^^I think that actually made me more nervous! Thanks >:(

Justkidding with the angry face. But... oooh, did you overhear anything good?!

Has anyone heard anying from Berkeley? email or letter saying your appliction is finished? Its the only school I am waiting on to hear that they have everything....

Its my top choice, but i feel like the administration side of things is pretty bad.

so.... GSD open house is April 6, Yale open house is April 12.... what about the other ivies and the Cal schools? Anyone have any idea?

I thought all the ivies were supposed to be in a single week, so you could just start in Boston at the beginning of the week and gradually take the train down the coast to Princeton and Penn for the end of the week.

But let's stay i get in to both GSD and Yale... so that either means flying out east twice within 6 days, or chilling on the east coast for 5 days between open houses... which would be totally fun but my employers would get really pissed at me, especially since they're already pissed i'm leaving to go to grad school after a measly 11 months of working there. and that i didn't have experience upon arrival of doing CDs and took a while to get the hang of it. ugh!

robust, I emailed a few of the schools and will update if they get back to me with dates of their open houses. It's the weekend so I don't expect to hear for a day or two.

Obviously you should stay on the east coast in that situation :) It's just too expensive and stressful to fly twice. Maybe you can request all the possible time off as soon as you find out about the dates of your open houses so your employers can plan for it now. Then wait to buy your plane ticket until you get answers from schools and reduce the days off if it happens that you don't get into one of the "bookends" of that time period.

The other option would be to request to visit schools and talk to people during a non-open-house day so you can shorten your visit. I'm sure they understand that working people or people with families can't just go away for a long period of time, and that if you're qualified to get into one top school then you're qualified to get into more than one and need to weigh your options.

namby, that's a good plan. thanks for the advice. i think i've already gone over my 2 weeks vacation for the year! oh well, i'm gonna go to my open houses whether they like it or not. yeah, definitely post to us when you have more info!

-rob

I am visiting 5 schools in the next 4 weeks. One trip to Texas and one trip to the east coast. Traveling on a budget. Should be fun.

hey norris...are you going to UT austin? I have had a really hard time trying to figure out the direction of their program, other then the sustainbility aspect. I am trying to plan a trip out there to look at student work, but its hard to spend the money if i havent even been accepted yet.

I havent been able to find any examples of student work

so when these schools (i'm thinking specifically of columbia right now) say they want a copy of the irs 1040, that's only if accepted, right? or do I have to track it down now and send it now?

oh i just reread the columbia instructions. they want my and my parents 2005 irs 1040 NOW it seems. that's stupid. at least yale says after you're accepted

Mctwist - Yes I am going to look at UT Austin and Rice. I haven't been able to find any student work at UT either. I can write you and let you know what I think. I'll probably take some pictures of student work and other stuff so I can send them your way too. Maybe I'll just post it all on this forum for everyone to look at.

Spending the money to see the schools before I am accepted is a bit scary but there is no way I can make an informed decision without seeing the schools. Luckily I have relatives in Houston so I can stay for free and I'll have a car. Seeing the schools is super important and I'd rather spend a couple hundred now and be able to plan it all out instead of having to buy a plane ticket and set everything up on short notice. who knows how much that will cost.

I've only visited one school so far, and only did that because their Grad Day was the most beautiful piece of scheduling possible and I was already in their city for the weekend. I will not visit another school until I get my acceptances and rejections, because I can't afford to spend more money on a school that doesn't want me.

Related to the previous discussion of 'when to tell the employer', I've been suspecting that that time will be when I ask for the vacation to make visits.

Norris...thanks. If you could take some pictures for me that would be sick. I have applied to 7 schools so i cant visit them all, but i really want to learn more about ut austin. Its too bad that they have zero student work on their website.

The entire vibe from the school is also really important, and you can only pick up on that by going to visit. I have also heart that austin is a sweet place to live too. my worry is that ut austin is not enoughf into the digital design theory like ucla, bekeley and columbia, but i could be way off. do you have any thoughts on the direction that the program pushes its students in?

I visited UT Austin over christmas, checking out their reviews.

Nice people, clean professional work. Not incredibly imaginative and very little digital fabrication work.

What was interesting was the connections that many of the studios had with interests outside of the school. One was doing a fire station and actually working with firefighters, another did furniture for Katrina and DWR was going to sell some of the pieces.

