I didn't... = ( I posted about a page back a link to Pratt's 'FastAwards' website, at which you can check to see if they've entered a financial aid package for you.

I have, however, been asked by SCAD to fill out a GradPlus Loan application before I'm even admitted, about which I'm a tad squeamish.

Yeah that's odd- doesn't it affect your credit rating if you even *apply* for a line of credit, even if you do not actually use the money?

Yep, that's part of the reason I don't like it. I'm stalling on that form as long as possible, because if you do multiple credit applications within one month, it only counts as one on your credit report. It's the credit buereus' way of encouraging comparison-shopping. So I'm going to try to scrunch all of that stuff as close together as possible in hope that it'll fall under the comparison-shopping clause.

God, I had no idea. I mean I knew about the applying for credit / rating thing, but not about the comparison shopping thing.

I have a hard time absorbing all the info that I need to regarding this money business but I plan to revisit it this weekend, as that is contributing greatly to the butterflies in my stomach.

So nobody knows anything yet? Man, this sucks. C'mon. Somebody just lie and say they got in somewhere. We needs to know something.

I got into Harvard!

O.k. Not really. Just wanted to see if you guys would jump.

I am kind of new to this, so bear with me...

Where can I find last years grad application commiseration post? I'd like to live vicariously through that for a while, since none of us are going to be hearing back for at least another few weeks.

I can't believe how long we have to wait for M.Arch decisions!!!!! My friend applied to law school in October and found out later in October. Jealous, anyone?

A little background info on me:
I work at a 90-person firm in NYC as an intern/draftsperson. We work in Microstation, so I need to learn AutoCAD one of these days. I applied to M.ArchI programs at UCLA and Sci-ARC only because of geographical restrictions (moving to LA in MAY! woohoo!). Also Harvard because...well..they rejected me for undergrad and so I want the chance to reject them now. Not that I don't love the GSD. I do. I just can't go there.

So everywhere I've read on pamphlets or websites, it always say they wont tell you if your accepted via phone or email, only through Mail...and last week i emailed the NJIT architecture dept. to schedule an interview and in return i got this email....
Congratulations on your admission to the M.Arch Program at the New Jersey School of Architecture, NJIT. If you have not already received formal notification from the NJIT Office of Graduate Admissions, it should arrive within the next week or so.

Sorry i got cut off...so i got the email along with a bunch of other contact info....so on one side i am extremely happy, but also skeptical at the same time...any thoughts?

Congratulations on your admission! Sounds real to me, but I didn't apply to that school so can't confirm.

AGGHHHH! It's not as good as an admission, but I just got a call from the University of Washington, and I've been invited up for an interview. They've only invited 14 people, and are looking to accept 6. The overall admission rate for the MFA is only around 10%, so making it past the first stage feels pretty good in itself that now I have a 42% chance of admission. If I can make it up.

Oh God. Do I need to tell work now? Shit. I just got two days off for the following week to attend a wedding. Shit. Fuck. Do you think I should tell them now??? (p.s, am on a sick day today, so I really mean tomorrow, not NOW)

wait til after the wedding if you can still swing the visit, otherwise tell them and just do what you need to do and let them deal with it.

and congrats, I am sure you will do fine at the interviews.

Can't wait until after the wedding, they have specific dates in mind (March 15th or 16th), and obviously the wedding's not exactly flexible either.

I feel like I need to do this because I give an excellent interview. I feel like if I can just make it up there with a decent supplemental portfolio of the work that didn't make it into my main portfolio time-wise, I can nail it. But if I can't make it...... who knows? They said they'd set up a phone interview if I couldn't get out of work, but it's just not the same.

go, work comes 2nd or 5th, or maybe 11th.

good luck on your interview ratio...you'll be great.

baboomba, i hope you didn't just jinx yourself!

btw, i think i've finally realized how this whole stress thing has decided to manifest itself. i don't run naked through my neighborhood or obsessively try to find backdoors into application status websites in hopes that someone posted something early by mistake. instead, i delve headlong into back-up plans i hope i never have to use.

for god's sake, i've already started applications for 2 mba programs!!!

my other theory is that maybe i don't want to go to architecture school at all. i just have a masochistic yen for the pain and stress of the applications process.

