rationalinst-

I believe people who are applying to the 'Ivies' arent doing so just based on the reputations of those schools.
I also am applying to many other schools besides harvard and Princeton.
Im even applying to schools in Korea and Japan,Singapore.
reason for all the recent princeton and GSD talk here is probably just because thier deadlines are right in 2~3 days ;-)

wonderK-

One of my professors told me that schools usually are generous about late recommendation letters in many cases, so dont give up UMINN! Minneapolis is such a sweet town...

Yeah, um, anybody wanna write me a recommendation letter? Just one? LOL, This is ridiculous.

Hello,
Joining this thread for the 1st time. I've found it very helpful as an M.Arch 2007 applicant. Thanks everyone very much! Below are just some thoughts. I know a gazillon threads are out there on each school. I've really appreciated being able to sift through people's ideas and thoughts on the grad school experience so I thought I'd start sharing a bit as opposed to just reading.

I also feel weary sometimes by the focus on Ivies and would love to hear of others who are excited about other grad programs. Although I'm applying to a couple ivies, I tried to create a good balanced mix and each school has an aspect that I'm really drawn to. Below are some quick thoughts on my school choices, not intended to create a "let's digress to comparing schools again thread" but to share positive school musing with other applicants who may have similar school choices.

Harvard -nuff said about the program, I agree with all the typical pros and cons, etc...but at the end of the day, I find the opportunities for growth, development and breadth of exposure exciting.

Yale - I was really excited by their joint degree offering with the School of Forestry and I'm into the 1st year community build project. I could go on and on about other things I really liked after visiting their Open House but I don't want to tempt the "Yale blows" spirits that may be lurking and could probably make me look like the naive foolio that I am...

UT Austin - What a exciting school, great materials lab, down to earth student body, lots of exciting design build / sustainable outlets to plug into. I'm into the solar decathalon too but can't get my head around how people work this into their schedules (is it just an undergrad thing?)

Oregon - I don't mind Eugene and actually kind of dig it, the little downtown area has got some great restaurants and jazz joints and when a town is really small, you appreciate those places in a different way then when in a big city that has everything. What I like even more is Oregon's Portland Urban Design satelite program that you can be at for 2 of your 3 years. Portland is a great city for urban growth issues. Great regional focus choice and not bad on the pocket book with access to TAships, etc. Great international study ops.

Washington - Love Seattle, love so many of the regionally focused design firms. Awesome international study ops. Grad students get residency rates after the first year which is really sweet.

UBC - I've heard good things about the program and I'm looking forward to visiting the campus to see the program firsthand. Gotta love Vancouver, the Olympics in 2010!, lots of exciting urban growth initiatives, small, regional program, more intimate, I dunno, I've only heard things by word of mouth and am looking forward to just seeing things for myself.

Good luck all 2007 applicants!
That's all...

Hey, WonderK, I'll write a recommendation for you. What do you want me to say?

Oh no! I just realized after staying up all night last night and drinking my second margarita tonight that MY PORTFOLIO IS STUPID!

Shit. Hopefully they won't notice.

I'll revise your portfolio for you if you write that recommendation for me.

Status Report:

Portfolio was sent to GSD last week while I was in Cincinnati; FedEx confirms delivery at Gund Hall two days ago. Harvard stuff is now officially done.

All my stuff for Yale has now been compiled, and I'll be sending it out tomorrow after I stop at the bank to get a cashier's check for the *cough* $85 application fee.

Stuff for the other three schools isn't due until January 15th, so I've got some time to breathe for a few days.

I forgot my check in my Yale packet. I doubled checked it all and sent it on its way then later that night I realized that I never paid. I called them though and they said to just send it separately. oops. So my packet will go in the "he is too dumb to read instructions and therefore is not getting in" pile.

At least you're not in the "his portfolio is stupid so he's not getting in" pile.

Hey WonderK, deal on the portfolio/recommendation swap.

How's this:

"Please let WonderK in. She has some hot Wonder Woman underwear. She's also pretty smart."

Thank GOD I lied to my recommenders about when things were due. I told them all that I needed everything in hand by Dec. 15th, and my first deadline isn't until Jan. 15th. I was terrified that one of them would flake on me like that.

ha ha ha, I told my recommender that same thing, it didn't matter....

