$35k per year are my only options

Are all 3 programs the same number of semesters?

Yeas all are 6 semester.

Keep applying elsewhere until you get it for near nothing. You’ll thank us later when you can buy a house instead of looking at 6 figure debt for a design degree.

Well, it's $35k minus scholarship and in-state tuition so It's more like $80k.

Thank you.

The least expensive and shortest program is where you need to be. Especially if you see another masters degree in your future. You need to limit your loan debt in a major way. Maybe share the largest offer you got with the other schools and see if they can raise their offers. It's unlikely but worth a try.

Yeah that's my plan.

UVA includes a "free" mandatory summer session. It's not free because I have to quick my job 2 months earlier than if I go to Syracuse. However, I may qualify for in-state tuition at UVA because I'm a veteran bring the price of UAV own to $22k - $7.5k = $14.5 per annum.

So actually it's a 3 credit summer course an they charge me. Oof!

Thanks. Why UVA over Syracuse though?

Both good programs. I'd pick over where you want to geographically end up after school. If you want to be on the East Coast UVA for sure. Its easier to stay adjacent to where you go to school because that's where your network will be.

Yeah, if OP wants to teach, a PhD after the MArch might be better. A UVA MArch by itself might have enough snob appeal for faculty hiring committees, though.

First, to get a degree from a higher-ranked school for whatever intangible benefits that may come with it. Second, to specialize more in an area. The research facilities at Harvard-MII-Cornell-Yale are amazing.

Also, it’s easier to hide in academia than practice in the real world.

Not to be unkind but having two Masters in Architecture reminds me of the comedy skit where the hillbilly gomer introduces his brother Bill to his girlfriend and turns around and introduces her to his other brother Bill.

It can make sense if it's in another discipline, like landscape architecture, preservation, or urban design. Further architecture study would best be a PhD in my opinion. If a future where PhDs become the preferred credential for design teaching and research jobs comes to pass, the OP will be properly positioned.

I would not be doing a second masters right after my M.Arch. I have in interest in computational stuff and also robotic construction.

I love snow in late April and -20 degree windchills during broad daylight! A potentially fatal walk across campus to studio really just ads that extra brutal edge to architecture school. I went to Binghamton for undergrad so I am aware of the winter deathland that is Upstate New York.