@enmod,

No, I only received the grant. But a classmate received a scholarship, (with no grant because they had forgotton the FAFSA), but I was wondering if anyone had the two combo'd? An extra 10,000 dollars would certainly be helpful lol

I'm going crazy waiting for the Yale package to come... might be the deciding factor if they offer significantly more than the GSD did.

GSD, RISD, and Rice were all around the same amount. Offered admission but awaiting aid package from UT, UCLA, UC Berk, and Syracuse. Haven't heard admission decision from Columbia.

@shibby 

I'm waiting for the Yale package too! I wonder when they sent them out. My application status was updated on the 6th with the acceptance letter from Dean Stern.

hey all - 

I saw a posting on the gradcafe with a university of oregon eugene acceptance - has anyone heard anything from them yet? 

Also, despite one of the gradcafe postings saying that if you weren't notified for berkeley acceptance by the 10th, you're automatically waitlisted, it seems like someone received an acceptance email today, so there might yet be hope! 

here are my stats so far: 

IN: RISD, UMich, WUSTL - anyone going to the UMich open house? general thoughts about the program? I've only spoken with one student on top of research, so thought i'd appeal to your vast collective knowledge...

OUT: GSD, Yale, waiting on Berkeley, MIT, UO

^ MIT is out already?

@batman

sorry about the confusion, i meant i'm still waiting to hear from MIT

^thanks. when is it suppose to come out? 

and if were going to get waitlisted from UCB shouldnt we be notified? Im really nervous to know if i got in or not.  there's only 5/6 so far who posted in grad cafe in m.arch I. I think those are the super students they are trying to get asap.  so im not worried that admissions are out yet, but still...

@emyen

I also got accepted to RISD and UMich.. not able to go to RISD's open house as I'm pretty far away. I am going to Michigan's thanks to the $300 travel voucher (huge props to the school for that)..

Are you going to RISD's open house? I actually stopped by the school in January during winter session because I was out in NYC and its not too long of a train ride, but since there were no regular studios in session it was hard to judge anything about the program. RISD and UMich seem to have so much of a different focus that its hard to compare the two. Anyone else heading out to RISD or have some more insight into the program?

@emyenIi'll be heading to the UMich open house next weekend. A few general thoughts about the program:

A little uneasy about the cost of the program. I know that their endowment took a hit a few years ago, and since then their tuition has shot up and funding seems to have gone down significantly. I went to USC for undergrad so I'm used to high tuition, but at USC they were more willing to give grants, tuition waivers, and scholarships since it's a private school. Also, I know they have a strong background in technology and design, but I don't know much about their theory emphasis. I've also heard Ann Arbor is an awesome city.

@the coop guy

Yeah, I'm going to the RISD opening as well, since I am only 4 hrs. drive away. Attending both openings is going to be a large deciding factor as both schools have offered me similar scholarships. 

I can comment on RISD after the open house on the 14th, if that helps you at all, since it seems we are making similar decisions. Maybe we can compare notes at UMich!

Hi .. Anyone here received any funds from UT Austin ..? .. And how much ..?! UT Austin doesnt give much aid does it .. Or am I the only unlucky one ..?

Received a mailing with the paper copy of my Yale acceptance letter and Retrospecta today, but it didn't have any more specific information about my admission.

Just got a letter informing me that I am on a waiting list for Cornell. Woo hoo :|

@dannyh

for MArch?

Anyone going to WUSTL open house? Any idea how the school is? 

I'm in for WUSTL, UCLA, USC.

Waiting for GSAPP

Out: GSD, YSOA

does anyone know whether Cornell will be releasing answers by email?

or will they just say over postal mail? i don't live in north america so if they send answers via postal made it's going to take ages for me to know :(

no idea what cornell is doing. altho mit results are up!

@ enmod

What do you mean MIT results are up? Saw the entry on gradcafe, and just checked the online application website... no update. Can you pls elaborate?

Just got into Syracuse!

MIT results by e-mail (from Nader) and updated on the app status website

congrats to those admitted at MIT! 

@ emyen

Yeah that would be cool, did you apply for the 2 or 3 yr track? I assume we will probably all meet at UMich preview weekend.

On another exciting note:

Just got an acceptance email from U of Washington! Hopefully will be able to head out for their open house, although I think that info is coming in the packet which should arrive in a few days.. :D

^ what is the link to check MIT status?

@batman https://www.applyweb.com/apply/mitg/menu.html

^ thanks. no status update or anything in regards to my admission status....

That's not it, this is: http://cronlasso.mit.edu/adm/arch_app_status

I got an email about a week after I submitted my application with login info for this site. Go through your old emails, I'm sure they sent you a link. No decision update on that page for me though

^ yea, still the same. congratz to those who got in!

Accepted to U of Oregon 3+.  Received an email with notification, it also said that a packet was in the mail.