Yes, I definitely think we should go with the "underwear" letter.

whew. I'm feeling better about the portfolio thing. I was really stuck on having to have exactly 20 images, because I knew one school was that way. It turns out that I was freaking out way too much and lost sight of the big picture there. Turns out the one wants 23-30 (but of ANY visual work), two want exactly 20 with one wanting only graphic design and the other accepting anything including writing samples, another wants 12-20 with no more than 3-4 from any one area, another 10 - 20 (but with min. 5 drawings from direct observation!), and the last no more than 20 of unspecified content. The leeway that most schools are giving makes me feel a ton better about the whole process.

And, oddly enough, the one that's got the pissy requirements (exactly 20, graphic design only), is the one I'm considering to be safety-ish. Go figure. At least they've got a rolling deadline.

portfolio printed! yale application almost ready. all 3 letters in. Taking the GRE's next friday. I just need that...uh personal statement thing written. BUH!

WonderK, i think you should mail in your wonderwoman underwear AS the letter of recommendation. just put an obsure signature on the seal of the envelope and let the outfit do the talking. you're totally in.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I spilled margarita on my laptop. It won't start again, I'm typing this on my bf's computer right now. My precious baby laptop with all my portfolio and statements and where to mail everything and, well, EVERYTHING, is currently in pieces on my coffee table, airing out. I looked it up, and what Dell said to do was to take everything out - cdrw/dvdr, RAM, PC cards, hard drive, keyboard, wipe it all down and let it air out for min. 24 hours, and then put it back together and see if it will start up. Based on the location of the spill, I think the most I could have fried is maybe the fan and the heat sink and the keyboard, so I think my data's safe, but a 24 hour break is not what I need right now!!! Even if the computer won't start up again, bf said we could get something from Fry's which will allow me to hook my hard drive up to his computer so I can keep going, but at this point I'll have lost over a full day worth of prime portfolio time.

ARRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry to hear that, wish you good luck girl~

I'd hook up the hard drive and make DVD backups of your portfolio data ASAP, just so you can work on another computer as opposed to waiting and hoping your notebook will fire up.

Don't worry, as long as you didn't soak the HDD with margarita, your data should be safe and recoverable, at best by yourself with a HDD data recovery tool, at worst by a professional data recovery service.

Ouch! Best of luck in getting that sorted out.

On my front, stuff to Yale was sent out today. Two down, three to go.

you gotta be paranoid and backup your portfolio and essay remotely (or at least to an external HD) at least every hour throughout this process....

I backed up to cd about a week ago (before I travelled with it), so the absolute worst-case scenario would be a one-week loss of data. But I don't really think that will happen - the spill occured at the hinge cover/fan area, not the hard drive area. When I dissassembled, there was no liquid whatsoever on the hard drive, just on the fan, heat sink, and a tiny bit of the motherboard (eek!) and PC card, so likely $20 at Frys will get me my hard drive back, but I'm still holding out hope that the computer will start up after its 24 hour airing, which is what Dells are apparently built to do.

I was a wreck at first though, just bawling, could only think of how incredibly stupid I was to drink while working (which I do frequently these days). I promise, if my baby puter works, I'll never, ever, ever drink at my laptop again!!!

I hope it was a tasty margarita, at least. Mmmmm tequila.

so it seems now like drinking and using a laptop is more dangerous than drinking and using powertools, which is what we did at my old job.

Oh crap, rationalist! Exactly what you DON'T need right now!!! I hope you are able to get everything back. If necessary, I can recommend a great data recovery service that I've used before. Not cheap, but they rescued the data off my seriously wet-fried hard drive (Thai Tom Yum soup accident, sophomore year of college). But hopefully you can just plug in the hard drive. Fingers crossed.

Scanning this thread reads like an inventory of the thoughts still stuck in my head the last two weeks...no holidays, only maddening days spent on Adobe ( I am officially an expert now), scrambling from printer to printer, and binding. I have decided that any time in your life when you are in a position where you are pressing "PRINT" to make a deadline is deadly.

It just occurred to me that I rarely obsessed over any single studio this hard on any of my actual semesters...What is it going to be like if I actually get in? I just "overnight-ed" everything to Princeton, GSD, MIT (blahblah) I cannot even quit thinking about it.

How do you get the porfolio "worries" out of your head? I know you all have them. Now maybe I can somehow get my girlfreind to like me again; finally call my family; and try and forget this ever happened, at least until late March.

