the plot thickens... VT offered an assistantship which covers full cost of tuition.
now thats what i'm talking about

nice +i!!!!! Thats awesome! What kind of an assistantship is it?

that's sweet! do you like Tech more or less than UVA?

less than UVA. i think i would shoot myself if i had to live in blacksburg for 3-5 years.

but it's good leverage for talking with CMU. i can be like look, another university is offering an assistantship- i would do the same here...
hmm...

I guess I'm just scared off getting ripped off. For instance: find place over internet, mail deposit, show up to move in and the place a)doesn't exist, or b)has been rented to someone else and claims no knowledge of me. Or, go to find a place in person, put down a deposit, come back to move in a month later, and discover it's been rented to someone else, and whether you get your deposit back or not, you still have no place to live.

Am I the only one who thinks of these really terrible worst-case scenarios?

Not really, because I'm having the same fears. I'll most likely have to travel to NYC in June to arrange housing beforehand. I wish I didn't have to do that, as the money I spend travelling would be better off going towards my moving expenses, but I don't like the idea of moving into a place sight-unseen, especially in NYC.

oh yeah, forgot fear c) show up to move in and place is half the size described, with carpet that smells of cat piss and countertops from the early 1970's, complete with delinquent neighbor.

So much for stopping at 6000 posts.

yeah, I never agreed to that.

Any SCI-arc people looking for roommates? An archinect apartment/house would be fun and possibly tidy. :)

I'm planning on moving around June for the making and meaning program.

speaking of sci-arc, I went to Ray Kappe's house yesterday.

GENIOUS.

One of the best days ever!

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kristin_kai - There's no such thing as too drunk at one of our office parties. There is often vomiting by high level folks. My second week here there was underwear swimming. The wrap party this year is going to be at the LA Zoo. Can't wait.

Also I emailed financial aid about the change of circumstance form and she said this:

"The 2007-08 FAFSA is based on 2006 income. If your income has changed, you may complete a ‘Projected Year Income’ form with required documentation. I have attached the form. Keep in mind that Graduate students are only eligible for Federal loans. Any stipends, fellowships, or fee waivers are awarded by the Graduate Department."


The most relevant box to check off on the form is-
Loss of employment: Verification from your employer.

So we'll see what happens...

that totally didn't work...

how about this...

Any idea how much one can make during a summer internship? I'm trying to project next year's income but I've never had that kind of work before.

ok, again, it's Kappe's house....

that house looks pretty sick WhatToDo!! Super clean detailing. Thanks for posting it

clarito - it really depends on how big the firm is and where it is located but if it is your first internship at an arch firm I would think you may get anywhere from $10-15 an hour. If you go to a bigger firm you mat get more money and like I said it really depends on what part of the country you are in too.

Thanks cpnorris - I'm in LA and thinking I'll probably be in a smaller place but who knows. I wasj ust looking for something reasonable to put on this form. Appreciate the help.

Want to hear something funny?

Well, remember how I mentioned several pages that I configured my email to send a text message to my phone anytime I get an email from the cornell.edu, harvard.edu, et al domains?

A bunch of us at the office went out to lunch together at a place several blocks away from the office. Right when I'm sitting down at the table, I hear the familiar chime on my cell phone, indicating that I had gotten a message. That's weird, I thought, since I've already been rejected from all my schools. I flip open the phone and read the following on the screen:

Fr: arch-grad-info@cornell.edu
S: Cornell Architecture
B: Dear Living in Gin:

It has come to our...

Read it: https://m.oa.yahoo.com
From: 92500
12:13pm 4/6/07

I spent the next hour and a half ignoring the conversation at the table, breaking out in a cold sweat, trying to complete the sentance, "It has come to our..."

"It has come to our attention that we made a grievious error in rejecting you. Please accept this full scholarship as an apology."

"It has come to our attention that you have been using a copyright-protected graphic of the Cornell seal on an internet discussion forum. Please cease and desist, and forget about re-applying next year."

"It has come to our attention you dropped left an empty coffee cup on a table in the Green Dragon Cafe during your visit in November. Enclosed is an invoice for cleaning services."