@enmod yes 1st professional m.arch

@pillow  You mentioned that the different schools have certain identities which is something that seems to be common knowledge around here. I don't have an architecture background, and I've been rejected by all the schools you mention with the strong identities you listed (princeton, harvard, yale, michigan). I didn't specify a specific focus in my applications, not having real expertise with architecture yet, relying on general design ability and academic experience in landscape architecture. Interestingly, I was wait listed at Cornell which you called out for not having a strong identity. So I am wondering exactly what these differences are. Many of the schools have the same guest lecturers and faculty with similar credentials and I wonder what these big differences actually are. I do have some ideas but obviously my conception was not good enough to get me into any of them. If you can elaborate on these differences I would appreciate it. Here's the most specific information I found on a blog from someone I assume actually visited the schools, but I didn't take it too seriously:

"Yale is the super-finished-work/peter-eisenmann/meaning-and-symbol-over-performance/affordable-house-making school.

MIT is the unapologetic/emphasis-on-materials/super-legit/dorky school.

The GSD is the oma-like-starchitect-factory/boring-core-requirements/beer-and-dogs/massive-gund-hall/work-on-your-peofessors'-projects-till-you-drop-dead/diversity school.

Columbia is the omg-we're-in-new-york/x-labs/parametric-sustainable-stuff/computer-renderings/insert-stuff-here/who-do-you-think-you-are/what-do-you-mean-studio-space-this-is-new-york school.

Princeton is... well Princeton is Princeton."

Also I watched an interview from the Harvard blog here and they said that none of the GSD students were interested in internships with large international firms, which was the opposite of my idea of Harvard students so again I am puzzled as to the different cultures that supposedly exist. 

@dannyh,

I think one reason pillow said that Cornell didn't have as strong an "identity" is that the M.Arch program there is fairly new - accredited in 2010 I believe.

If you spend enough time looking at student work/studio briefs from any given architecture program, you'll begin to see underlying themes. As hilarious as that blog's comments may read, it's relatively accurate (though I question what "super legit" means). Generally speaking, most of these East Coast schools focus on making their students thinkers and conceptualizers, to have a developed critical and theoretical thinking (perhaps another reason why GSDers aren't all necessarily clammering for internships with large int'l firms, but rather focusing on research, developing a sense of "self")

@dannyh Read what otterson@ku.edu had to say on the previous page. He was dead on concerning what you're asking.

Hi everyone

I'm guilty of watching from the sidelines and not contributing. So here's my first post,

Applying for MArch I

In: UW, CCA

Out: GSD, Princeton, AA

Pending: Columbia, MIT, UBC, UC Berkeley, Pratt, Barlett

38/Male/B Mech Engr; GPA 3.92; GRE V: 161 Q: 170 W: 4.5

Yep, no typo, I'm 38 and currently am a SAHF.

Left my last job as an oil trader 6mths ago and scrambled to take the GRE and put together a portfolio in like 3 months with no prior experience whatsoever.

Crazy, like many my peers will say, to leave behind a 7-figure annual salary, and now possibly my friends and my home country, for architecture?!

Since it's going to be crazy, I might as well aim for the sky and I knew it was a stretch with the ivies. And because I can't afford to waste anymore time, I applied to over ten schools. I couldn't be more thankful to be accepted by UW, hopefully more to come.

And to many of you who have shared your portfolios and views, I am humbled to be among you, the very bold and talented, to be starting arch grad school this year. I wish everyone success in all your endeavors, and may we live our dreams even in the toughest of realities.

@dannyh,

I find your post rather interesting.  Not to sound like an A-hole but the reason that you may have been rejected to some of the schools you mentioned may have to do with the absence of a focus.  Focus not meaning a particular type of architecture, style, or even type of "school of architecture" as the blog begins to distinguish and refer to.  But, "Focus",  in the sense of clarifying your "reason to pursue architecture" among the other hundred applicant's reasons to do the same.  While formulating this "reason" most applicants begin to distinguish one school from the other, in order to determine where they best fit in.  While all the schools you mentioned are research schools; they focus much of their pedagogy on theoretical explorations within the fields of design (to not state them all), the focus of their exploration and research differs from one program to the other, and this may very well be the only point at which one may begin to try to distinguish them.

As byen01 said, the blog's comments are relatively accurate.  That is because it is very difficult to compare these schools, we all get vibes from the faculty and studio work we are exposed to which inform our opinion and perception of the school.  Hence a relative opinion.  No one can give a clear concise answer to your question.  They will all give you interpretation based on their previous experiences and exposures to architecture.

just got email notification of acceptance at UO 3+ year program. WOOT

@FederallyFunded

I probably don't have a particularly strong reason to study architecture, but who does? My main reason is I think I will be able to make better buildings than the ones I see being built around me and lauded online. I'm not here to cure AIDS and send people to Mars. I'm still curious to know people's personal reasons for wanting to go to certain schools, just like I wonder why some people knew they wanted to be a fireman or whatever at age 3.