I also talked to many students who said that there is a freedom to do what you want, but that there is really no crazy cutting edge UCLA , Columbia type work going on at all, but there is a good wood shop. There is a laser cutter but it is usually back logged and many use it not necessarily to push the limits, i.e. just to cut production corners. One studio had made an emphasis on creating some element of their design on the laser cutter, that was nice to see.

SO, a good school, quality work, somewhat conservative, although not in the extreme of IIT or A&M or other more technically focused schools.

If you go to UT, check out their materials lab. I thought it was pretty impressive. Also, there IS some student work on their website. Just keep looking.

jasoncross, thanks for your assessment of austin. cpnorris, if you went and got some pictures of the work and facilities, that would be awesome.

I am also applying there and have not been able to visit yet, unlike the others. It's the only one where I don't know anyone there and can't drive to it, so it will be tricky, but if I get accepted I am going to have to see it first. I am applying to the M of Sustainable Design, so I am not too put off by the lack of "cutting edge type work"....I decided a long time ago that this wasn't really my niche, so no worries.

I am really curious about Austin as a city....I always thought it had a small-city vibe, so imagine my surprise when I Googled it and found that with almost 700,000 people, it is the 14th largest city in the US. Amazing!

When I started doing my research into these sustainable design degrees, I always got the impression that Austin was THE place to go for this. Does anyone else have any perspective on this? I'm just curious, because aside from the programs that I applied to, there really aren't that many in the US right now ....

received an email confirming the arrival of my portfolio/application (didn't check my email for a couple of days, I guess).

They tell me that all acceptance/rejection letters will be sent out by March 9th. Four weeks from now, give or take. Call me nervous.

The two options for me are:

-Get accepted. Quit my new job (which I haven't even started yet). Move to another province (about a 24 hour drive away). Buy a house with permanent girlfriend. Go to school......

Or, I could:

-Get rejected. Quit my new job (the same one as above). Move to a different city because the permanent girlfriend hates it here with a passion, and I can't really blame her. Work on my portfolio for another 10 months and try again next year, life put on hold once again.

If I never get accepted to architecture school, I will have to start looking into plan B. Whatever plan B is, I don't know yet. Yikes.

A lot is hinging on that piece of mail.

I lived in Austin for five years and went to UT as an undergrad. Austin is one of the best places for green anything. It is not conservative at all. Nothing like A&M as indicated by Jason above. They are polar opposites.

UT used to have a small-town feel until about ten years ago. Now it is like something out of the movie Blade Runner. Huge influx of Californians buying property there because it is so much cheaper. Sort of ruining the place, but it's still one of the best places in the country to live.

Check out the U.S. Census website and look at the education map by county. You will see that Travis County (Austin) is one of the only counties in Texas in the highest education bracket. It is also the only Texas county not on the border that votes Democrat.

My input, for what it's worth.

I am from Austin, lived there my whole life. After visiting this past winter I was appalled by the terrible traffic. Traffic in Austin is now the worst in Texas, mainly because they have done near nothing to improve the traffic flow, and there is no near term solution as the city is already so far behind.

I also had to visit Houston and Dallas over the same time and was surprised to see both Houston and Dallas are now more pleasant to drive in than Austin is now...pretty sad.

That said, Austin is still pretty green, but nothing like it has been in the past...mopac may become a toll road, loop360 is filling in with Housing on almost every hill top.

It was sad to see. I hope they are able to cope with it sooner than later.

If you want to buy, look east.

Sounds like we have the same feeling about the recent changes to Austin.

If you lived in Austin, then you know UT and A&M are totally different. Also, I don't think the UT architecture program is unimaginative. I just think UT is smart enough not to waste its time going too far in one direction only to have to backtrack later. I get the feeling this has happened at some schools, like Columbia and now Penn (although Penn hasn't started backtracking yet).

Just my opinion, based on very limited information.

My imagination statement was merely through my studio walk through and looking at the work...I did not see really a single project that made me go wow, I have never even thought of that...everything looked good, produced well, but none of the projects really stood out from one another...that is what I mean about imagination.

For instance one student here at UNM deigned a car museum that was made out of cars...really interesting...now his graphics were not that great, but the idea was very imaginative.

I think UT is great though at preparing one for professional practice...many students said they specifically went to UT because they felt they would be employable...and that is not what I am concerned with at all....but like I said, students also said you can pretty much do what you want, I just did not see many folks doing that.

