do a thread search for syracuse and you'll find some good information. i think syracuse is a better option...it certainly has a better faculty these days...but i honestly don't know much about CMU.

cmu has fantastic things going on all over the place...if you get out of the studio. pittsburgh's great too. it's demanding program. but what else would you want?

They are both great schools, and if you can survive in one of them, I'm pretty sure you can do same in the other. I went to Carniegie Mellon, and just like in any other schools, there were good students and pretty bad ones; I've met some good architects from Syracuse, but also some pretty bad ones, too. It all depends on more of what you do, instead of where you go.
It's been a while since I left the school, but it looks like both schools don't really have that BIG starchitects you can find in big name schools (who needs them - all they do is screwing up the kids' head), but I can say that faculties in Carnegie Mellon are mostly young and run their own offices in Pittsburgh, where you can find some very good small/medium size firms, like EDGE studio and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. It takes time to get to know Pittsburgh, but five years is long enough to understand and love the city.
I don't know how it is now, but Carnegie Mellon's fifth year was very unorganized and, well, bad, because it didn't require any thesis project at the end of the year, so most of students spent their time searching for jobs and stuff. Carnegie Mellon has one of the best computer engineering departments, but that doesn't mean that all you do is computer generated thingys in its architecture department; arch students have to take a series of very intensive hand-drawing courses, and also some serious model shop, too. (but i'm sure you can find these in SU, too).
I know that the new head at Carnegie Mellon is very dedicated to its program, and I'm pretty sure that she will make the program even stronger than what it's been. I'm sorry that I don't know a lot about Syracuse, but as ice9 said, you can find the info in this website. Yep, Carnegie Mellon is small school, so if you go there, you should be ready to face a LOT of people saying, "Carneigie WHO?"

They are both great schools, and if you can survive in one of them, I'm pretty sure you can do same in the other. I went to Carniegie Mellon, and just like in any other schools, there were good students and pretty bad ones; I've met some good architects from Syracuse, but also some pretty bad ones, too. It all depends on more of what you do, instead of where you go.
It's been a while since I left the school, but it looks like both schools don't really have that BIG starchitects you can find in big name schools (who needs them - all they do is screwing up the kids' head), but I can say that faculties in Carnegie Mellon are mostly young and run their own offices in Pittsburgh, where you can find some very good small/medium size firms, like EDGE studio and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. It takes time to get to know Pittsburgh, but five years is long enough to understand and love the city.
I don't know how it is now, but Carnegie Mellon's fifth year was very unorganized and, well, bad, because it didn't require any thesis project at the end of the year, so most of students spent their time searching for jobs and stuff. Carnegie Mellon has one of the best computer engineering departments, but that doesn't mean that all you do is computer generated thingys in its architecture department; arch students have to take a series of very intensive hand-drawing courses, and also some serious model shop, too. (but i'm sure you can find these in SU, too).
I know that the new head at Carnegie Mellon is very dedicated to its program, and I'm pretty sure that she will make the program even stronger than what it's been. I'm sorry that I don't know a lot about Syracuse, but as ice9 said, you can find the info in this website. Yep, Carnegie Mellon is small school, so if you go there, you should be ready to face a LOT of people saying, "Carneigie WHO?"

this is the part where everyone tells you "it depends on where you want to work after you graduate..."

but, really...i'm actually from pittsburgh, originally, so i know CMU has a great program, and that it is a great university. but i think you'll find more professional connections, especially on the east coast, after you graduate through syracuse. also, speaking from experience, if you choose to go to grad school after, syracuse has a pretty good reputation amongst MArchII programs.

as a nice place to live, pittsburgh beats syracuse hands down. but, in five years i spent very little time outside of studio anyway.

you would have to do a thesis for your fifth year at syracuse, and i loved it. but i think about half of my class hated the experience.

I went to CMU and graduated not too long ago. The program was absolutely excellent for me when I went there: it is very hands-on, and I loved that and have found that lacking in a lot of the other programs I've seen. As fulcrum said, an intensive three semester drawing program is required (and the teacher is AMAZING, he's also the guy who reshaped the school in the 80s and instituted a rigorous studio sequence that is the core of the program). Everyone is also required their first year to make a piece of furniture, which is intensely educational and fun. The studio emphasis is more on drawings and model-making than on doing digital explorations, although there are some studio profs who work that way and many students will as well. The teachers are generally pretty good and generally there because they want to teach (because teaching at CMU doesn't really bolster one on the fastrack to say, an IVY-league dean-ship) and generally have a good amount of time available for their students. Many have taught for years and love it. The core curriculum also includes a focus on sustainability as there is a lot of research going on at the grad level in building systems integration. It's taught wholistically and in conjunction with studio, not as a seperate "feature" of the department. The studio sequence is EXTREMELY rigorous.

