1300.

Rejected from Yale.

4, 1345 rejected by UVA.

Vman, still waiting for that first acceptance too, it only gets harder from here.....

Although I'm pretty sure the gre's are only a formality for the individual schools of architecture, they sometimes do matter if you have to go through a more general graduate coordinator. For instance, at UT Austin you had to have a 1000 combined and a 500 verbal (phew - just made that one!), but that wasn't the School of Architecture's requirement.

Like others, I scored a 1200 and a 5.0 and was also rejected by Yale and UVa - perhaps others to come. What really blew me away was how disparate (plug: GRE word) percantage-wise my verbal and anayltical scores were - wouldn't you think one indicates the other?

the gre is the most unecessary test... if you have above a 3.0 gpa from any good school (and the admission boards at arch schools know good univs.) and have above a 3.5 that in your major, then your score on a test that really only measures your ability to take that particular test should NOT matter. The College Board is a bain on the higher education system.

not only that, but anyone hear about that huge SAT scoring flaw that happened recently? Whose to say that crap like that doesnt happen all the time, but spread out more therefore drawing less attention?

the gre doesnt measure how well you can design, think in spatial terms or truly problem solve. It is in no way a measure of how well anyone will perform as an architect.

mab: i got rejected from UVA too... have you heard anything from UT-Austin yet?

not a peep

Is it just me or does everyone who got rejected from UVA think UVA only takes their own undergrads and little else

still nothing from UM-Ann Arbor, UT-Austin, Rice... is this a good thing or bad thing... anyone else heard from these schools?

I forget - how many students per class are there at UVa?? I'm curious to know how many they admit...

uva's pretty pretentious.. I went to undergrad about an hour away from there and a lot of my friends are wahoos. Also, i work with a few people who went there. I applied there b/c my rents wanted me to go (in-state tuition) and i liked it better than tech or hampton. They are very theoretically based and like to contain that mindset in their school. But they are very high and mighty for sure.

galford

Regarding what you said about GSD/Princeton/Yale, if anything I've heard that the GSD and Yale are considered the most reputable, cranking out grads who place with "top" firms and perform the best, while Princeton in comparison barely rates. If rankings (for whatever they're worth) are any indication, the GSD and Yale head the list while Princeton is in the double digits.

Of course, none of this means a whole lot, and Princeton probably suffers unfairly under those kinds of standards from its small size and emphasis on theory. I'm just saying that in the dubious arena of perceived and hearsay excellence, I've never heard Princeton mentioned as tops.

joe architect

I have heard from UT Austin that they'll be recommending me for admission to the grad commissioner or whatever. It came in a small, thin envelope. They did imply that decisions were made sort of on a rolling basis, so I wouldn't jump to any conclusions if I were you.

thanks odp 1 and congrats hope to see you there if you accept

interesting considering I enjoy the theoretical aspect the most...

odp 1 - when did you hear from them and where are you from?

mab:| yes, but UVA likes THEIR architectural theory (aka Thomas Jefferson's) so if they take their undergrad students into their grad program, no "retraining" is involved. Also, UVA's undergrad program is NOT accredited, so alot of their undergrad students are applying to their grad program as opposed to Virginia Tech and such.

interesting.

mab82

I heard at the end of last week, and I'm in New England.

i would guess you're talking about the DI rankings, which considering some of the schools on it is not something I take very seriously. That exemplifies my point, I would be careful of any rankings, where, if memory serves Texas A&M was near or above Princeton. Yikes.

uhhh galford... A&M is one of the best arch grad schools in the country. You dont need a "ranking" to note that. I'd be scared if some BFE school was ranked above P-ton but A&M is hardly below par.

UVA accepts a class of around 18, and I think like 7 of those are from outside of their school. This according to a coworker who did both undergrad and grad there, and who claims to have been on a graduate admissions selection committee

5 and 1500

not really a hater. i suppose its the small-fry recommendations that are really bringin me down.

galford

That rankings (especially the order) aren't to be taken seriously goes without saying; however, I've heard of the GSD and Yale's top reputations from not only the rankings, but also professionals and academics in the field. Meanwhile, I had yet to hear of Princeton being tops from anybody anywhere before you mentioned it on this message board. I might be out of the loop though, but the rankings and their methodology are consistent with what I've heard.

Yeeee-haah!!!!

Here is a lil' story for you...as I was running late for work this morning, and in pure chaos mode, the phone rings. I assumed it was work asking me where I was, so I ignored it of course. I decide to check the messages. I had two voicemails. Wha?