It is a quality program which would not hurt anyone attending at all...I just found that it lacked some of the future thought I got at UCLA, and more so at SciArc...but I also think this is no surprise to anyone.

Jason-

Did you feel like at austin you would have the chance to go in a direction that you are interested in, or more pushed by the program towards a common goal? Also what did you experience in the amount of emphasis put on digital modeling and maya/rhino rendering vs hand drawings...did you see more of one or the other for student projects.

Thanks for all the insite, i am really attracted to austin for the sustainbility side of things, but also want the theory, and digital experience as well. A balanced program if you will...what is a program that could be compared with austin...berkeley?

Yeah, I have heard much the same of Berkeley from friends at UNM that visited recently...it was like we visited the same school almost.

I think you cold go in a direction you are interested in, although you may find out that there is no faculty support in that direction.

One studio used the laser cutter as a design tool for a screen device, which was cool...the most digitally integrated work for sure. But, many students were using the laser cutter just to make topos or cut out windows etc...stuff that could easily be done by hand.

Not much Maya or anything like that. More clean AutoCAD drawings colored in digitally in Illustrator or whatever...not any hand drawn boards either.

As far as the sustainability aspect goes, I heard a lot about LEED this and that, but not much about sighting...which was a bit of a surprise...projects using say a certain glass as LEED, but sighted to get the most sun, you wouldn't need that LEED material had the project been sighted differently. This, though, is not just UT...it is LEED...which is positive in theory, but limiting in practice, imho.

I think it is a very good school, but not very experimental...though it is so broad based it could easily become more so relatively quickly...they have money, and that is all it takes. That, and a person with a vision who knows the tools.

The plot thickens....

Very interesting. Thanks for the discussion, everyone. It will be really illuminating to see what kind of opinion I take away from the sustainable design curriculum at UT (if given the chance!), and how it compares to everyone's perception of the "regular" architecture curriculum.

I am starting to get excited though! I am a little nervous, as I'm going to be so heavily involved on the technical side of things. I was born with a logical mind so I hope that I find a program that suits me!

yeah, I got pretty nervous/excited when I started thinking that one of the schools I really, really want to get into has had my full application for exactly three weeks now, so they're probably in the thick of making their decisions. That's a bit scary to think, that they might know whether I'm in or not already, and I just don't know it yet.

O.k. I have a good question for you guys.

I'm starting to get a wierd feeling that my boss might have intentionally sabotaged my applications by giving me a bad or mediocre recommendation. I know he doesn't want me to leave the job and I think he is jealous that I have a plan and the guts to escape the hellhole and he doesn't. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I just feel that something is not right.

What do you think?

does he act guilty/weird around you?

i got the same feeling from one of my professors who wrote me a rec. he's part of an older generation who are die-hard modernists and really despise the computer age. he is a strong advocate of the application of known solutions (a la mies, corbs, wright) and he seems to have a visceral hate for a lot of the explorative approaches the architecture. i wanted to try other programs because consersvative, practical, and traditional just wasn't what i wanted out of my architectural education but i feel that he disapproves of my decision and is even somewhat offended.

ok, so i don't feel i was sabotaged but i worried he might not have given me a fair review. but i hope that if my other two reviews are strong, should this one prof's review be the anomoly, that they would reconsider its legitimacy?

when i was in finance, people applying to business schools wrote their own recommendations bc their mgrs didn't wanted to be bothered with it. that would have been nice, huh?

Sounds like we have a similar possible problem.

You know, admissions boards can probably tell when someone gives you a really bad recommendation that it is intentional. The problem is that if my boss really wanted to screw me, he's smart enough to make it part good/part bad so it seems genuine.

Oh well, nothing I can do about it now I guess. Just wait and hope they like the rest of it enough to give me a chance.

Good luck.

What a bizarre situation to find yourself in. my boss is a really neat guy and in a parallel universe, he could have given me a wicked cool recommendation, but for many reasons which we've all talked about, my firm still doesn't know about my grad school plans. I really feel for you though, baboomba. Do you have a back up plan? Or at least something to catch him off his guard? Honestly if someone was that sh*tty to me in a situation like this I would have no qualms about treating them the same too, switching jobs at the very least....

You have to wonder how often selection committees see things like this.

It is just the nerves...relax, have a drink...or a smoke if you prefer.