Yeah, I've got a couple fallback plans in my back pocket as well, and I hope I don't end up having to resort to any of them.

Given that Wall Street just took a huge shit today, I'm wondering if 2007 might be the perfect year to be leaving the workforce for grad school.

Good luck on the interview! Definitely don't worry about work. Just take off the time you need to make a killer impression at your interview. Deal with work later. Who knows? They may be supportive about the school thing. My boss got all happy and professorial when I told him I was going to be applying to grad school. You never know.

A friend of a friend just heard back, rejection from Yale's MFA graphic design.

Don't know if it was e-ject or mail. I don't imagine they telephone that information like they do with acceptances!

for anyone interested, i just called and talked to pratt. they said that the calls were a mistake and that the student loan people should have even been calling people - status update isn't until march 1st.

so, we've got a while...

hey v! hope school's going well for you.

O.k. So you guys know I'm an engineer and an older applicant, right? Here's my deal. I just got a job offer for $110K + bonus + relocation to Austin. It's another environmental engineering job that I know I'll hate. No work product and still a robot.

So f*ck it! I'm going to school!

What am I?

1) Hero
2) Dumbass

Thanks in advance for any responses.

I gave up 6 figure corporate security long ago...smart...and yes, you're your own hero, too.

live for yourself, not a position.

Baboomba.... I would say hero, i am also an engineer, could make 100k + but like you i want out.

It says something about the career field that there are many people giving up high paying jobs to get into architecture. Money isnt everything, and if your happy with what you do then thats all that really matters.

I have figured out that to make it into a job that you love, and continue down the road of living the dream, you must make sacrifices to get there.

Now if i can just get into school i will be there.... this month is going to drive me insane.

Dumbass. Definitely. So much money!

Obviously a hero. You'll be happier and you'll have added credentials if you do decide to return to environmental engineering. Just try not to go too far into debt. How can you fail in architecture with both a degree in architecture AND engineering?!

GO TO SCHOOL!

does anyone know about getting in to school with less then a 3.0 gpa (I have a 2.8)...i know its portfolio and all, but are the acceptances delayed as they have to get approval from the grad devisions of the schools, and that may slow down the notification process?

Thanks everyone for the support. Scary decision, but I guess I don't really have to ask. I know the answer.

Can't wait 'til we all start hearing back. I sincerely hope the best for everyone.

People need to stop giving up on lucrative careers to find themself in architecture. You're driving our salaries down!

baboomba, was that you being serious or were you just trying to get us to jump again?!? If so, I guess a congrats is in order, no matter what you decide. I concur on the whole "money isn't a big deal" thing.

I snorted out loud when I read LIG's comment "Given that Wall Street just took a huge shit today..." HA HA, it's totally true! Yay for grad school!

baboomba -- same situation for me. i actually just got a raise bumping me a bit beyond the offer you got. at least i can squirrel away what i can until september.

all the same, i'm pretty sure we're both dumbasses.

on a separate but related note, i finished my fafsa paperwork last night. i think they're going to come back and tell me that, not only do i not qualify for need-based aid, but that i have to pay for someone else's education as well.

hahah "wall street just took a huge shit today"... LIG if grad school doesn't work out, you should just become a professional blogger. you write the funniest comments.

To be honest, I would keep the 100k+ job for as many years as I could stand it, saving as much as I could for both short term (grad school, house, etc) and long term (retirement) purposes. Then when I just couldn't stand it any more, I'd go on to do something I liked better with the knowledge that I could afford to live comfortably.

fortunately, that's where i am rationalist. i've been doing this program management gig for 12 years and i'm well beyond the point were i can't stand it anymore. i haven't saved as much as i'd hoped, but i'm sensitive to the fact that there are others here in much tighter financial straits taking these risks too.

ps - you being a los angeleno as well know that "afford to live comfortably" takes on a whole other meaning in these parts.

absolutely. That's probably why I see it in that way, because I know how difficult it is to live on an intern's salary here. While money isn't everything, it's certainly hard to enjoy life when you're constantly worried about it, and that has undoubtably colored my view of the world.

do you think that was a heavy contributor to you ultimately deciding to move toward graphic design? (or at least out of the architect intern game)

