I appreciate your helpful suggestion. It was a really cool website. In this economy, we are all struggling to survive. But, in short, the US is still the wonderland we were told. XOXO

I really appreciate you taking the time to help me. In this regard, which schools would you recommend specifically?

I don't know you, your education, skills or finances. The best I can do is a general answer. Good luck with your search

You're right, that's true. I have a bachelor's degree in architecture and a master's degree in urban planning ( Oh my God! I feel stupid for this one. I urge everyone not to pursue a career in urban planning). NJIT, University of Washington in St. Louis , University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, NDSU, and University of Minnesota are now in my list. Texas and Arizona don't interest me for a variety of reasons. I have worked as a junior and concept designer for a couple of years. As a CGI artist and a computer geek, I spent quite a bit of time glued to my monitors.

Really good professors at UMN, cost of living is good. NJIT, I don't know who is there now, but it's proximity to NYC is the most attractive, and probably get a good amount of funding. UW at St Louis is great! NDSU is a big no. Milwaukee is fine, like NJIT I imagine.

Thanks a lot, you seem familiar with many schools, including NDSU. Is NDSU really so bad? Which schools are your top choices in terms of affordability, quality of education, generosity of the school, and affordability of cities?

1. NDSU, is not good. You're far from everything, instructors are meh, bleh.
2. NJIT affordable, decent profs, 15 minutes to NYC, affordable city...maybe.
3. UMN, good programs, profs, questionable affordability, cost of living great - a lot of options.
4. UW at St. Louis, always heard good things.

Thank you very much. I really appreciate your help. Oh my God, I need to sleep right now. I may be tired and sleepy but I added Roger Williams University, Ball State University, and probably the Illinois Institute of Technology or University of Michigan to my list.

I'm bummed to hear that NDSU is not good anymore. Back when I graduated in 2002 it was a great school with profs that had real world experience. :(

Hello. Personally, I think the student's efforts to practice and learn architecture in a self-directed way are far more important than the school's formal training. There are many ways to learn architecture, and I am not downgrading the value of solid and good schools. It should be enough for schools to provide the very basics of education. As a result, you can consider all schools to be decent ones. However, my main concern is affordability.

Chad, you know what soured me on the program? When I visited in 2007/08 they had a studio dedicated to skyscraper design, in ND. Why? I like Fargo downtown well enough, but damn it's so far away.

When I was at NDSU we had a studio project that was a skyscraper. It was a great project type to learn about. The studio project was located in Ontario though.

Before Chad's last comment, I wondered if he had such a studio and was happy with it. Can you guess what happened next:))? It is a big fat challenge to design skyscrapers. These studios are useful for the sake of learning. Personally, I dislike them, not to mention that they are not our best options in cities.

I found the studio very informative and I learned quite a bit that was beneficial in many other project types. One of the things I learned is that I don't like skyscrapers and don't want to ever design them. ;)

Ha!

Is that so? I don't know, but when you hear the name Princeton, you don't immediately associate affordability with it in your brain.

it's a hedge fund with a school attached to it. One of my interns is a grad student there.

some only get half ride. (My friend). But everyone do get a lot of money

Do you recommend hedge funds?

What universities did you choose to apply based on that Index?