I'm a BA art graduate just accepted to Cornell, Wash U, and RISD for an MArch I (I don't know if they compare to columbia) The advice I receiced was to build my drawings or works that showed skill of hand as well as creative works in the portfolio. I worked on drawing human figure, and pushed my creativity by showing my sculpture work. I was going to take RISD's summer architecture program, but I emailed a faculty member, and he advised me against it.

I was at Columbia's Intro to Arch last summer -- it was an amazing experience, especially for someone with not architecture background whatsoever. The students are of very diverse backgrounds, with different (art/studio) skills and career paths. What is great is that they try to have several advance studios for people who know how to use an exacto knife, if you know what I mean. You do a ton of work, and many of this work is expected to become portfolio material. It is breathtaking to see all the work produced in such a short time at the final review. I have nothing but the highest of recommendation for that program: it exposes you to different style of architecture practice, puts you in very close contact with columbia faculty, current students and recent alums, and you walk away with a decent "feel" of the school in general -- which is especially valuable if you are considering columbia for MarchI. (In fact, they have many 'success' stories of people who did the summer program, then got accepted into columbia, and are now TAs for the summer studios). There are of course aspects that can turn one off, but all in all the 5 week provide a lot of exposure, challenge and skill building. [Although I am currenty posptponing my architecture dreams for a {hopefully short} while, I often think back on those 5 weeks as one of the happiest - if toughest - of my life.]

I did Harvard's Career Discovery. It was a lot of fun. A lot of hard work, but a really great time. I used everything from that in my portfolio + some other stuff that I did outside and got into Penn. I would recommend it. The crits were often harsher than ones that I've had in real school. It's not quite as demanding as real school, but it's a good test. It divided people, some bailed and others decided to go on. It was about $2000, no credit and lasted 6 weeks. I only did one all nighter, but generally stayed until 12 am. Met some great people, saw a lot of cool projects and learned some skills. I mean, damn, it's where I learned to draw plans, sections, axons, and perspectives. It's kinda like a cheat course for getting into school I think haha. They teach you how to make a portfolio and things like that. I kept intouch with another instructor who helped crit my portfolio. It's cool. I still stay in touch with my instructor a few times a year. They actually had a really good lecture series. WTC master plan finalists, Toshiko Mori, people from area firms (Boston to NYC). For a summer class, it was really good.

Do you think that arch grad programs would prefer to see (in a MArch I portfolio) the stuff that they teach in these summer programs? Is your performance during a summer program at X sent to X if you apply to X as a MArch I at a recent later date?

rexxer: i know of two cases in which this was the case, and it was from two different summer programs / m.arch I. I have heard directors say that admission to m.arch is by no means automatic for students of summer programs, but maybe it helps a little bit?
many summer program students enroll to create content for their future portfolios, and this goal is completely transparent to all involved.