The first message was from two weeks ago . It was Parsons. I have no idea how I missed that message (thanks Vonage). Ha. All this talk about freaking out about getting a phone call from a school, and this message had been sitting there for weeks...

...the second message was from RISD!!! Yesss!! So excited. I'm also glad I didn't pick up, because they called at like 8:00-something in the morning...I definitely would not have expected a call at that point, nor would I have been intelligible half-awake with toothbrush hanging out of mouth ....

So, yeah, I'm pretty stoked....though I still have no idea what I'm going to do...

i still haven't heard from a single school and all these acceptances are making me anxious.

since wer're on the subject, i've talked to a number of grad students in phd programs, and their (admittedly skewed) consensus seems to be that right now, mit and penn are the "exciting," "up-and-coming" schools that might be doing some exciting things in the next few years. they say that columbia and the gsd have consistently bright students and solid programs (although people are wary of wigley). i hear very little about yale or cornell (which was on the top of the list very recetly too). princeton is a special case, being know for having a great education in theoy and a great environment. perhaps its the size or the location (new jersey...) but it isnt as desirable as the others to these people.

that's just my two cents. i would love to hear why people like yale (who teaches there, etc), because i haven't heard one good or bad thing about it.

amanning- i'm with you. well i've heard but only bad things from yale and princeton and all these acceptances are freaking me out too. the way they send stuff/call in waves makes it so much more torturous!

Matthew Allen, but was this opinion regarding the M.Arch. or Ph.D. programs? or just the schools in general? please let me know since i'm waiting on ph.d. admissions results and it would mean a lot.

ok, so i'm waiting for ph.d. and was waitlisted for princeton. i've just this second received an invite -more exactly, an e-vite- to attend the open house for admitted students. this is either great news or a very cruel procedure.

ditto amanning...

Matthew Allen - "i suppose its the small-fry recommendations that are really bringin me down."

I hear ya on that one. My last employer randomly - with NO thought process - circled the "excellent, above average, average, etc" in front of me, making sure to have some average (or less) in there so it "didn't look phoney." WTF. Furthermore, I had to write the recommendation (which she read over and okayed) b/c she literally wrote, "She is a good learner, she will do well" and other non-descriptive circa 5th grade writing jargon. I ended up only including the letter (I had 3 other people as my main recommenders, knowing I couldn't count on my "firm") b/c I knew this random circling would potentially hurt me in the end. My entire experience with them was horrible and that was just the icing on the cake. ::tear::

GRE's seem to no matter much if you have solid work. I didn't apply this year, but my girlfriend got into both Yale and Columbia with a 1080 GRE. All about the porftfolio.

mab82

No kidding, huh? Every single professional recommender I've ever heard of, not just for architecture but also med and law school, has asked the student to write the letter. I didn't even bother asking my employers because I'd seen their abominable writing every day, and I REALLY didn't want to write my own. Instead I opted to include a grad student art instructor's rec as my third. Even though she wasn't a pro or faculty member, she still knew my actual creative work and potential WAY better than my boss, or maybe even the profs, who were mostly familiar with my academic abilities. It was somewhat of a risk because they usually ask for professors and employers, but I don't think it's hurt me thus far.

I always figured the lack of a strong impression of Princeton in professional circles is just because the school is so darned small. I mean, I still have yet to even MEET a princeton arch. grad, and I've collected various aquaintances from half the country's grad arch. programs, practically. OK, I'm exaggerating, but I mean, it's like what you find in CA: when you grow up there, all you ever hear about is CSU-SLO--it's just the huge west coast architecture farm, everyone's done time there, and they all talk about it. You're not going to hear much about tiny schools from far off places, and even on the East Coast, that's kind of the way a tiny school in New Jersey is perceived. Just my two cents.

aml, the phd students were talking about march programs. i think phd programs are a lot trickier becuase you have to worry about your adviser, funding, your cohort... so what are you doing your phd on, what subject? that's really exciting, by the way; if i thought i would have been accepted, i would have applied to phd programs. who do you want to work with?

odp1 - no, I don't think it's surprising to write one's own recommendation. And it obviously was the better of two options for me, however... I still think it's unprofessional to expect the applicant to write the recommendation. Kind of a, "I'm too busy and you or your education aren't as important as ____," when I think a recommendation not only speaks for the applicant, but the recommender as well. If a firm doesn't want to nurture future architects I question the firm. My career disco teacher wrote a wonderful letter, while working at a very reputable firm and clearly extremely busy (doing important work, unlike my former "firm" - specializing in barrack-esque appartments) - if he could do it, my former employer could too. Or so I think. ;-)

matthew- i don't want to go into this because there's nothing official yet. all very uncertain at this point. but thanks!

re.: recommendation letters: a friend was involved in the admissions process at yale at some point, and told me basically they never paid much attention to employer's letters because they were all equally good. basically, you should avoid employer's letters unless you've worked very long at a firm and it's an important part of your preparation [and you don't have a better choice].

on the other hand, i was a career disco instructor at some point, and the same guy told me rec letters from career disco instructors were

- not paid much attention to at the gsd because all career disco instructors wrote fantastic letters re their students. so better to include it as a 4th recommendation

- sort of frowned upon at yale because career disco was looked at as a way to buy into an ivy.

