to find a spot here if you are looking to move back.
i'm not sure I can give advice on great firms to work at, but I can certainly tell you where not to go. I've worked at 7 firms since 2004, a couple were pretty short stays
Hi Shell we might have crossed paths at one of those firms.
I agree it is quite a departure from when we needed to have cots under our studio desks. But that part probably wasn't part of the accreditation req's. :)
Probably not. But I remember going through the accreditation visits at my schools, both as a student and as faculty, and some of the requirements were things like having at least 10,000 architecture books in the school's library, having a minimally appointed wood shop, and other facilities-related criteria. I wonder how a program that's completely online can meet those things.
I don't know. I wonder the same.
Pfft, it's just a piece of paper...or a pdf for that matter. Lighten up, thought you anyhow hated your job and were planning to work for Yeezy, so what does it matter to you? If they have the skills, ideas and determination it doesn't really matter if they have a degree or not, why even bother, I'd focus on my own career if I were you.
As soon as GSD's online program is up, I am there.
Ivy Via Wi Fi.
Me too.
Not sure if an online degree in architecture is as useful or can make you skillful as going to a physical university. I think these colleges just want the $$$$.
I dont see anything special about that
technology is changing everything
Godspeed Brian!
not sure what the issue here is. Especially right now that EVERYTHING is online and remote. Technology is changing everything. This is like making fun of people that use Revit or CAD instead of handsketch to do a floor plan.....because that’s how architects used to draw. And it’s always the older people that complain that new technology won’t give you the same experience
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