• Undergraduate Degree/School/Year graduated

• B.S in Architecture (pre-professional degree) / State School / 2023

• Relevant professional experience

• 1.5 Years in the Public Sector

• 1 Year Student Assistant in Research Lab (Part-time)

• 1 Year TA (Part-time)

• 2 Years Design Assistant (Part-time)

• Summer internship in small interiors firm

• GPA/GRE/TOEFL 

• 3.78 / was not about to take the GRE/ native english speaker

• Letters of recommendation

• 3 letters

• 2 from past instructors, 1) from an elective instructor who inspired me/ guided me to independent study work, helped review my submission for a contest, and introduced me to research lab I was apart of, another 1) from a studio professor whose philosophy I really respected, and produced my favorite studio project with, & worked with as editor for student publication

• 1 from my direct supervisor at work, also director of department

• Essay/Statement 

• Focused on perspectives of public realm and connections between urban design & architecture

• How my heritage ties to my beliefs, academic extracurricular leadership & community engagement experiences, competition work, personal connection to intentions, and current work. 

• There were a couple of fun supplemental prompts for Yale and Princeton. I was excited that I had a platform to write creatively. Specifically, Yale's "describe a place", prompt made me feel more connected with the school as I wrote about my favorite childhood refuge. 

• Mentioned initiatives, research labs, professors, and courses within each program that led me apply to each program (this was brief in one paragraph as I obviously didn't need to explain programs they knew they had, just how they connected to my interest)

• Portfolio

• Honestly, I personally feel like my portfolio is awful. It’s the best one I’ve ever made, but it feels really lacking, and I’m nervous. I fear I'm not great at documenting my process, because I don't like to showcase process drawings. Additionally, most of my projects were group projects as that's how my undergrad was structured & the nature of my professional work. 

• Included 3 sections: Architecture(2), Urban Design(3), & Fabrication Studio (1)

• (2) Architecture Projects:

• (1) Studio project focused on socioeconomic issues

• (1) Studio on affordable housing project

• (3) Urban Design Projects

• (1) Summer project worked with small city, focused on resolving socioeconomic issues through design

• (1) Elective work that connected to research lab 

• made sure to include statement on how the course inspired independent research that led me to win an international competition

• (1) Professional Project, still in progress so mostly showed diagrams and analysis contributions

• (1) Fabrication Studio

• (1) Digital Fabrication studio that won a couple of awards. love this project, fear I didn't include many process diagrams for the fabrication element, focused more on the end product

• Schools

• Focused on architecture programs with interdisciplinary connections to urbanism, focused on addressing major systematic issues through design. Wanted to stay in NE. Applied for M.Arch I for all programs. 

• Princeton 

• MIT 

• Yale

• Results

• Waiting…very anxiously…. & very pessimistically… someone please message in this forum I’m looking for some comradery and hate refreshing only to find an empty page

• Tips

• Make sure you research each program and only dedicate your time to ones that you can take full advantage of for your specific interests. 

• Just full send it and complete everything as early as possible, even if it stinks. Then, revise, revise, and revise. I feel like it’s easier when you have a mess of your thoughts on paper, and then you can pick and choose what makes the sense to convey your story

• Make sure there’s a deeper message in both of your portfolio & essays and that these are connected/ tell the same message about yourself so that if someone had to look at your portfolio separate from your essays they’re both reflective of your mission/intent as a future designer

• Get as much feedback as possible, but stay true to what you believe is most important in the end

• Honestly I’m a ball of anxiety waiting to hear back from programs. I'm not sure how I will survive till March. I put all my eggs in one basket with no safeties, only applying to programs that my heart is in 110% due to professors that aligned with my interests/ courses/ research labs/ workshops. If I couldn’t imagine myself crying tears of joy reading an acceptance letter, it didn’t feel worth it to me. My backup plan is to continue working if I’m not accepted into any programs. But maybe don’t be like me. Best of luck to everyone! Going to fill my time up with life and hobbies until decisions are out, and of  course linger on this forum when my mind gets the best of me.

.

Undergraduate Degree/School/Year graduated:

- bachelor of arts in architecture/ private liberal arts college/ 2025

Relevant professional experience:

- summer internships at mid-sized firms in new york and hometown (international student)

- student assistant for a computational art lab, working on a procedural animation system designed for film and media festival representations

- on-campus research/ editorial positions at university press on art & architectural scholarship

GPA/GRE/TOEFL:

- 3.8/ 320/ waived

Letters of recommendation:

- two from studio professors, one is director of architecture department

- one from internship employer (gsd alum)

Essay/Statement:

- architecture as a cultural production bridging theory, practice, and an incessant yearning to make.

- architecture as an act of optimism, a medium for storytelling, and its ties to personal and collective memories; emphasis on community care

- meditation on growth and decay; ruination, reconstruction, and renewal/ adaptive reuse.