WAIT! don't yell at me. that was what this guy said, so for all i know he could have made the whole thing up. just passing it along.

:) so true. its really a _cheap_ way to get into an ivy. it worked for me! thanks cdisco! aml, i'll give my two more cents about phd programs if you want them :)

so ok, i'm still waiting to hear about the m. arch decisions for ucla and columbia. anyone know anything about these? anyone else still waiting.

ps, 3.10 gpa + psychology-sorta major + 1350 5 GRE = Illinois Inst of Tech, Michigan and Catholic so far.

aml - so THAT's why I was rejected from Yale! I'm curious though, if you do Career Disco, wouldn't they see your design potential the most out of anyone and perhaps the most recent of anyone? I just think it's a relevant recommendation - more so than fixing redlines for your boss (which I understand you said they put less emphasis on) who only knows you by your highlighting stroke. Did anyone know 3 professors that you felt confident enough to ask to write recommendations? I felt it was tough to even get two...

oh, i'll have all the cents you can give me, thanks!

and for the record, i don't think career disco is buying your way. it's a good choice to know what you're getting into and hone some skills for portfolio, but that's it. if you don't have talent, it's not going to magically create it for you.

Last year I applied to Berkeley's M.Arch program and was not accepted. I spoke with their admissions dep't at length about how to improve my chances for this year. When I asked about summer programs, the admissions advisor had a lot to say about Disco at Harvard. She mentioned to me that they see soooo many applicants from Disco and the faculty had a heated debate over the program's preparation for Berkeley in light of their conflicting philosophies.

I called around to many of the summer programs and was stunned at how many students Disco had compared to the others.
I would up attending UCLA Jump Start.

mab- don't listen to me- on hindsight, maybe not good to post that when we're all suffering from admissions angst. and it's all rumours, you know.

CDisco letters are not given much weight because they do not come from professors but former gard students.

aml - no worries, again it all comes to you as an applicant, not just the recommendations

I can corroborate that some people on some admissions committees at some schools do frown on - and in some cases outright discriminate against - Career Discovery (and Cornell's and Columbia's similar programs.)
But I taught in one of these programs as well, and feel that they're a very good way for people who don't have an architecture background to get some basics quickly - and to see whether they think they can survive and be happy in architecture school. But my advice to students was that the work that comes from such programs is often very good portfolio-quality work - but that it may be wise to consider treating those prep programs similarly to the way you'd treat a GRE preparation course: i.e. by all means send the high test scores to the schools, but don't call attention to the fact that you took the prep course.
I agree that recommendations from those programs don't usually carry much weight - mainly because the people who teach in them are usually not far out of architecture school themselves, and fairly junior "unknowns". (Those programs are one of the best ways to get the all-important first teaching experience for many.)

formerlyunknown - I completely agree with you. At one point I got to know the admissions office at one of the schools in question and summer discovery programs like the ones at the GSD, Columbia, Cornell and UT are valuable for the work that is produced and the experience gained for each student. These programs are for personal growth and enrichment (also good places to create valuable portfolio work + networking) and not meant to be used as a springboard in your resume - this can be quite obvious in some cases.

I don't really understand why schools would discriminate against people in these programs. If anything they should be grateful to have several applicants from the same "discovery" program because it would be easier to compare their work. I think it was a great opportunity to try and show admissions committees what kind of work I could produce on a short timeline without prior training.

question for grad applicants. I am looking to apply to RISD, Cranbrook, and a few schools overseas next year. I am wondering how much basis these schools place on the portfolio in relation to one's GPA. i would appreciate any advice- esp. from those who have been accepted into those programs.

aml, Matthew Allen, Did you consider applying to the Ddes at the GSD in addition to PhD programs? I would appreciate any thoughts that you might have concerning the quality and/or perception of that program.

Strugs,

Congratulations on Parsons and RISD. You should have received a package from Parsons detailing admittance, financial aid, and the open house. I got mine the day after the acceptance call, you might want to check on that. I have yet to hear from RISD, myself.