By "academic" the schools really mean "created in response to an assignment, as part of a curriculum." So your other work outside of school should really not be labeled academic. If it was done in/for a firm or other employer then it's "professional" - regardless of whether it was ever intended to be built - i.e. a competition entry done as part of a team at a firm is "professional", even if the competition is purely theoretical.

You can use "built/unbuilt" if you like, but some schools specifically ask for "academic, professional, personal", in which case you should really use the school's requested designations, but this doesn't preclude using your own in addition.

What order and how to group projects is entirely up to you. Most people go with roughly chronological, or reverse-chronological, or academic and then professional and then personal... But if you want to mix it up that's fine. Just make sure everything is CLEARLY and BRIEFLY labeled as to what, why, when, with whom.

why does the gsd require hand sketches in their portfolio? i don't really do hand sketches.

Can we start talking about financial aid? Or is there someplace else where I should be bringing this up?

I'm sure there is a FAFSA form involved in this somewhere....

FAFSA! You're giving me nightmares...

You mean, about how I need some MAJOR sponsorship?

I'm actually trying to work this a bit... I've just withdrawn half of my savings (there wasn't much) to pay down my credit card. I figure that having credit debt but savings will hurt me worse on the FAFSA than having not so much savings but less debt. I'll start saving again immediately upon reciept of financial aid packages. = )

But yeah, I REALLY need a teaching assistanceship or something.

how likely would you be to turn down your first choice schools if it were way more expensive than your 2nd choice school?

Pretty damn likely. I'm quite prepared to do it, because every school is on my list for a reason. Those that are less prestigious and connected with awesome faculty actually look like they have better curriculums and facilities. If I end up on full scholarship to RIT, SCAD, or UW, I'll still be a very, very happy person. If any one of my schools offers me a good aid package/scholarships, I'm set, because I love every school on my list.

I'm not sure that that question was directed at me, but I'll answer it anyway....

Yeah I haven't really been paying attention to cost. I'm pretty sure that my #1 program is the most expensive so if I worry about that I'm going to get discouraged. But all of my schools are good schools so it will be money well spent.

Incidentally, I think the Bartlett might actually be cheaper than some of the schools that I am applying to, even though living in London would drain me financially, but it certainly makes it a more attractive option.


OK, so back to financial aid. Where do I get my FAFSA form? Do I only have to fill out one?

fill it out only once - almost as bad as taxes.

Thank you TK. I only have so much room in my head for things, and where I get FAFSA forms is not really one of them. Wish me luck!

oh, and DubK- you can probably expect some big financial aid from USC. Not only is the University pretty good about need-based aid, but the School of Architecture has been particularly generous lately in hopes of attracting the best students to their programs.

Well, I'm taking the GRE on Tuesday, I've got my recommenders lined up, and I've made significant progress on my portfolio over the weekend... Now to go relax in bed with a tall glass of NyQuil. *sniff*

Your portfolio progress great! Good luck on the GRE on Tuesday.

fafsa not due until after january...let's not bring it up until then. i had hoped i was done with that after undergrad. anyway, my fafsa theory - which i am willing to share with all - when in doubt, put zero. it makes things go so much smoother.

wonderk -
i too am interested in univ british columbia - though i have to admit i know not one professor there. however, the 'hefty' international student tuition is enticing among other things -vancouver and proximity to whistler blackomb being one....

i sent them an email asking for info last week and got this awkward 'mass email response' - saying that their brochure isn't available until october. uh....yes, and my portfolio won't be available until march. thank you.

anyway, later found their app info buried further on the website, so i wouldn't let that discourage you - there's also a fair amount of info peppered around (studio synopsis) - unless you're looking for excuses to whittle down the list. in which case the fact that they're booklet isn't ready yet may be useful to you.

www.grad.ubc.ca/apply/online/

Well, I just got back from taking the GRE.

Verbal: 630
Quantitative: 620

Many of the questions (especially in quantitative) had me utterly baffled, so I'm surprised I scored as well as I did. I have no idea how those scores rank compared to other people's, but GSD's website says they prefer for GRE scores to be at least 600, so I figure I'm safe.

