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University of Colorado Information/ Advise
This is my first post, I'm a third year student at Arizona State University and starting to do some research on colleges for a Master's Program. I was wondering if anyone had any experience/ advise at UC Denver master program or there design-build program?
"their" design-build program. You will fit in perfectly.
Don't be too much of a dick. A wee bit of a dingus is acceptable though. Carry on.
Ha, Yeah sorry. that was a snide remark.
Patrick, I went to CU undergrad and was extremely underwhelmed with the grad program in Denver. I think things have probably changed some but it was generally thought down of at the time. Anyone who was fairly decent at design left to complete grad school elsewhere. The faculty tended to be splitting their time between there and Boulder. The building felt like a rented corporate office, not as exciting as the more traditional studio experience in Boulder. It was more of a satellite program than a true grad school.
I recently finished CU undergrad, or rather I went to CU Boulder. Many of my professors finished their MArch degrees at CU Denver, and I have several peers that continued their studies there. As a whole, I am seriously underwhelmed with the offerings of the program. The student work and facilities are both rather dull. I also feel that post-graduation job opportunities are mostly limited to Colorado. I don't think that their design-build is exceptional and believe there are plenty of other graduate programs that offer similar experiences. The cost of out-of-state tuition is also rather costly. I would strongly recommend searching elsewhere. Best of luck finding the right school!
You may want to look at NDSU's grad school program. I've heard it's pretty good. Of course it's been 19 years since I've attended so . . .
I also graduated from CU Boulder a decade ago, but went elsewhere for grad school. I don't have much good or bad to say about their program, other than they do hire a lot of local talent. Real architects and practitioners in the field. If there was a lack of academic vision, they made up for it by hiring working professionals. If you want to stay in Denver after graduation, CU Denver seems like the logical choice to start building that network.
I grew up in Denver and left for undergrad and grad. If you want to work in architecture doing bread and butter commercial work, maybe they are fine. If you want to work on the best projects with good firms, you should go to a better school.
Bullshit.
Um.. me too. Left Colorado because the arch programs sucked. Ditto with my sister and cousin. The 'environment design' at CU Boulder is a joke. The CU Denver master's tries to cram to much in a short time period; like 'cliffnotes' of architecture schooling. You won't leave with a noteworthy portfolio to land that big design gig at a high design firm. And CU Denver has nearly lost accreditation multiple times over the years. They are getting better... here's the NAAB reports, but note a lot of 'does not comply' in previous visits. https://architectureandplanning.ucdenver.edu/docs/librariesprovider18/accreditation/naab-visiting-team-report-2015.pdf?sfvrsn=c1c396b8_2
Shit, I guess I was there nearly 2 decades ago! I would actually say that the ENVD degree from CU Boulder set me up much better than some of my peers when I went to grad school. I had a better background in art and composition than many, but perhaps less theory. The wider liberal arts aspect served me well in my career giving me a more rounded education than others who had a strictly architectural education and allowed me to be more versatile in giving input on projects ranging from landscape to urban design and everything in between. It was a good generalist background that you don't see in many programs focused on hitting the NAAB requirements. Sucked to have to do extra grad school though because the degree had lost accreditation. I would go there for undergrad again though. It has worked out well.
I was responding to work on "best projects in good firms" you need to go to a high end / better school. Unless you've attended a school with an unaccredited degree it's all about the student and how hard working and talented they are.
To be fair I would go to a program with an accredited 5 year masters degree or if you can still find them an bachelors of architecture degree. These types of programs will get you into the education of architecture sooner and provide you with more applicable skills than most 6 year degrees.
Also I though CU Denver's architecture program lost their accreditation 3-4 years ago.
Possible Chad. I know there's a lot politics behind it since it is the ONLY accredited program in-state. Which means if you live here, you are forced to pay out-of-state tuition if you want to be a licensed architect in Colorado. There have been lobbying efforts before, because it is ridiculous these publicly funded colleges here (29 of them) are funded by the State and without this one program which teeters on the brink of losing NAAB approval regularly, there is no way to become licensed. (also why we still have grandfather clauses for licensure and can't get rid of it).
Yup. I've been in CO for seven years and am amazed how many alternate paths to licensure there are in this state. Also I'm dumbfounded by the number of architects that can ONLY be licensed in CO because they attended a nonaccredited school.
Ya.. I sort of did stuff backwards. Accredited 5-yr program at OSU. Took my CO exam using CO requirements. Then got NCARB certified. Basically the normal path is NCARB then ARE, but CO standards weren't as much as NCARB so you were eligible before you completed the NCARB requirments. :P
Oh really Chad, I didn't realize you knew a god damn thing about working on anything other than fucking strip malls.
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