Thanks for the sympathy.

Here are the options:

Flatten his tires
Tell him he sucks
Tell him he sucks balls
Tell him I'm not going to take it anymore
Tell him it's my mother's fault
Tell him to watch his back
Deck him
Quit
Deck him and quit

I'm still thinking. Anyway, let me know if you have any advice.

or, when he talks about how much he wants you to stay, say something like, "I hope you were still able to write me a good recommendation!" in a joking sort of way, to give him the option of coming clean if he did sabatogue your chances. You can't try to figure out what to do about it if you don't know for sure.

On another note, I'm seeing some KICK-ASS job openings lately, and keep thinking, "if I hadn't just applied for grad school...." I'm right not applying for them, right? I'd just feel really bad for taking a job for 6 months and then bailing, but some of these are awesome looking jobs.

rationalist, if they're really awesome, you should apply for them to see which opportunities you have. i know you really want to go to grad school but if there's an offer you can't turn down, it's not really a loss is it? plus, through this process, you can kind of assess your value/potential in the economy. it may give you more confidence during and post grad and a chance to network and make some contacts in the field.

don't worry about the recs. if your portfolio is hot enough you'll get in somewhere.

i started a similar thread last year and now here I am lost and confused at the AA.

PS. If you are thinking about applying anywhere it should be AADRL!!!!! I have no doubt in my mind that it is one of the best programs if not the BEST!!!!!!

I love it here!

pps... however london is fucking expensive.

UVA has asked for 3 different financial aid forms to be filled out : the fafsa (a given), a department form, and a graduate school form. Some of the forms ask for stuff like: is your department going to offer you a scholarship? They want all of these forms by Feb 15th... which obviously is before they even send out acceptance/denials. So how are you supposed to know this?? I just put N/A for everything like that. I really hope I get good money...
It seemed like most people got accepted first last year- denials were last to be notified. Also...last year some of the schools handed out denials via email. I think that is pretty sh*tty considering you just paid upwards of $50 in an application fee alone, the least they could do is send out a letter on letterhead.

No shit! I plan on hanging all rejection letters on the fridge. So it better be on some letterhead.

Okay, I'm finally starting to panic. Not so much about admissions, but about how to pay for grad school if I actually get in.

Right now I'm trying to take out a fairly small private loan to buy a laptop and to cover travel expenses for this UK travel-study course I want to take, and so far no luck. I had a bankruptcy in 2002 and some lingering financial problems since then, so my credit rating is absolutely shitty. And as it turns out, finding a co-signer is turning out to be almost impossible.

If I'm having this much trouble getting a few dollars for a laptop and a short travel-study trip to England, I'll be completely fucked if I have to ask for $100K in private loans for grad school.

In retrospect, I should have applied to Princeton and/or Rice, and at least one el-cheapo state school as a backup (even though I couldn't think of a single one that fits my needs and is appealing to me... I had to rule out Cincy, Oregon, and CCNY for various reasons).

I really hope one of my choices ends up offering me a free or (mostly-free) ride, or else I'll be applying to Value State University College of Architecture and Basketweaving for 2008.

yeah, UW is the only state school I've applied to (yay for being a resident by second year!), and their total tuition still comes to 20k for both years. AND there's absolutely no guarantee that they'll even admit me. The problem with finding a state school that you like is that they won't necessarily be any less selective than the private schools you like. The program I'm applying to there admits 13% if I remember correctly.

Panic is starting to set in for me regarding my phone interview friday morning.... Got to remember to go to bed nice and early tomorrow night, as it's a before-work sort of thing.

i only applied to one school - columbia
i havent received 2 of my rec.letters yet - the guy mailed them late and they seem to be lost in fed ex world.

do you think this is a huge problem that its this late - it was due on jan. 15
i think my portfolio was pretty strong so hopefully im still in the running and will be able to get them the letters soon.

whatever you do, dont take out $100k in private loans... your loan payments would be something like $1,000+ a month. trust me, i have friends who did that to get a B.Arch and it's just not worth it- no matter what school it's from. you should be able to get the government to help with federal loans and hopefully some grants...
my rule is that to get my post-prof degree its gotta be totally funded with a stipend--- it happens all the time. im not taking out another loan. it means you might have to work harder, but its better that than to be in debt up to your eyeballs and having to move back in with relatives

Gin - I have no idea how I am paying for this either. No financial offers = loan city = scary to think about.

