The one person I know from Columbia loved it there, too. I think it really may just be a New York thing.

I'm having trouble with the link I just posted, but hopefully you guys can figure it out.

Could be... Weird thing is, while living in NYC I was (and still am) a member of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which is literally across the street from the Columbia campus. Most of my social life in NYC revolved around the cathedral, and many of the people I know at the cathedral have some connection or another to the university. These are some of the nicest, most down-to-earth people you could possibly imagine, and it's one hell of a culture shock walking across Amsterdam Avenue from the cathedral to the campus.

Glad to hear that some people have had a positve experience at Columbia. Thats what I was hoping to hear. In regards to my comment about "NY thing". I meant no disrespect to any current or past new yorkers. I love NY and am looking forward to my move there in August. I'm moving there regardless of wheither I get accepted anywhere or not, unless I get into GSD. In that case the wife is moving to NYC and me to bean town. East coast here I come.

NoSleep -

You know, I feel A LittlE odd just coming out and saying it.

I don't want to risk getting anyone in trouble if that could possibly happen. But i've just dropped you a hint here ;)

I grew up in the Boston area but have lived in the NY area for 7 years and they really don't feel that far away. But longdistance relationships suck no matter what the distance... that's why decided to apply only in LA. I had apps sort of ready for Parsons and Berkeley, but ended up not sending them. I feel like if I dont get into UCLA or Sci-ARC then I can reconsider the long distance thing when I reapply next year.

two^3, long distant relationship do suck but my wife and I have gotten pretty use to it. We ONLY dated long distance before we got married. I lived up on the north side of the city while she lived on the south side closer to UofC last year and this past summer she spent a couple of months in India doing an internship. Compared to 8,000 miles and a 10-1/2 hour difference this past summer I agree Boston to NY should be a cake walk for us. But all of this depends on the nice folks at Harvard and wheither they'll have me.

3:19:49 pm and still nothing.

Hey. Will one of you guys play like you're one of the schools and tell me I got in?

Thanks.

Dear baboomba,

Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to the program at _______ University.

However, as is stipulated in the conditions below, you are still responsible for the housing of a Ms. WonderK, of Cincinnati, OH, irregardless of her final location and graduate school decision.

Thank you so much for your interest in our school!

Sincerely,
Mr. Seymour Butts

seems to be running out ahead of us a bit. people already talking about stipends and which school to pick and stuff.

kinda makes me glad there are two threads so now i know which one to avoid until i'm put out of my misery.

I think I may have either a tapeworm, or an ulcer. While I've been working out and eating better lately, the dropping of an unexpected 2 pounds yesterday is surely a result of the stress of telling my boss about my grad school plans. And my stomach has been hurting a lot the past week. Am I the only one who's so stressed out that I may require medical attention?

Dear Mr. Butts,

I gratefully accept your offer of admission and understand that, as a condition of my acceptance, I will be responsible for the housing of Ms. WonderK.

I also understand that in return for such provision, Ms. WonderK will have to let me visit her anytime I want, even if I do show up in buttless jeans and leather chaps.

Sincerely,
Baboomba

Did I successfully gross everyone out with that one?

Commisery thread's going haywire.

We need some decisions.

nothing that david lee roth hasn't already done

hahahahhaa um. sorry to go back to hair, (I haven't checked this thread for 24 hours) but this made me laugh out loud... in my japanese 50+ year old aged salaryman filled office -- they are always having to tell me to be quiet and lower my voice in here because people are actually doing important things around me:

"i would just go natural except when i do that i look like i'm growing pubes out of my head." (Ha! Me Too!! well, more relaxed, conditioned pubes maybe.)

i think this was froccli or nambypambics? i can't even remember anymore because i was trying to read/take in the rest of the thread and still give my appreciative hahahahahahhahaa's. just fyi for anyone concerned, in Korea, the magic perm is around $60-70, and in Japan, i think it's only recently finally gone down from $250 to a more reasonable $100. i guess i'm lucky to be on this side of the world, hehe.

Um - in a brief attempt to also address the other topics recently discussed:

1. I also applied only one school/top choice - this was after months of research and debating and 2nd-doubting but realizing that Berkeley's the only place I want to go, and it's not worth spending the time/effort/money to apply to a place that I'm not interested in going to.
2. I know the departments aren't really related, but just another interesting tidbit; Berkeley sent out a few "top-choice" acceptances to their Planning Masters program students this past week. So... that doesn't really say anything, sorry haha.
3. For me location was top factor in deciding where to apply. I want someplace warm and a lot of my friends have happened to move to the bay area as well. Second was faculty/research interests and whether they fit what I was also interested in --basically, Berkeley is by far the only choice for me by a long shot, and I gave it my best shot this fall, so if I don't get in, I can accept that arch/planning school is not for me.