Under the new head the school seems to be strengthening its study abroad program, which is good because that was lacking when I was there. They have a bunch of really cool summer studios planned that you should ask about, and long-standing semester exchanges with DIS (in Denmark) and the Ecole Polytechnique in Switzerland which are both supposed to be excellent.

Pittsburgh is AWESOME. I miss it a great deal since having left. It was weird to get used to at first, but once I got a car I explored a lot and found it to be an extremely rich city. It is very creative and there is a huge arts and crafts scene. In fact the school has a relationship with the Glass center so that students can take Glass-blowing classes and stuff like that (a few of my friends did and I regretted not doing it later). The Carnegie Museum is a great resource and it is literally next door to CMU--a lot of the first year drawing classes are held there. It's a cheap and happy place to go to college.

The school as a whole was a lot of fun... the great thing about CMU is that it attracts pretty much only people who are passionate about their majors; so everyone there is pretty intense and passionate about what they do. There aren't very many bland or boring people on campus. There're some great school traditions (I did this thing called buggy when I was there... you might have seen something about it on the website... hard to explain but pretty amazing). Also, I found it to be just small enough that it was like a cozy, family kind of environment, but just large enough that you were still constantly meeting and seeing new people. The campus is pretty, but small. But of course that means very short walks to class. ;)

A few friends of mine graduated from Syracuse and seem to have loved it. It sounds pretty on par with CMU, school-wise. They all uniformly say that Syracuse (the town) blows. My boss used to teach there and she is amazing, but she also said that Syracuse blew. The school sounds great. I don't know much about it beyond that.

Oh, and to elaborate on fulcrum's final point: people on the west coast will probably not have heard of CMU, but most people in architecture know it and almost *everyone* on the east coast has heard of it and usually says, "oh wow, cool" when they hear you graduated from there. I've had a pretty positive reaction in work circles, which is nice.

Oh and fulcrum the 5th year is getting better--they got a great new guy that teaches urban studio and I think they're reorganizing it quite a bit. It wasn't as bad to me when I was there because due to study abroad I took my 4th year studio in 5th year second sem. But from what I saw of others yeah it looked like the second semester you pretty much work on your portfolio and take a break before graduation. Not sure that's such a bad thing, though...

Also I have to say that I'm flat-out amazed that CMU would end up as the cheaper option of any two schools...

yeah, this is the first time I've ever heard that Carnegie Mellon is the cheaper option.

Thank you for all of the great advice. I'm choosing CMU, but it was a tough decision. Pittsburgh seems like such a great resource, and I really like their program.

Im going Syracuse in this fall ( i got the scholarship) but before I decided, i visited Pittsburgh for CMU, i REALLY loved Pittsburgh. I don't think u will get bored.
One thing i hate about gogin Syracuse is the city. Syracuse campus was pretty and clean but outside of the campus was... =[

Good luck, Lowellday. I wish you the best.

XJamies. We live in Binghamton , a city 70 miles south of Syracuse . The economies of cities in upstate NY have been decimated by the exodus of thousands of manufacturing jobs during the 80s. However, I think some interesting things are going on in Syracuse in attempting to revive it's urban core. It seems possible this would create opportiunities for students in the Syracuse School of Architecture. I believe in some of the literature Lowell recieved, a partnership with the school and some city entity was described. Also, the studios are temporarily relocated in a renovated warehouse in Clinton Square, one of the areas being reinvented. I visited it and it's a great space.

Myriam, Fulcrum and Ice 9. Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed replies to Lowell. It was difficult finding outside info on architecture at CMU and I know he found the info you provided affirming.

On a sidenote, it's interesting that Pittsburgh was able to fare so well after the collapse of the domestic steel industry. I was surprised at the vitality of the neighborhoods we visited and also by the cultural richness of the city. It's interesting when you contrast it with the fate of similar cities in upstate NY.

Pat Day (mother of Lowell)

I'm very interested in finding a program that offers horology as an elective. been thinking parsons and pratt or RISD

horology is a little unconventional

Reading through the threads I saw something on glass blowing (another subject that fascinates me) and I wondered if the person could highlight any other similar external programs at CMU.

Can you?

Actually making NOTES in my 'application journal'. 

TY!