Apparently the GRE is small potatoes in the architecture school admissions process, but it's nice to have one less hoop to jump through anyway.

For the analytical writing section, I wrote a 5000-word treatise on the benefits of a 3D-H system I developed. I'm sure they'll be impressed.

Way to go gin...I bet it feels good to have that out of the way. And yes, the GRE is only one small piece in the decision making process...

So do you have anything else left to tackle to complete your application? Good luck!

Biggest hurdles left are finishing up the portfolio and writing my personal statement. Hopefully I'll knock those out this week.

Next week I'll be meeting with the director of the graduate architecture program at Cornell, and I'll probably ask her if she'd be willing to take a quick, informal look at the portfolio to see if there's anything that jumps out at her as needing attention (and also to see if she bursts out laughing at me for having the audacity to apply to Cornell). Once I get back from my trip, I'll finalize the portfolio and send it out.

I also need to get transcripts sent from my previous schools... See my money/lawyer issues mentioned above.

Can't hurt to review your portfolio with the director especially face-to-face! You'll get a sense for what their department is looking for :-) Think positive, you'll do great.

3D-H...per corell (aka vindpust) would be proud!

<ref: 'fancy graphics lovers' thread from way back>

I'm debating whether or not to take my laptop with me to my mom's place, in hopes of getting a draft of the personal statement together over the holiday weekend. I have no idea whether I'll have time or not.

Take it with you, couldn't hurt, could it? You might get a jolt of inspiration after pie or something.

scorr88> thanks for the tips! However, you pretty much nailed it....I was looking for an excuse to whittle down the list, and them not communicating with me was it. Besides the fact that it would have been hell to try to visit from where I am in the country.

Question about transcripts: 3 of my 5 schools require that I send my transcripts in a big package along with my other application materials. Because of this, I just had all 5 of them sealed and sent directly to me so I could send them all out myself. Do you think the other 2 schools are going to nit pick on this? Should I have the transcripts sent directly to them or am I OK?

Hey everyone,

Ill join in this thread too. Im applying to GSD, Columbia, MIT, and the bartlett.

I couldnt sign up to take the GRE until the 5th of Dec (all the other days were booked solid a month in advance). GSD requires all parts of the app to be in by the 15th except for the portfolio which is due in Jan. Will this give enough time for the GRE to make it there? I dont want to apply and then not even be considered because i missed the deadline with the GRE. Anyone know?

after the test you have a choice of four schools that the gre gets sent to immediately, choose Harvard as one of those schools...otherwise it takes three weeks once you have requested additional reports.

awesome jason, thanks a lot i didnt know that

You should make every effort to get all parts of the application in on time.
However: if some part that is not in your direct control - such as a rec letter or your GRE scores - doesn't make it by the deadline, this will NOT keep your application from being reviewed. It is usually at least a month after the deadline that the committees start to formally review applications (though they may have portioned up the portfolio pile ahead of time for some informal browsing.) During that month the clerical staff will send out postcards, and as things get closer to the "real" internal deadline they may make phone calls too, about parts of your application that are still missing. There is really a little leeway on these parts of the application that come from 3rd parties. It's not great for things to be late, but it won't put you out of the running - IF it gets there before the real committee meetings start.

Now, not making the deadline with YOUR parts of the application is another matter. If your portfolio, statement, application paperwork, etc. are not in on the deadline the least that will happen is that your folder (and possibly your portfolio itself) will get a "late" sticker (different schools have different color-coding, but in two that I've worked this was purple) so it will be apparent all through deliberations that you didn't make the deadline. The worst that can happen is that some schools will reportedly decline to consider your application at all if it is late.
But one question that comes up here every year: does it help for your application to be early? The answer is no. 80% or so of all applications come in the last two days before the deadline. There's no extra-credit sticker for beating the deadline by weeks or months.


About the transcript issue: if the school says to send everything together then clearly you should have the sealed transcripts sent to you. If the school states that they should go directly to the school then follow that. If they didn't specify then it does not matter - as long as they are sealed.