Going for my lunch break..!

baboomba - here is a very late response to your message from a few pages back.. you said you had a job offer for $110K + bonus for an environmnetal engineering job, but you would rather go back to scool and pursue something that you love. how do you know and how did you figure out that architecture is REALLY what you want to do? is it not possible that you might end up disliking a job in an architectural firm and be miserable, in debt and underpaid? These are sort of questions I often pose for myself, but I really admire people for being so brave as to leave a high-paying job for something that you feel passionate about.

Oh, this is rich... I just got a bill from NeedAccess demanding that I pay them the $15 for Yale's financial aid application. (You know, the one they sat on for two weeks before telling me my credit card had been declined, two weeks after Yale's deadline.)

Item added to my to-do list for tomorrow: Call NeedAccess and invite them to suck a fart out of my ass.

And I sincerely hope I get rejected from Yale, because I don't want to sit around wondering what sort of scholarship money I may have gotten if this financial aid application hadn't been botched.

miss_j,

i know your question was pointed at baboomba, but it resonates with my circumstances as well. you've effectively captured my biggest concern with this whole process. as captivated as i am by architecture, i recognize that i'm completely new to it and know so very little about its realities beyond what i've read.

unfortunately, there's no way any of us can predict whether or not the scenario you've described will happen...thus my sleepless nights.

as i've said before, it's a simpler circumstance if i don't get in.



LiG - "suck a fart out of my ass"...now THAT is rich. pardon me while i plagiarize you liberally.

Not a problem... I'm plagiarizing it from my former priest in Philly.

hmm, so now that I have time, back to the question of what we'll be looking for on visits. For me it's:

1) openness, interdisciplinary opportunities, and a lack of limits. I know I've mentioned before that I've encountered some schools that think graphic design is some holy grail which does not condescend to relate to other professions. Bleh. I am not interested in this. These are the schools for whom my five years of design (architecture) education means nothing. I don't think any of the schools I applied to are like this based on their websites, catelogs, curriculums, and the representatives I've met with. But if I got to a visit and discovered this attitude, it would be a deal-breaker. I want to spend my time learning to leverage the education I already have into smart thoughts in different media, not trying to 'make up' for my undergrad background.

2) opportunities to assist in teaching and research and to exhibit my work

3) HAPPY STUDENTS! If I'm meeting students who've been there a year or two and they're grumbly about it, there's something the matter, even if it's not apparent to visitors.

4) a liveable campus/city/neighborhood. Alfrejas has a pretty good explanation for this above, so I won't repeat it. A school that isn't giving me a TA or RAship had better be located in a city with lots of job opportunities as well. Stuck in Savannah with no campus job? That's a problem, because I won't find a job anywhere else around there except waiting tables.

5) supportive administration, and a faculty that I can relate to and can see myself working with

*This list is independent of considerations of things which will be answered apart from visits such as concerns about curriculum and finances.

I'm interested in others' responses to this question to see if there's anything else I should be looking for that I haven't thought of, so get typing!

seopee - I am not the pubes-head. That must be FROCCLI :P

Well, on a whim I called the Yale admissions office to see whether it would be worth my effort to even bother submitting the NeedAccess application at this point, a full month after their deadline. They said go ahead and do it, because they apparently haven't even begun looking at scholarship awards yet. I called NeedAccess, paid the fee, and somehow managed to refrain from inviting anybody to suck a fart out of my ass.

So it looks like Yale is back in the picture for me... [fingers crossed]

A good friend of mine just found out he got into his top choice grad school - for biochemistry. I know it's nowhere near our field but it still gives me butterflies knowing someone else got in.....

baboomba, if I get shut out of all my schools, can I still move in with you?

I just realized that it is only one week away from CCA's self-imposed deadline for responses. So within one week, I should have a decision from them. *eek* I really liked them a lot- it's like a SCIArc of the north, for artists. Seriously and literally- big, reahabilitated industrial building in a ware-housy section of downtown, no 'university' feel, great exhibits.

WonderK,

Yes you can.

If we both get shut out, maybe we can be homegrown architects and use the money I make to design/develop properties on our own. Who needs architectural training anyway?

We'll start with a box and just add a few appurtenances. Voila! A townhouse!

Maybe all of us should skip grad school and start a homegrown design firm. We'll all pitch in what we would have spent on our education and become millionaires.

I'll be a registered P.E. soon, so will be able to provide the engineering stamps for free.

I'll do all the building signage, competition boards, and awards submissions. = )

i'll take photos of the buildings :D

I'm serious. We might onto something here.

My share, if I put tuition + fees into the business instead of school:

Minimum - @30,000
Maximum - @115,000

Multiply that times ten and that gives us plenty to get a business loan for much more. We could probably start out with half a mil.

So where's the office going to be? Austin? San Francisco? New York?

We also need a company name.

I think WonderK should be my secretary.

Let's put the office somewhere beeyooottiful or with good social services or preferably both. I dunno, how's the Alps?

I don't know, but this poor art student was hoping for a full ride somewhere, and therefor lacks startup capital.

It's o.k. Rationalist. You're in. Everyone's welcome. Team effort. You know, I bet it would actually work. Let's just do it. I'll sell my house now, buy a van, and come around to pick everyone up.

