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Which area has more jobs and projects? Texas or Seattle area?

Zclpppp

Need to decide which March program to pick. UW vs TAMU.

During 2 years of study in Seattle, there will be more chance to know more people in the area. However Seattle will not have large/huge projects. Compare to TAMU, Texas looks like will have more projects and positions. But colleve station has 2 hours driving to Austin and Dallas. 

Someone told me it depend on where u want live after graduate. I will say I will live in a city which with more job opportunities. 

I will reject the offer from UO, IIT and U Michi, UMN, UIUC cuz they are too far away from cities.


 
Mar 29, 23 1:31 am
JonathanLivingston

go to texas 

Mar 29, 23 1:42 am  · 
1  · 
JonathanLivingston

Seattle VS Austin are on two opposite trajectories right now. One is growing the other is contracting. Your chances of being able to afford a home in Texas are much greater. Seattle is geographically limited in its growth abilities.

Mar 29, 23 12:18 pm  · 
2  · 

This isn't for a job - it's for school.  The location of your school has nothing to do with where you can work.  In fact working in an area where there aren't schools producing fresh grads each year could make it easier to find a job. 


Mar 29, 23 12:43 pm  · 
3  · 
JonathanLivingston

Well yeah, Seattle will probably be a better design education and experience than Texas. But after that, it's a hard place to live with a family or break from employee to owner without some independent wealth. Texas has a lot more opportunity there at the moment in my opinion.

Mar 29, 23 2:58 pm  · 
1  · 

Ah, good points! May I ask why you think there are more opportunities in TX? I don't know much about the architectural field in that are of the US.

Mar 29, 23 3:24 pm  · 
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JonathanLivingston

PNW COLA is much too high. The last few years have seen population attrition while Texas has seen growth. Growth generally means more opportunities in design and construction.

Mar 29, 23 3:40 pm  · 
2  · 
ivanmillya

"Someone told me it depend on where u want live after graduate. I will say I will live in a city which with more job opportunities."

I agree with that guy. From personal experience, I moved across the country to take a job, and hated the city I moved to for that job. I then had to claw my way out of that situation, which sucked way harder than staying at the job I was at in the city I liked.

Mar 29, 23 7:26 am  · 
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pandahut

First of all IIT is in one of the largest cities...Chicago. 

Seattle is a great city for arch but have not heard much at all about WU and honestly the same for TAMU..Most go to Rice. 

Mar 29, 23 9:59 am  · 
2  · 
Zclpppp

I have family and a 3-year-old little one, Chicago will be wipe out cuz the safety issue.

Mar 29, 23 2:08 pm  · 
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Jay1122

Lol dude, Chicago does not automatically equal to crime. Every city has good and bad areas. Just live in the rich part of the community. I am not sure Texas is better. Doesn't almost everyone there carry guns like candy? Aren't you afraid they are just going to go yee haw and pew pew you? Anyway, I did not live in either of those places. But I know NYC. You just need to avoid ghetto neighborhoods. Of course, the better neighborhoods cost more.

Mar 29, 23 4:00 pm  · 
1  · 
JonathanLivingston

You will need to plan roughly the equivalent of in-state undergrad tuition for childcare expenses in Seattle. Seriously. It's the same price to send a kid to daycare or UW. Like a line item in your budget to carry for 22 years.

Mar 29, 23 4:24 pm  · 
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The location of your MArch program has NOTHING to do with where you will live when you graduate.  I'd say take the program that has interests you, has professors with real world experience, and most importantly that you can afford. 

Mar 29, 23 10:15 am  · 
4  · 
natematt

I'd say this. You're just as likely to go to school somewhere and decided you want to leave asap haha.

Mar 29, 23 7:36 pm  · 
2  · 
gibbost

Agree with others, chose the program based upon what you want to get out of it.  Then decide where you wish to live. 

My experience has been that Texas is rich with job opportunities--more so on the construction side than the design side.  I've never lived there, but in a past life I used to do a lot of work with restaurant franchisees.  Texas always represented a desirable market for development given the cheaper labor rates.  Project budgets always seemed to 'pencil' better in those markets than they did on either coast.  Good luck!

Mar 29, 23 10:56 am  · 
1  · 

"cheap labor rates" is the key phrase here. This type of development tends to be boom or bust and not stable. This will translate into an unstable job market for architects.

Mar 29, 23 11:20 am  · 
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Zclpppp

I just got scholarship from UW, it almost cover half of my cost of tuition in this program. 

Mar 29, 23 2:12 pm  · 
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So you're paying $40k?

Mar 29, 23 2:52 pm  · 
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square.

UW is a state school, assuming the op can get residency at some point

Mar 30, 23 2:49 pm  · 
1  · 
sameolddoctor

Texas has more job opportunities but I would not move there unless I really had to (Guns, Abortion rights etc - sorry for making it political)

But if its about Cost of Living and amount of work, Texas is the way to go. Rents/Homes are cheaper, no state tax etc etc.

I personally know about 10 architects who moved there from SoCal with families.

Mar 29, 23 5:06 pm  · 
4  · 
reallynotmyname

I know lots of people in TX with kids who suck up having to live in sprawly suburbs in exchange for excellent public schools and crazy cheap in-state tuition when it's time to send the young ones to college and grad schools.

Mar 30, 23 5:01 pm  · 
1  · 
x-jla

No state taxes…yet the roads look about a million times better than NY.