Living in Gin-

I took the Kapplan GRE prep course- they basically taught me all of the questions and what the expected answers were, and how to get there quickly. It's really a speed formula test more than anything- your scores are very good and you probably would have had 50 points more on each with a little coaching, I gained over 100 points between my diagnostic and final results. Not that you need it; the point is more that the GRE is crappy in such a blatant way.

It's gross but true. !

P.S. has anyone else failed to send stuff to their professors/reccomendation writers untill this weekend? anyone else freaked? !

I am putting out a request for status of the recommendations for right after thanksgiving...I sent out the requests a month ago...times a ticking folks.

i gave my last recommender his package yesterday. not too worried though...i approached him about it a month ago and since we work together, i can bug him daily.

on a separate note, i'm semi-concerned that with a dec 15 application deadline, one of my transcripts won't reflect a course i'm currently taking (and expect to do really well in). in fact, should i get an A, it'll bump my GPA over the 3.0 minimum "required" by the graduate division. should i be more than semi-concerned about getting this grade included somehow?

I would send in your stuff now, but if the fall grades aren't in there yet send in another set of transcripts as soon as they are. I figure that's your safest bet for getting it taken into account.

Met with one of my recommenders last night and went over my recent work, which went really well. She was the one I wasn't sure about, and I feel much more secure in my choice now.

thanks rationalist. congrats on securing your last one!

i'm currently writing the supporting text for my portfolio. holy shit this is hard! i'm trying to explain things in a compelling, insightful manner and not just describe what's in the images...oh yeah, and trying not to seem too self-important. while waving the non-arch background banner, i'm not attempting any full-up archispeak, but i also don't want to come across like a boob. double-shit.

broccoli: uually the schools will send a postcard in January or early February requesting the transcript from your fall semester, if you're still in school and your grades aren't in yet, or are incomplete, at the application deadline.
So I don't think it's something to worry about. But you should obviously send them as soon as they're available, since a GPA under 3.0 can raise some questions.

I'd suggest keeping your project text to 3 sentences, 4 max. for each project (not including the project's title and other identifying info.) More than that won't usually get read carefully.

thanks Bloopox...i'll proceed. this class ahould pull me from a 2.96 to a 3.07. yeah!!

good advice on the text as well...i'll cut it back.

ugh yeah... i hear you on the portfolio/text issues; i have my film projects in, but i don't know how much of the "process" they really want to see/hear about, like in my time-lapse photography/experimental junk, or making sure i don't go too heavy on the graphics/stills from each project (but it sucks to choose only like 2 images when there's so much in the rest of it too!) i'm officially starting to "commisserate" now, ... my portfolio is so far from done and still haven't touched the 2nd berk essay.... aggghhhhh........

does anyone know if deadline dates are RECEIVED BY or Postmark?

The deadlines are usually received by dates. When I was applying I ended up driving one of my portfolios to a school two hours from me, because I didn't finish my portfolio until the night before the deadline.
But it should specify in the school's catalog or on the website whether it is "receive by" or "postmarked by". And if not then call the school and ask. But don't risk being late by assuming that it is a postmark date when it isn't.

bj- you're learning an important professional skill - you'll be writing more copy like the folio text in the future then almost anything else (other then responses to RFIs). use however much text is required to describe the project, including process, program, time you had, or whatever that can't be understood by the graphics. 3 line or 3 paragraphs. each project is different.

dates received. so use fedex/ups/airmail/et cetera to get it there in time.

the rub is trying to discern what's obvious vs what isn't, since what might seem like an interesting insight to me as an architectural newbie might be "duh" to the reviewer...thus sort of making me come across as "duh".

guess it's also a lesson of controlling what's in your control and not worrying about the rest. thanks treekiller, your advice has been useful on many an occasion.

happy thanksgiving everyone!

So, are you guys having people review your personal statements, or just sending them in as-is? It feels like I should ask people to review, but to be honest I don't have anyone I feel comfortable asking. People online seems wierd because they don't know me that well and have their own shit to do, and most people in my 'real' life either don't know I'm applying or wouldn't be any help with regards to either writing or content. Plus it's one of the most personal things I've ever written, which makes me self-concious about anybody seeing it. It's very naked.

well if you're sure you got the content down, then only show it to someone if you need proofreading to make sure you didn't spell anything wrong, or need advice on style.

congrats on getting it naked and superpersonal. mine is current way too much about architecture and not enough about me. i tried introspection and it didn't work.