There a lot of really good state schools out there that get overshadowed by the ivy's and other private schools. They aren't a whole lot cheaper than a private school but you can get in-state tuition after your first year at most of them, as long as you do all the necessary stuff. That should shed quite a few thousand dollars off your loan. Generally private schools have a lot more money than public schools so you should get better financial offers from them. I'm sure you'll get a nice offer somewhere.

but (at least among the schools I've looked at) teaching and research assistanceships seem to be more common at public schools.

My goal is to be funded for tuition, and work to take care of the rest. I'll do construction, I'll work at a gallery, I'll babysit freshmen in their dorms, whatever. But that brings another level of complexity to the money question- Savannah is cheaper to live in, but harder to get a good job in, which New York is expensive but I feel sure I could get a good internship there. I feel another excel spreadsheet coming on...

I don't think private loans are an option for me even if I were inclined to take out $100K in debt. For me, no financial offers = no grad school in 2007. I'd be happy to become a TA or RA in exchange for free tuition, but I get the impression that's not really an option at most of the schools I'm applying to.

I guess my worst-case scenario is that I'd end up moving to NYC this summer, work full-time in the city for a year, and then hope to get accepted into CCNY's program -- which has finally been granted NAAB candidacy staus this year. Their in-state tuition is cheap enough that I could probably afford them on federal Stafford loans alone, although the cost of living in NYC is a bitch (been there, done that).

I can think of worse fates in life, but I really have my heart set on someplace like Cornell or GSD. I come from a working-class family and it would be nice to finally reach for the stars and get there, rather than always having to settle for the "budget" option.

Sounds like we have similar backgrounds. I don't have my heart set on anywhere yet, but thats mostly because I have only visited one of the six schools I am applying too. Thats all going to change here pretty quick here cause I am planning visits to the other five in the next three weeks. Then I should have my self set up for heart break.

LIG if you're in illinois, what about the University of Illinois. The standard of living in CU is really low, instate tuition is about $16-18k and i heard if you can get a TA or RA or work-study they pay for the in-state portion. Maybe not this year, but it's also an alternative next year if things don't work out this year. It may not be as avant-garde as Yale but it seems to be a competitive program in terms of job placement. http://www.arch.uiuc.edu

FROCCLI: I suggest you read about Gin's experiences in the University of Illinois system here.

thanks rationalist, i didn't realize he/she attended UIC before. that is University of Illinois in Chicago and i was referring to University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. from what i hear, the age range in the m.arch programs are quite large and they seem to be a pretty strong program. i know the id rankings aren't really worth much, but the UIUC program seems to at least have made a cut. they also allow for part-time students and cost of living is like buying dirt. yeah, it's in the middle of freaking nowhere, but it seems to have a pretty big art & music scene and it's just really cheap. i know somone who is 42 in the program and he's not even the oldest. he seems to be happy with the program even though he's paying out of state tuition, which is like $34k. it's just a thought. i hope it works out though.

UIC or UIUC would be my cheapest options, but I had a rotten time at UIC for the first half of my undergrad degree, and I've never been particularly enthralled by the Urbana program. With the exception of Chicago, I absolutely hate the Midwest, and I can't imagine spending three years living out in the middle of a cornfield (at least Cornell has waterfalls). UIUC had a good reputation back in the day, and they have a big alumni base in Chicago -- hence, the DI ranking -- but seems to be completely off the radar screen nowadays.

Besides, the only reason I went to UIC in 1995 was because it seemed like the cheapest and easiest option for me. Totally wrong reasons to pick an architecture school, and I've been regretting it ever since. I'm trying very hard not to make the same mistakes again.

completely agreed. when studying architecture pedagogy is very varied and almost like a religion, one must be wise in choosing one to follow. i had a chance to talk to billie tsien on the topic of in-state vs. private and she was saying that if you're talented, you will stand out anywhere. if you're just whatever, then i guess that's a different story. you may not get that rich, provocative educational experience or dialogue (perhaps) but it may give you the chance to stand out, win competitions, get faculty recognition etc. your portfolio was very strong, you have a very unique style and you seem to be very enthused about the field so i'm sure if you impose the challenge on yourself, you'll do well anywhere. the midwest does suck balls but i hope you don't let finances deter you from pursuing a career you love!