- ties back to my research fellowships (on power and resistance embedded in architecture/ cartography/ fine arts; form-finding in computational methods), personal and group exhibitions (interactive installation, exploring how physical body/ bodies transform perception of personal/ communal spaces)

Portfolio:

- academic projects (mostly very abstract in nature), ranging from the building scale to toys/ sculptures

- one professional project: early-stage sketches, massing models, and presentation drawings of a community park

- personal projects: digital illustrations, travel sketches

Schools:

- gsd, gsapp, yale, mit, rice, berkeley

- in desperate needs of financial aid/ scholarships LOL (i'm on full ride for my entire undergrad)

Results:

- anxiously awaiting :) i'm only applying to schools i know i would not hesitate to commit if i got in

Tips:

- honestly everything that @UrbanPallete said :) don't be afraid to ask for help/ feedback, but in the end trust your own judgment! best of luck to everyone!!

undergraduate degree / school / year graduated

• bachelor of design in architecture (non-professional) / state school / dec 2023

relevant experience

• two internships in sf bay area 

• one summer internship turned designer position at a respected firm in my home city

• two on-campus research assistant positions

• independent research project in morocco 

• architectural association visiting school

• three aias positions throughout undergrad

gpa / gre / toefl

• 3.5 / ets complications so didn’t take / native english speaker

letters of recommendation

• academic: well-known urbanist professor who mentored my independent research project

• academic: studio professor

• professional: a principal on my design team at current firm

• I tried to choose recommenders who I’ve formed strong relationships with and trusted to represent me well as a student or designer. I knew my recommenders would speak on certain projects they oversaw, so I made sure to include them in my portfolio

essay / statement

• began by describing one or two of my most formative undergrad experiences and how they’ve refined my interests in urban architecture and degrowth

• tied those interests to the respective program and their specific offerings (name-dropped professors, studio topics, research groups, fellowships, etc.), painting a picture of how I would get involved as a grad student 

• one concise paragraph detailing my professional aspirations and how I might want to contribute to the advancement of architecture as a field

portfolio

• 3 studio projects: one building, one pavilion, and one architectural ‘product,' so three different scales + programs

• independent research project: tied to colin rowe’s urban theory in collage city and how casablancans today appropriate colonial urban spaces through street architecture. I included a small writing sample in the project summary detailing my research / design process

• professional project: all my own work, including design iterations and site plans throughout predesign and schematic 

schools

• architectural association, ucl bartlett, columbia gsapp, yale soa (all m.arch i)

results

• accepted into the bartlett after interviewing in early december :) crossing my fingers for an aa interview invite soon...

• all other decisions should come in around mid-march

tips

• be genuine! the admissions team isn’t looking for a cohort of copy-paste students that all interned for kengo kuma. they want to curate a diverse cohort, and to do that they need to know who you really are, your unique background, curiosities, etc. 

• application fees add up, so only apply to programs that you would be excited to commit to, and that offer robust financial aid. do thorough research on the programs you’re into (and the cities they’re in) to narrow down your list. that research will also make writing essays and motivation letters so much easier as you’ll know your ‘why’ factors for each school

portfolio tips:

• remember that architects are reviewing your application and will understand your ideas / projects without every single concept being explained or diagrammed. focus your time on refining your strongest graphics that tell a compelling story with clarity rather than churning out hundreds of drawings

• that being said, the admissions team is far more concerned with your ideas, how you think, and what interests you than how many tools you know how to use in illustrator. you will learn drawing, software, and modeling in school, so just try your best with what you have!!

• working on your application in layers will avoid quality imbalance and stress. like a design project: create rough drafts, redline, have others redline if you can, iterate, repeat

• portfolios posted on issuu were a great resource to me, but comparison sometimes created doubts about my own work. use them only to get a feel for how you might want to organize your own portfolio, then log off lol

• good luck to everyone and future applicants!! <3  

• Undergraduate Degree/School/Year graduated

• Bachelor of Science in Architecture (Pre-Professional)/UT System School/2022

• Relevant professional/academic experience

• 2 years of professional experience in a top firm in Texas 

• Columbia GSAPP Summer Program, Summer 2024

• 6 years of professional experience in historic preservation/adaptive reuse 

• Undergraduate Thesis focusing on adaptive reuse as solution for marginalized community displacement 

• Historic Preservation Research Opportunity for Taliesin West designed by Frank Llyod Wright in Scottsdale, Arizona 

• Local Chicana activist with a grassroots group that focuses on preventing gentrification in low income neighborhoods in my city 

• NOMA active participant, helped start up the first Project Pipeline Summer Camp in US Mexican border communities 

• GPA/GRE/TOEFL : 3.78/No GRE/No TOEFL

• Letters of recommendation 

• Project Manager (for all my applications) 

• My columbia professor (for all my applications) 

• an alumni from each school I applied to (changed with each app)

• Essay/Statement 

• Discussed my upbringing on the US/Mexico border in a low income neighborhood that does not have the essentials for adequate housing and my desire to provide affordable housing solutions to the South Texas region. 

• Went into depth about my Chicana activism advocacy work, my undergraduate thesis, my professional experience in adaptive reuse, and my research studies at Columbia 

• Specifically addressed what I would like to focus on in graduate school and gave a specific road map of the resources, professors, courses, and programs that will supplement my success at each school. 

• Portfolio

• my Columbia GSAPP Research Project, 3 academic projects, and one professional project. 

• Schools

• Columbia GSAPP, Pratt, Parsons, UT Austin, Rice, and Tulane 

• Results

• Pending, this is my third application cycle. I tried my hardest this year, so I am hoping for the best. 

• Tips

• Take time to understand what you want to get out of your graduate studies. I have applied 3 years in a row, and I have improved with each cycle. Research, visit, and network with people connected to each institution you are interested in. It really helps you become clear on what you will write for your statement of purpose. 

• Dont worry if you do not accepted this year. Get professonal experience and find summer opportunities that will strengthen your application, so you can become a stronger applicant for the following year. You may not be an academic student, but you are a student in life, which I have learned is equally as valuable in this graduate application process. Everything will work out in the end :) 

Hope to see you at Parsons next fall!