Yeah, I am pretty antsy about mine. As I mentioned someplace else, my best friend is a professional editor and I had her look at mine, and she said it was "fine", but that's just not good enough, so I'm still working on it. I hope to have it ready for print in the next couple of days! Ack. Scary.

rationalist, drop me an email...i'd be happy to review it for you to give you a completely unbiased, third party opinion. i know online stuff might seem weird, but i don't know you and neither will the reviewers. plus, you have my word on confidentiality here of course. if my comments are helpful, great. if not, disregard.

i imagine the ideal reviewer would be someone who's sat on admissions committees in the past, but if that's not an option...

thanks. I've been sitting on thoughts of this for about a month. I thiiiink I know I'm saying what I want to say, I'm just not sure if I'm saying it the right way, approaching the thing at the right angle, if that makes any sense. My writing style is entirely my own, and nobody will break me from it no matter how hard they try, so superficial editing is pretty much out.

I'm trying to get mine ready to submit by next week. Savannah wrote me today saying they'd recieved Doug's letter, and reminding me that admission is on a rolling basis there, so people who submit earlier have better chances at scholarships and such, which lit a fire under my butt. Plus, my classes are done for the quarter! So now I have every night of the week to work on this stuff.

that's cool. i went through the same kind of thought process writing mine.

mainly, how does this make me come across? i tend to come across a bit too heavy handed and serious in my initial drafts, so i try to lighten the vibe a little in revisions. this is also true to form for me. my first reaction is to take things that are very important to me a bit too seriously. i wanted to show that i'm serious about architecture, but i didn't want to come across as too dramatic and overblown.

i simplified sentences that were a bit too circumspect, tightened up some imagery, and trimmed down to the bare essentials of my story, realizing that some details just weren't critical to the point i was trying to communicate.

a tough spot for me was the career trajectory thing...anything i decide now will likely be moot after 3 years of architecture school.

try to have fun with it (if that's at all possible).

Uggghhh... Got the GRE out of the way last Tuesday. I took my laptop and a packet of materials with me on the Thanksgiving tour, and I've gotten a lot less done than I wanted to. I've contacted recommenders a few times prior to now, but was hoping to have a packet of draft statement, cv/resume, forms and a mini portfolio to them by now. I'm hoping to get all of that out the door tomorrow. Just need to come up with a good statement...

Ok, here's a couple more issues.

Do I mention on my resume, or do I bring up in my personal statement, that I am done with IDP? I am *basically* done but will definitely be by the time they receive the applications. I just don't know if it's relevant or not. It kind of speaks to the larger issue of why I want to go to grad school in the first place....that I don't think my education is complete yet, blah blah blah. But do these people care?

Also, my recommenders have had a month now. Is it time to email them and ask how things are looking? Or is this patronizing? I don't want to be bothersome but I am curious, and 3 of the 5 recommendations have to be sent in with my other application materials anyway, so it will become an issue here rather quickly...

I started contacting recommender's yesterday by phone just to check and see how everything is going...everyone was fine with me contacting them.

DubK -- Not patronizing at all...a month is more than adequate time to write a rec letter. It's certainly time to least check-in on status, especially given your schedule constraints.

Anyone know anything about Yales March I program? No one seems to be talking about it much, and from what I've seen on their website it seems really good.
I'm applying to schools in 2008. I don't want to leave the Northeast. I'm considering harvard, yale, upenn, pratt. Any other suggestions? I hear Columbia is good, but a bit theory heavy. What about RISD?

yay!!! The recommender that I was getting worried about because he hadn't said much to me at all about it, just 'ok', just wrote me asking more about my intents, aesthetic, theories, etc. and it really showed that he's sitting down to work on it and will try to do a good job. That's kind of a load off my mind. Now I feel confident in all three of my recommenders, that I made good choices in all of them.

well done!