Well the faculty have def. been reviewing potfolios here at GaTech over the last couple weeks. I'll try to rig up a hidden camera of the conference room and charge a flat fee for any potential m.arch candidates.

no, because graphic design isn't any better in that regard, until you get to art-director or creative-director level, which is very similar to architecture. No, it was really the proportion of technical work vs. creative work that ultimately brought me in this direction, and also other business concerns such as project duration and number, and the more direct relationship with production which graphic designers maintain with their product. I'm an impatient person, and do much better when I have more small projects rather than a large one that keeps me occupied for months and years.

broccolijet, maybe you and baboomba can combine your financial resources into one scholarship.....we'll call it "WonderK's Graduate School Fund"

:o)

right on...thanks for divulging rationalist.

not a bad idea WonderK...at least it'd be a tax write-off...and for a good cause no less!

You can become an art director / creative director much faster in the graphic design world, and without a degree...I was an art/creative director of an office in downtown austin for about 2 years...got to that position in 3 years...then the .com economy went to crap and I decided to actually get a degree in something else...although still design related.

I have been listening to "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails, and I find myself interpreting the lyrics to be pertinent to graduate school. :(

WTF.

Help me... you make me perfect
Help me become somebody else

where is seopee? he/she started this and i haven't heard from them at all.

If I give WonderK free money, I'm going to expect a lot more than a tax write-off.

Isn't seopee one of those who ditched us until March 1st so as not to go crazy?

ba-BOOM-ba!! Well I'm up for it, I am good at a lot of things.

ok, now down to the nitty-gritty interview questions: How should I dress? Professional, artsy, or some attempt to combine the two? Should I bring some recent work to add to my portfolio? Extra copy of resume? Now that I've decided I'm definitely going, I'm really nervous.

oh wow :P, someone called? heehee. i've been keeping up with the thread but feel i don't have much to say, unless you guys want to hear about how my AP Physics study has been going... I suck at physics! =( it takes me like 10 minutes to finally figure out one problem and then my head starts to hurt, boo... I should've taken it back in high school.

yeah, i'm just waiting for march 21 -- i'll also be out of town but judging from last year, berkeley informs everyone via email. although i'll be happy to get in of course, i'm also kind of realizing that if i don't get in, that means i can stay in japan longer and do a language program here for another year, or travel and see my parents in korea, or etc etc... maybe i shouldn't be so whimsical and haha here comes a naive statement, but i just want to enjoy life and what compelled me to apply to M.Arch/Planning in the first place was that I was really interested in creating "spaces for the soul" (to borrow from the Oct. 2006 article in National Geographic), and wanting the tools/know-how to do that. And I started reading tons of articles about like, environmental psychology, the interaction between people and the space around them, how design can influence behavior, blahblahblah, so I was like COOL! and got curious and excited hahaha, so i mean, i'm still curious and excited, but i'm not necessarily set on becoming an architect/urban designer for a career (man, this is sounding eerily similar to my explanation for why i became a film major)

hahaha whoops, i'm rambling now. so in conclusion, i wish everyone the best of luck and i know we'll all end up in the right places/where we need to be :). and i'm glad i started this thread because i know i was waiting for like a MONTH for it to show up but no one started it, so i had to haha cause i needed friends who were going through the same agonizing, deadline-filled experience that is the opposite of what it is to teach English in a foreign country (what all the people around me are doing and is the least stressful job in the world).

so thanks guys :) for commisserating!! hahahahaha. sorry i write so much, this is why i try not to post. going back into hibernation now...

seopee i'm going to korea too - in may! it will either be a celebratory or consolatory trip. if it's the latter, i'm going to spend my life savings at 동대문.

hahahaha yea for shopping! my favorite purchase in dongdaemun were these elephant boxer shorts (they also had pig ones) whose trunk was in the you know where spot haha. i'm actually going at the end of march (during my potential acceptance/rejection period) .. debating on getting a straight pamah or keeping with my natural wave.

(oh, what M.Arch applicants commisserate about...)

so not a peep from uva yet, huh? i wonder if they are waiting for the mar 1st deadline of their school of architecture financial aid apps... do schools wait for the financial aid stuff before sending out acceptances?