Need school to possibly transfer to from RISD. I might have had enough of the quality of teaching, total lack of student support, missing facilities, art students, and the all-American(&Korean) background.
Looking for big school with:
-a great architecture program
-sustainable interest
-good administration
-good facilities
-nice down-to-earth non-artsy people
-normal male/female ratio
-diverse student body
-a real campus
-and many parties (that i'd be missing...).
do you're saying you have a problem with americans and koreans at RISD? interesting...
i've never been to michigan but i've heard the city itself is a bit boring, whereas austin is a cool city. it doesn't live up to its reputation, but it's still a cool place. outside of the tiny city center it's nothing but sprawling spanish colonial condo parks (even the hipsters live in such abodes) but within the downtown and on the UT campus as well as UT's neighboring neighborhoods it's definitely very happening.
what year are you in? one of my friends applied to transfer into UT from U. Houston (5 year program) after completing her first year here and was accepted at UT but would be required to repeat 1st year there. her portfolio was great for a 1st year student it was just thier policy. you better check stuff like that out before you transfer.
The program at Michigan is good and seems to be well respected. There may not be a strong sustainable focus, but the Environmental Tech classes are great, you can do more if you are proactive. The facilities are good (2-laser cutters, router, starch printer, in-house plot/copy store, big studio, and many computers (at Library) etc...) The administrators are highly involved with the students and the staff is super friendly and helpful. Male/Female ratio is 50/50, and possibly more females. The people in general are friendly. There are parties at the studio almost every week, free beer, wine, food, or cheap beverages and food. The Arch school is on the North Campus, which also has the engineering, music, and art schools. This is not a great location, but has most of what you will need at school. It is about 1 mile from the heart of Ann Arbor. There are some good bars and the city is very safe. The buses service is free for students. Ask Megan if you can contact some students or visit if you have the opportunity.
i just wish there were some diversity among the students...
mp3,
i think repeating the 1st year is a given no matter where you go. that's what makes the decision to transfer so hard...i would think you can get credits for some of the classes taken though.
potential malaprop could be read both ways, but UT is very much sustainability-driven
-good administration
i thought UT's was ok, not much of a concern for me in school...cared more about the faculty. UT's dean has always pretty much just set a loose agenda and let the faculty range far and wide.
-good facilities
i kid you not, louis kahn drafted the courtyard of UT's goldsmith hall. i have such great memories of that building and its neighbor, sutton hall. never seen umich so how would i know? also, UT has a lot more stuff than they had 10 years ago, from what i hear.
-nice down-to-earth non-artsy people
down-to-earth, non-artsy people? well, neither school. try texas a&m in college station.
-normal male/female ratio
UT: 50/50 or so
umich: ? (i'm not claiming that this is a scientific comparison)
-diverse student body
i bet UT and umich are the same. REAL diverse.
at the UT SOA (undergrad) you have ALL kinds of rich kids. rich kids from the suburbs of houston, rich kids from the suburbs of dallas...even the token rich kid or two from the suburbs of san antonio.
you have rich white kids with brown hair, and rich white kids with blond hair, and a few rich white redheads, i'm sure. and don't forget your smattering of rich asian kids. might be (might be) 1 or 2 hispanics...granted they may or may not be rich...but don't even try and find an african-american. there was a total of one in my first year...and none when i graduated.
why, there might even be a republican or two during the first couple of years (but they either convert or go arch.e).
oh, and there are like 10 undergrad kids from out of state who are also rich. out of all of those, maybe 1 or 2 are from out of the country...and you bet they're rich, too.
i imagine umich (undergrad) is the same except all the in-state rich kids are from the suburbs of detroit and they have midwestern accents.
-a real campus
UT's got it. i have been to a fair number of campuses and it's my absolute favorite.
-and many parties (that i'd be missing...).