Also is your name from that Cake song?

@leathamj:

Did your email say "University of Oregon Masters of Architecture/Interior Architecture Option III program"? i know it was a mass email to the accepted students and that it'll probably be clarified in my acceptance packet. i also know that interior and march students are in the same courses in the beginning of the program. Just wanted to make sure that i wasn't the only one who saw that. Thanks!

@dannyh

The admissions committee may have caught on that you did not have a particularly strong reason and being so VERY selective, they may have reasoned to give those spots to people who have particularly strong reasons.  I am not saying you are a weak applicant and I am not saying that those who got in are trying to cure AIDS, I'm just trying to encourage you and strengthen your application for the next try if you do not get into the programs you want.  Is all.. I'm not on the admission committees so what I'm saying might be BS... but not as much BS as those beginning state clear distinctions between schools..

@leathamj

Did your email say "University of Oregon Masters of Architecture/Interior Architecture Option III program"? i know it was a mass email to the accepted students and that it'll probably be clarified in my acceptance packet. i also know that interior and march students are in the same courses in the beginning of the program. Just wanted to make sure that i wasn't the only one who saw that. Thanks!

@arch16

Mine did, so i wouldn't sweat it too much - congrats!

@ Christian Lam:

Congrats! But from 7-figure salary job to 5-figure salary job? definitely, everyone will be surprised. I know many of us wouldn't choose the field of architecture if we are after $$$ but I wouldn't expect someone like you would enter this field. Anyways, welcome! I am sure you will find success in the field of architecture as well. 

@Christian Lam,

Thanks for your words. I really admire your courage, and I'm pretty sure you will do great in whatever program you get accepted. My best wishes for you.

Back to MIT, I've been checking my MIT app status like crazy, and it still looks pretty much the same than a week ago. However, I'm applying for SMArchS instead of MArch, so I think that maybe the MArch results are being updated first (maybe SMArchS results are not even ready yet). 

For anyone who have been accepted into MIT, where does the app status change in the website? Is it on the 'Important Notices' gray-box under the 'Welcome Section'? or is it on somewhere on the 'Application status' section? 

@FederallyFunded 

Thanks for your comments and encouragement. I think you have a good chance of being right in your analysis of why my applications were unsuccessful, but there are a number of other possibilities too.

I don't know if you read the comment by pillow that I was responding to initially. I thought it was funny that the only school that didn't outright reject me was the one pillow speculated that nobody applied to because it didn't have a strong character. 

If you don't mind sharing, I'd like to know what your stated reason for studying architecture was, and why the specific school. 

Final tally,

IN: Princeton, MIT

OUT: GSD Yale

looking forward to meeting the incoming class at the open houses!

@ dannyh,

Even if a new program does have "strong character", some applicants prefer to wait until at least a few classes have graduated from said program to garner opinions. Same reason I didn't apply to Parsons new MS in Design and Urban Ecologies - not willing to stick my head out first (esp. when many thousands of dollars worth of tuition is on the line)

hey faintest did u get it by mail or post? mit?

and hey congrats everyone who got through mit!

@ DannyH,

Yes there are a number of possibilities as well, I don't know what your portfolio looks like and all those dreaded other things(#s), however since you're coming in from another degree, I don't think they will expect as much from your portfolio as say from someone with a BS. Arch... which makes me think that your statement may weigh particularly heavier in your case.  I'm not trying to put you on the spot.  I just thought your post was interesting.  

I personally believe that whole cornell thing is just  a coincidence, you may just have something in your application which the ad com related to, and I don't think that the ones that rejected you are particularly better schools (personal opinion), probably didn't related to them as much as some other applicants.  I think pillow's comment is just that - a speculation.  

And although I don't have to answer your last question, i will.  I only applied to the M. Arch at GSD and Penn.  In: GSD and pending at Penn.  I have a BA in Econ and a BS in Arch from a state school.  Why these schools?  Interdiscipline approach at GSD.  Penn safety school.  Reason to study architecture? Simply the most the complex "thought process" i have been ever exposed to.  I'm probably not going to be an architect (i might), im just searching exposure to different forms of thinking, im convinced that the design disciplines offer more complex thought processes than other fields...blah blah   

@k2886 I saw it on the applications page. I think they haven't finished processing all the applications, I know a few people who's page have not been updated.

@shawnswisher

What did you think of USC's program? The good, the bad, the surprising, the pleasing, the disconcerting - lay it all out if you're able. Any particular impressions of the graduate program?

I'm in conversation with Gail Borden and professors as well but would appreciate your insight. Thanks, and best of luck with your decisions too.

@ faintest..thanks a tonne dude!! am soo nervous!!