We might make better architects anyway if our brains aren't polluted with ideas and theories we'd pick up at grad school.

I'm going up the country, babe don't you wanna go
I'm going up the country, babe don't you wanna go
I'm going to some place where I've never been before
I'm going, I'm going where the water tastes like wine
Well I'm going where the water tastes like wine
We can jump in the water, stay drunk all the time
I'm gonna leave this city, got to get away
I'm gonna leave this city, got to get away
All this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure can't stay
Now baby, pack your leaving trunk, you know we've got to leave today
Just exactly where we're going I cannot say,
But we might even leave the USA
'Cause there's a brand new game that I want to play
No use of you running, or screaming and crying
'Cause you've got a home as long as I've got mine

baboomba, I don't do secretarial work. However if we are going this route, I will start to take my exams right away, and then I can apprentice you in.....also I will be able to stamp the architecturals. So that's handy.

And as much as I like Switzerland, I was hoping for someplace warm. Puerto Rico? Costa Rica? Actually, I heard Buenos Aires, Argentina has a growing ex-pat community that is very vibrant.....

Bleeping hell! I have an email from one of my schools in my Gmail. Problem is, I can only see it from my Google home page - can't get to it during work hours though (long story). Well, that's frustrating. Perhaps I should "develop a stomach-ache" and go home for the day.....

How timely: Switzerland Invades Liechtenstein... By Mistake

WonderK, use a proxy site?

Hey everyone! I'm a newbie here and so glad I found this site (I tried to find something like this a long time ago but with no luck). Anyway, here's my story: I applied to M.Arch programs last year (Michigan, UT-Austin, Virginia, and CalPoly.....I was trying to pick schools that had a sustainable design element). I chose to go to UT-Austin (which is an amazing school in case any of you have applied), however, after being in school for a few weeks I had to go home for a family emergency (long story). Being away for a couple of weeks threw me off schedule with my coursework so I had to withdraw for the semester (and would have to start over again next fall :( ANYWAY, because of the family stuff I decided that it would be better to be closer to home and therefore put myself through architecture grad school admissions hell one more time (yay!) I'm from NJ so this time I've applied to Columbia, Pratt, Yale, and Princeton......and waiting to hear back from them is just as stressful as the first time! It's nice to have you guys though! Oh, and by the way, if anyone has applied to Michigan I have to let you know that I got my letter last March 8.....actually letter is an understatement....what they really sent was a 9 x 12" translucent envelope with a catalog, a letter, a UMich architecture school shop apron, and a little pink plastic toy car......no joke! It almost convinced me to go there if not for the incredibly high tuition.

Rent in Mexico's pretty cheap. What about Mexico City?

WK- that bleeping sucks. If your office is close to your home, I would say you need to run some errands over lunch, and dash home to check it.

OR- go to Mail2Web and check it through there. You can check any email there as long as it hasn't been downloaded to your outlook yet, I believe. That might be worth a try?

oh, and welcome cyganie7!

Don't worry, WonderK. I know you're not a secretary. It was just another of my low-grade attempts to get a little excitement going.

I also like the warm climate better, so maybe Costa Rica or Mexico. Maybe Bermuda. If the location's too hot, our productivity would probably be lower. They say people work harder if they are a little cold rather than a little warm.

WonderK, which school sent you gmail? Will you please tell us?

ok so since i'm new to this thing i didn't realize that my posts would be under my "screenname" and not my "username".....so i changed it. Cyganie7 shall now be known as Kalyani.

ahhhhhhhhh. Realizing that I should hear from CCA within the next week has made me EXTREMELY nervous for it.

Wonderk, if you are seriously troubled you can email me from your work email the password, and I can check your email for you to see if it's important, then you can change your gmail password when i work-email you the results from your school!! I had a certain redheaded friend do this for me when my website got hacked and I couldn't get to a computer. I couldn't wait!!!

Rationalist, I'm really anxious too! AAAAHHH!!!

did you apply to CCA too, or are you coming up on the 'deadline' for another school?

Rar. Can't do any email shenanigans. You have to understand, we have a little "troll" here who loves to check people's emails. Said troll happens to have free reign of computer systems. Will have to wait. Also extremely busy so I think I can occupy myself another 90 minutes....

baboomba, it was from USC. Judging from the subject line I don't think it's a big deal but I guess you never know....

Ok, here's a question.....there is a place on the admissions page of Columbia's website that says "Track Your Application Online".....so long as you have your applicant ID (which you have to call for unless they already gave it to you). Do you think this would work even though the GSAPP doesn't offer an online application? I also read somewhere that they supposedly mail out letters on April 1 so would it even matter to check?

I see I'm not the only one who's gotten an ulcer in the past month.

This crap is not fun. My back hurts, my stomach hurts, I'm sore as hell...... eating is not so much fun, and I've quit drinking coffee cold turkey today.

Stressssss.

Should hear back within 2 weeks though.