Alas, when I finally got back to the office to check the full message, I got the following:

"It has come to our attention that due to a US Postal Service error the letter notifying you of your application results may have failed to arrive. Please find attached a copy of that letter. Another hard copy has been mailed today. We apologize for the delay and any inconvenience."

So, when the hard copy eventually arrives in the mail, that will be the third copy of the same rejection letter I've gotten. Thanks for rubbing it in.

Time to change my email settings to not send me any more notifications via cell phone.

ha, I just came on here to mention the opposite problem. I have now been informed by four separate people that I have been accepted to Pratt.

I guess that's what you get for trying to get information too many different ways.... they all reply to you eventually!

I'm starting to apply to outside scholarships, and just had to ask my boss for a recommendation. I hope he doesn't sabatagel, like other bosses have been known to do!

sucks LIG... sorry that had to happen to you

By the way, the letter was dated February 16th. Wow.

still no financial aid from pratt.... I did however, recieve the official paperwork from UW today (previously only recieved from the School of Art). Apparently, while I need to accept my place at the School of Art and my TA and scholarship there by April 15th, my deposit does not need to be in until June 1st! Once I have committed to the school of art, I cannot commit to another institution without informing them first and acquiring a written release from them, but this is a big load off my mind. In reality, I have more time to think about things that I previously thought- if I change my mind after April 15th, I inform the other institution (presumably Pratt) that I would like to commit but need to be released from my commitment to UW, obtain that release, and am then free to recommit where I choose. It's wierd, but it works.

i think if you just dont pay the tuition you wont have to get a "release"... what the hell...seems like a bunch of redtape bs... are you their property now???

and what if they say "no you cant go to another school"

or maybe the schools have some sort of relationship and won't admit if you are commited to another program without that program offically releasing you.

O.k. Wait a second. Maybe this is the engineer in me, but I'm not so sure that house above is so "genious" with an "o". Look at the span on those f*cking boards. They're gonna sag like a motherf*cker someday.

It's just to prevent double-committing and taking up a spot that another qualified candidate from the waitlist should have. They sent a list of schools that share that information with each other. I don't really mind it, I know that if I were on the waitlist there I'd appreciate that they were doing all they could to let me know if I'd been accepted in a timely manner.

Many schools take double-committing very seriously, and will rescind admission if they find out you've done it.

well theres the answer to the "rescinding offer" question asked earlier

I'm pretty sure the structural beams have been there for 50+ years (I'll check though) and they are doing just fine....

it's a renovation.

sorry for the misspelling, please forgive me.

oh, and +i, I just checked the list of schools participating (was included in the offer packet) and if you accept an offer from either UVA or VTech, it'll be subject to the same conditions. They can be found here.

well good thing i havent accepted to anyone anywhere.

and i think i will start my own *Council of Graduate Students* with a subset organization of Students Who Want Financial Aid Letters BEFORE Having to Make Decisions.

that sounds excellent. I would most certainly like to be a charter member.

C'mon. Really? What kind of wood is it? I don't see how it holds up unless there's metal inside or on the edge.

Yeah, sort of like FL Wright's Falling Water. Engineers had to shore it up recently cuz shit was cantilevered out too far. At least that is my understanding.

Man, bring back the days of the master builder.

It's a renovation, not a tear down. I did not work on that part of the project, so I don't know if he had to structurally reinforce it or not, but I can find out. I do not know the construction of the existing beam, though I do know that it is original and appeared to be straight. I can't imagine they would spend that much on floor to ceiling glazing if the roof line was going to sag. But, I'm not an engineer.

If any of you Los Angelinos want to go out tonight,

My other arch student friends and I are organizing a visit to Saints and Sinners on Venice (between Overland and Sepulveda) for happy hour and then to The Air Conditioned on Pico (in Santa Monica) tonight..

Clarito- it sounds like sleeping bag is going to sciarc and the other guy we know will pay less at gsd than ucla! would you rather learn from denari or learn from the institution that gave us denari, essentially becoming him. that decision’s made. that leaves radio. maybe i can live with radio... when i think about living in LA i wanna cry. On the other hand penndesign is cool enough. the first year students are talking about GC. Phila is really cool too, even though it currently leads the US in murders--more than one a day!

