OSU baby go bucks!

I got into Penn, Virginia Tech, and NC State, and decided to go with NC State. The engineering school and college of design are fairly well-respected at NCSU. The COD quad is actually pretty cool, and it's on the older (nicer) part of campus right near Hillsborough St. Raleigh is not the best city for architecture, but on the bright side I guess that means there's a lot of potential.

Job prospects going to NC State would be mostly available within the southeast, but that's just where most students at NCSU come from and where alumni stay and practice. So if you plan on landing a job in the northeast or west coast, you might want to try another school.  

I chose NC State because I like the emphasis on urban design in the curriculum and it is close to home. It's a pretty energetic school, with lots of cool programs and very accessible faculty. And I will be receiving in-state tuition + scholarship. Pretty much a no-brainer compared to going $105k + in debt (just for tuition) at Penn even with the scholarship they offered.

I can't speak about OSU much, but I'd say go with what works best financially. Also, look at the curriculum, the electives/programs offered, and the faculty interests and see if they fit into your study and career goals.

Here's a link to the pdf handbook from NC State, which I found pretty helpful for looking at curriculum and courses: http://design.ncsu.edu/sites/all/files/architecture/20112012GradHandbook.pdf

Here's also a page that shows the faculty and their bios/interests: http://design.ncsu.edu/academic-programs/architecture/faculty

Good luck!