Mar 31, 23 2:17 am  · 
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square.

nothing says quality of life like prioritizing roads.

Mar 31, 23 9:02 am  · 
1  · 
Non Sequitur

Less snow in Texas, probably...

Mar 31, 23 9:31 am  · 
1  · 
x-jla

Texas, and The bbq is phenomenal. 

Mar 30, 23 10:02 am  · 
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TX bbq sucks! ::ducks as brisket flies at my head::

Mar 30, 23 10:35 am  · 
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x-jla

I’d still eat it.

Mar 31, 23 2:17 am  · 
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msparchitect

You are correct that having a strong alumni pipeline can help with jobs post-graduation. My previous 2 firms in NYC were all mostly filled with other people from my graduate school. 

That said, alumni from schools like TAMU spread out since there isn't much work in College Station. So figure out where most of them go. In that vein, why would you choose TAMU over U.Mich?? U.Mich is an incredible school and there are some NYC firms heavy with their alumni. People don't go to U.Mich to live in Michigan. 

I agree that it's a good idea to figure out your ultimate living situation and then back into a school that regularly supplies the labor force, but sometimes some of these schools do that against geography. 

Mar 30, 23 1:38 pm  · 
1  · 
reallynotmyname

TAMU has a strong alumni network in Texas. Dallas, Austin, and Houston based firms will totally send recruiters for TAMU career day in College Station.

Mar 30, 23 4:02 pm  · 
1  · 
square.

lol is college station really a city? i'd go umich any day over AM.

but between the original two, seattle will be a much more fun place to live for a few years. UW is also a great school with some other interesting potential classes to take.

Mar 30, 23 2:50 pm  · 
1  · 
square.

something is really off with the op's logic.. both the IIT/chicago comment, but also UMN being in the twin cities. these are not small metro areas.

Mar 30, 23 2:55 pm  · 
2  · 
reallynotmyname

Agree; and if the goal was to be in Texas, OP really should have applied to UT-Austin, UT-Arlington, University of Houston, and Texas Tech in addition to TAMU. If OP wants to do day trips into Dallas, Austin, and Houston from College Station, they will need to own a car.

Mar 30, 23 4:57 pm  · 
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square.

re: texas, i also hope you're not a woman (or will be moving with any) who are in need of reproductive care; personally i'd be terrified there.

Mar 30, 23 2:57 pm  · 
3  ·  1
sameolddoctor

Yeah, fuck em

Mar 30, 23 4:23 pm  · 
2  · 
Non Sequitur

People actually want to live in Tx?  

My wife was invited to a conference this summer in Plano...  eugh.... no thanks, texas is very far down the list of places I'd want to spend time in... like, perhaps double digit page count.

Mar 31, 23 9:34 am  · 
4  · 
x-jla

Lots of people. It’s one of the fastest growing populations along with Florida.

Mar 31, 23 3:25 pm  · 
1  · 
Non Sequitur

...but why tho?

There must be some benefit if you're willing to "tolerate" the politics... right? Other than tasty grilled red meat. ofcourse.

Mar 31, 23 4:08 pm  · 
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x-jla

Believe it or not, many people don’t like paying ridiculously high rents and property taxes for smelly congested cites.

Mar 31, 23 4:36 pm  · 
1  · 
square.

it's cheap. and there is some good food. that's it.

Mar 31, 23 6:09 pm  · 
2  · 
reallynotmyname

You use the money use save on taxes and living expenses to take vacations to nicer places.

Mar 31, 23 7:08 pm  · 
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b3tadine[sutures]

Come on Non, you must know, the only "smelly" cities exist in dem libtar states. I mean, don't you want to live next to oil refineries, or have blackouts in winter and summer months, because your state is sooooo radical that you have your own failing infrastructure and no one to blame?

Mar 31, 23 7:50 pm  · 
1  · 
x-jla

California’s grid is worse.

Apr 1, 23 1:48 am  · 
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b3tadine[sutures]

Why is it so easy to prove you wrong?

Apr 1, 23 4:51 am  · 
1  · 
b3tadine[sutures]

This is what passes for intelligent rhetoric;

Lots of people. It’s one of the fastest growing populations along with Florida.

then?

Believe it or not, many people don’t like paying ridiculously high rents and property taxes for smelly congested cites.

Seriously? Have you visited Florida in the past, oh, I don't know, 50 years?

Apr 1, 23 2:37 pm  · 
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x-jla

Yeah, it’s a cycle. Many sunbelt cities are becoming congested and expensive.

Apr 1, 23 5:32 pm  · 
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x-jla

That 2021 article is a bit outdated considering the summer of 2022 grid problems in CA. Anyways, who cares. Point is, people are moving from one place to another. The trend is pretty clear. Overall, the states losing population are losing population for a number of reasons.

Apr 1, 23 5:37 pm  · 
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Zclpppp

I got some scholarships at the University of Washington and the total cost of a two-year Master of Architecture program is only about 25k. But the tuition of the University of Michigan will be 96k. I assume living cost won't be too different. I have a 3 year old and Ann Arbor is not as cheap as Seattle. I have an apartment 40 minutes driving from UW, but that leaves me with no cost for renting.

TAMU is also cheap at $18,000 a year and living there would cost less. And there will be more job opportunity in Texas for sure. I like the alumni theory, I believe there are only 2 factors will affect u find a good job: connection and portfolio. They can help you to get into the first round interview, but it will reply on urself after that. 

Apr 1, 23 1:28 pm  · 
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