"would you rather learn from denari or learn from the institution that gave us denari, essentially becoming him."

Neal Denari would be Neal Denari regardless of where he went to school.

how LAME is this letter of acceptance? :

4/5/07

Congratulations! Cal Poly Pomona has completed the review of applicants for the Masters of Architecture program for the Fall of 2007. I am pleased to inform you that your application has been accepted and you are part of the first round of notifications. We had a large and very well qualified group of applicants this year and if you are no longer interested in Pomona we will extend this opportunity to one of the numerous students on the waiting list. Please respond by April 9, 2007. If you reply via E-mail we will send you a formal letter of acceptance and a commitment letter for your signature. If you do not reply we will give your spot to the next candidate on the list.

Thank you and we hope to hear from you soon.

Kip A. Dickson


4 DAMN DAYS TO RESPOND? ARE THEY STUPID?! i hate them.

hallojii, that is awfully lame. 4 days? That's unacceptable. Literally, ha.

In other news, kristin_kai and I *might* be in the market for a 3rd roommate....since she's going to UCLA and I'm headed to USC, do we have any SCI-Arc people interested? Together we could form a "triumvirate" of architecture schools, lol.

I think that might cause a breach in the space-time continuum in your apartment. Check the lease.

hallojii it sounded like they are more interested to know if you're interested, not asking for a commitment either way. That way they can weed out the people who definitely don't want to go.

Which isn't as bad as asking people to say "yes" within 4 days, but is still a little... WACK.

yet another reason why Pomona is wack.

I finally recieved my paperwork from Pratt today... and they seem to think that I'm an international student. My letter informed me that I would be required to take an English Language exam at orientation, and may be required to enroll in english classes concurrently with my graduate program. I'm sorry, I didn't realize that my statement of purpose was that bad! There was no scholarship information enclosed.

In other news, today I bid goodbye to the Otis College of Art and Design. I've decided to keep my summer free to pursue scholarships and competitions, so won't be going back.

holla....ask them for a refund based upon unreasonable expectations....and have it sent on a lawyers letter head...
that might wake them up.....

I'm a donkey on the edge. Really getting pissed off now. My life is so f*cked up. I don't know if I'll be able to go to school or not.

$40,000 in debt, not including the house. House still isn't finished, because we had to fire the contractor in the middle of our addition project, so it's unsellable in its current state. And like I told everyone earlier, my f*cking mom got kicked out by her boyfriend of 15 years and is now living with us. Her new checks came in the mail today with my f*cking address on them. Guess she's planning on staying for awhile.

Man, people are crawling all over me. Really f*cking pissed off.

Sorry, everyone, but if I don't make it to school I'll probably be an engineer for the rest of my life.

I don't think UT will defer either, especially not in my case. I called the UTSOA Thursday and the graduate admissions lady told me that they "have never admitted somebody with such a low GPA." HA.

sorry to hear about the issues baboomba...I hope things turn around for you.

Well, I am making final travel arragenments for my great grad-school open house/visit journey..

Tomorrow, I'll be heading to Philadelphia to be at UPenn's open house. I then will fly over to Saint Louis to visit Wash U. I'll finally cap of the week by visiting Ann Arbor to see Michigan up close. Still undecided. I'm hoping this expensive trip will pay off by helping me determine what I want in a grad school and which school will be the best investment for me. I'm also treating this as a vacation in 2 unknown cities and my home, Michigan.

I'm sure it will help a ton. I've only visited two of the schools I applied to, but they were both so informative. The first one really clarified what I wanted in a school, I really clicked with that school (but sorry CCA, you're too expensive for me) and it became the standard by which all other programs were judged. The second visit brought up as many new questions as it answered, but in a good way that made me look deeper at every school I had already applied to and judge them by a whole new layer of criteria. I wish I had the money to visit every school I applied to. After those two amazing experiences, I feel like if I could just see the other four (well, the top two of those four anyways), I could be 100% sure about my decision. As it is, I'm hovering between 80 and 90%, as fortunately the one that works best financially is one that I got to visit. I'm sure that your grand tour will clarify everything for you b.d.f.

baboomba, I don't know what else to say but that I feel for you.