i called risd a while ago and they told me that last year out of around 300 applicants they accepted about 140. which i thought was great news. do you know anything about the architecture program?

i was attracted to risd b/c i know that its program is specifically designed for students that do not hold a previous bs degree in architecture. i herald from a liberal arts college with a dual major in art/art history and history, so the fit seemed logical.

according to Arch Record's matrix:

B.A./B.S. preprof 10%
B.Arch. 10%
M.Arch. (preprof + 2 years) 10%
M.Arch. (undergrad + 3+ years) 10%

This may have been updated. I sort of remember it being 11% when I originally researched this.

According to a friend of mine in attendance at RISD, the studios are taught with everyone from frosh to grad students in the same studios. This is at least true for the first year. They seem to be quite high in theory, and pretty cutting edge in concepts being explored.

I graduated from MD a couple of years ago with an M.Arch, feel free to email me for a more detailed response or with specific questions.

You asked specifically about the school's reputation: It's a very small program and most graduates stay in the Baltimore/Washington region -- the program has a good reputation in that area but is less-known elsewhere.

I was at Uof MD in 86'. Not sure if it still works this way but, I couldn't get into their school of architecture. After a certain amount of credits you have to select a major. You have to apply to the school of architecture and be accepted before you can select it as your major. Even though you are enrolled as a student of the university. So I ended up having to select a different major to keep going to finish my prerequisite classes required to apply to the school of architecture. This was BS since I ended up taking a bunch of classes that had nothing to do with architecture or counting towards my march. And since I was literally paying for school out of my pocket. I just plain couldn't afford to stay there for the extra couple semesters. Plus, at the time I had no idea about the whole professional non-professional degrees thing. Basically, I though their process of studying architecture sucked. By the way their 4 year program is a BS in Architecture. So your cannot get licensed with that degree. You have to get and March at U of MD to get a professional degree So instead of going for a Barch which take 5 years your have to go for 6 years to get their M arch

karst, i am a march grad. '93. i agree with rpsnino >> a good, small, well-rounded program. i know at lot stayed in the d.c. area after graduation, but i also know a number who got out. including myself.

thesis students are expected to consider all aspects on their project from urban design to the details. not sure about the make up on the faculty these days. in the early 90s, they had a nice balance of profs who practiced and those who didn't. good history courses with tom schumacher leading up that area.

glad to see steven hurtt gone. don't know much about the new dean. one criticism i did have about the program back then was that it seemed to be a cornell outpost. many profs were rather conservative towards design. it didn't effect me, as fairly early on i became friends with a crazy german prof who had a theoretical base and a love of german expressionism. i learned to navigate around those that i did not want as studio profs. there are definitely a handful of good profs there who are outside the cornell contingent.

if you want to know something more specific, let me know.

just fyi, i already have been accepted into their program. what initially attracted me to umd was that it offered an MArch degree with a concentration in histoirc preservation (which i am interested). not too many programs offer such.
one of my concerns, as people have mentioned, was the school's repuration nationally. i am from new england, and hope to eventually end up there.

I went to visit UM this summer because I was thinking of applying also for the historic preservation concentration. Have you visited yet? If not, I highly recommend it-I was not impressed at all. Ended up not applying.
If you want more info, pm me-I don't think I should talk about it on this site. But my visit caused me not to apply.

I graduated from the RISD architecture department last year, so to answer your question about the acceptance rates. DMC was roughly correct with the acceptance rates, but risd offers graduate programs in other disiplines as well. My graduating year there was about 70 students, half grad and half undergrad, the ratio varies quite a bit every year.... gotta go back to work.. more later.