Good luck to you all! What a weird experience?!

yea, it truly is a strange feeling to get, well, done with the portfolio...
another thing is no matter how much time you put in, it never seems good enough....sigh...

Rationalist - Holy hell... I wish the HDD wasnt soaked up...
wish you good luck.. it really hurts..

You guys are going to love this one. I went yesterday to mail my portfolio via Express Mail. The guy at the post office told me U.S. post offices will be closed Tues. Jan. 2 in honor of President Ford.

... O_o

surely they will take this into account? when is gsd open for phone calls again? the first?

baboomba - fedEx it :)

in the midst of completing my essay..
curious what is the exact time when embark's deadline closes.
i.e. to meet December 31 deadline. either tonight at midnight or midnight at tomorrow

Thats a good question..I guess I'll go for tonight to be safe....yet as far as mailing stuff..I have heard from a good source that late stuff will get reviewed along with the ontime stuff.....I mean they don;t even look at these things for a couple weeks, is there really some picky person sittinng there as they role in.....I am sure everyone is different,..who really knows what will hahppen if you are late...I refuse to worry about a couple straggling things...as long as my portfolio is in.

Good news. Looks like Express Mail will be delivered on Jan. 2nd even though other U.S. postal services will be closed.

Hey. Anyone want to see my portfolio? Where can I upload the file so you guys can view it?

for princeton it's gotta be tomorrow all day is fine. at least harvard's was that way. if it wasn't they'd specify.

think of it this way. if a professor was asking for you to turn in a paper on May 3rd, would you have to turn it in by May 2nd at 11:59pm? NO.

baboomba,

i'm curious to see, please upload it.

Not sure if this is going to work.

baboomba's portfolio

Looks like it only works if you select save.

Oh yeah. To view it correctly, in Acrobat you should go to view/page layout/facing.

I know you guys are loving the lawnmower clip art.

the link keeps coming up as an error

If you select "save" instead of "open", I think it'll work.

nope, localhost is not a valid net address...it probably only works for you baboomba.

Computer officially fried. However, hard drive has been recovered. Have a hookup to get some programs installed tomorrow, as I've had to switch to a Mac for the next few weeks, and will start again fresh and rested in the morning. I figure another 20 hours of work should sort it out, at least for the first two schools worth of deadlines, so if I average four hours a day for five of the next six days (day off monday to attend the Rose Bowl), it should be digitally ready by friday sleepy-time. Then I have Saturday and Sunday to put on those little finishing touches and package it, and finish up any straggling pieces of my applications, to post out first thing monday morning.


I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this. I can still do this.

I know I keep saying this, and many may disagree ...but late shit is fine!

oh NO! I'm so sorry rationalist. You can still do this! It's just like a studio all nighter, except with some extra crap thrown in during the day.....

Make sure someone else prints it..I spent more energy printing and binding than whole pages of my portfolio...You can still do this, skip the game.

hang in there rationalist. sorry to hear about your troubles.

positive thoughts coming your way.

We are all rooting for you rationalist!!!! YEEEEERRGHHHH.

You can do it rationalist! Good Luck!

Good luck, Rationalist. Seems bad now, but actually is a good thing because later you will have the story to tell about how you almost didn't make it but then did. You will make it.

Sorry everyone about the false alarm on my portfolio posting. I might try again later. Where do you upload a file that's almost 5 MB anyway?

You don't! If it's a pdf, try saving it without Photoshop or Illustrator Editing Capabilities, which cuts the file size by 75%.

In better news, I'm up and running, with the old laptop hard drive as an external drive hooked up to another computer. And actually, after getting all my files back, I realize that 20 hours of work should be plenty to get this show on the road for the first two deadlines, one of which is 1/15, and the other is rolling but you get better scholarships if you submit early. [/Big sigh of relief]

Hey is anyone else having problems submitting their online application for Princeton? It won't let me submit as the option to chose citizenship is not working and it says i didn't answer a question. Help! its due by midnight!!!

Rationalist,

My .pdf was exported from InDesign using the "smallest file size" option with all extras turned off. Also, all images are 300 dpi and were cropped/sized appropriately in Photoshop before being placed. Just a big file - over 3 MB.

Thanks anyway.

moopup,
i just submited mine had minor problem as well with webisite, not the same option. try logging out and log in, again.