I hear it's a great program and was thinking about applying for next year. I was going to apply to school this year but I decided to wait a year. I want to spend another year at my job and improve my portfolio. I thought that the New York/Paris program would be a neat opportunity to ease my transition back to school mode. Plus, moving to New York is exciting!

I did that program about 10 years ago as a college junior. It was my first studio experience, and the other classes - history of NY or Paris, drawing, etc. were great too. Not sure that it was any help with respect to grad school, other than allowing me to have a thicker portfolio. During the program there was lots of discussion about how it would help to get us in to the GSAPP, but that didn't work for me (despite good gpa and portfolio)... but that was a long time ago. Could be different now. I say forget about grad school help and just go - it will certainly help expand your experience and exposure to international forms of practice, which is helpful for grad school and so much more.

from the people I know who took it this year, everyone with an arch. background already (some students take the program as a transfer credit for studios at diff. schools) got enough of the columbia education, and thought that they should simply apply elsewhere now that they know the meat and potatoes of the school. I don't personally think this is a smart way to think, but one person in particular really made it worth it.

he went to every single major lecture (even most of the small or extradepartmental ones)
he religiously attended studio reviews (this is key to learning a lot in a short time)
he met all the profs that he could, and they turned him on tot he NY big-wigs for potential employment
he took as many visual studies courses that he could (the technical series, learning maya, max, fabrication, etc)

from how hard this guy worked, I think it would be a HUGE asset to anybody interested in architecture, to consider this. The problem is when people who know NOTHING about arch. join up and don't take dvantage of the opportunities. some of the students just worked in studio a bit, producing shitty first-year-ish projects, and didn't bother to connect to the rest of the school. It doesn't help that the NY portion is in a FREAKING BASEMENT.

i did the intro to arch program at columbia this past summer and we were also in the basement of schermerhorn. despite the unusually large cochroaches, the space was actually very cozy and cool. and i really enjoyed the program. as someone who had no previous experience in arch, the one month of lectures, workshops and studio time exposed me to more of the critical investigations of arch than my first semester of grad school (elsewhere). because of the location, they could quickly draw upon the practicing and teaching architects in the tristate area. we had some amazing critics and guest critics. i heard great things about the ny/paris program, but the summer class could be a cheaper alternative.

i think if there is any benefit for getting into grad school, it's that you gain exposure to columbia's pedagogy and design philosophy, which will help you tailor your portfolio and essay around what they are looking for. also, if you get letters of recommendations from critics they recognize, it will always carry more weight than if they from unknown people.

Hey all, I'm a grad student at Rice U. currently, and I"m in Paris for the spring semester. I wanted to try and meet up with the New York/Paris kids. Anyone know them or is one of them?
Thanks--