UT always shows up in the lists of party schools. don't worry, you don't have to miss the parties. the frat parties always let in anyone with a dirty white baseball cap OR khakis + ropers OR the name "tyler".
when i was growing up, hispanic meant that you were of latin american ancestry but were FROM the US.
there were plenty of latin americans (rich, all) when i was at UT. i knew a guy FROM mexico, a woman FROM colombia, etc.
but, they were residents OF latin america who came to UT as foreign students and citizens...as opposed to hispanics, of which there were very very few.
I have never heard a kind word about berkeley. every prof i ever spoke with about grad school said to stay away. some people that i work with who went to grad school 10 years ago said that they were told the same thing by there profs in undergrad. I am not saying that its a bad program but i have just never heard anybody say something good about it. they recently updated there website though, which was nice since it was a bit wierd seeing pics of people in arch school in the early 90's.
never been to austin, nor ann arbor, so it's hard to pick. if i get in, i'll go visit both. slacker? hmm... no, never even heard of it ...
right now, i have exactly 6 days to update my portfolio, track down my college adviser who's on leave, and write a personal statement for michigan. and i still can't believe i'm doing this again...
i've heard ann arbor is really nice, and i can personally attest that berkeley (as a city) is great. but for an undergrad learning experience that can be anything you want it to be, nothing beats UT and austin.
if you want to spend the next five years (because you WILL have to redo 1st year at any school) in a kinda laid-back college town, you can find that in austin.
if you want to spend it in a place where just about everyone has an iron in some creative fire, you can find that in austin.
if you want to spend it in a place where you can actually afford to live while you're in school, you can find that in austin.
if you want to spend it in a place where you might actually be able to afford to live when you're out of school...i dunno, austin's real estate is showing no signs of any slump, but maybe invest in a place now...
aha...well, then. even better for you to go to UT, since there is an in-state quota for undergrad architecture students but not for graduate students. the grad student body seemed much more diverse, and not so laden with entitled rich kids.
UT AUstin is the most smug/artsy..."I'm cooler than cool" place to be in the fucking globe! Haven't you heard.."keep ausitn weird"...its the cities adopted and not to mention totally pretentious slogan. RISD probably isn't that bad considering this is mixed in with a healthy dose of state pride also.
O.k. wait. Austin is about as unpretentious as you can get. I know. I went there. If the people there are rude, it probably is because they really are cooler than you (generally, not specifically you perturbanist). I agree that the slogan "Keep Austin Weird" is really dumb.
What IS screwing Austin up is all the Califonians moving in. Housing prices have skyrocketed and the place is starting to look like something from the movie "Blade Runner".
dmc- I applied to tranfer to UT-grad-from another school-I had a year complete at another school. I got in to UT and they are accepting my credits from the other school.
this is what you need to remember about austin. it's the city of the day job. the guy waiting your table, sacking your groceries, fixing your bike...they all have something else that's REALLY what they do.
dmc- I was accepted last year and I actually deferred for a year to return to work to make some money...so I will start in August ...but I have had an apartment in Austin and been down on weekends to visit and love the city-I can't wait to move down there.
I was attending UC (Cincinnati). I liked UC, but my husband was in Texas, so that is why I transfered. So can't report fully on the program yet, but in dealing with admin so far on the transfer they have been really nice and helpful.
this decision is not something to get that hung up on. they are both great schools. you can't make a wrong decision. why do you want to leave RISD? it is probably your dissatisfaction with your current environment that can best determine what your single best choice will be.
it's because of risd that i have that list at the top. if you asked me last year when i was applying, i didn't have too much of an idea of what i wanted from grad school.
i'm applying to both places, but i just wanted to get a hint of how the schools are similar/ different, and in which ways... granted the umich portfolio is really rushed. but admissions is such a game of luck, you never know :).
yeah i agree. well umich is a good school, but its a big program and isn't focused. it is the type of place where you'll find different groups of students doing what they are interested in. i wouldn't call the regular faculty organized, but this is an advantage if you know what you want out of your education because you can pursue it on your own. unfortunately i think many of them are too young, or are part of their fellowship program which turns over profs every year. you will have access to a lot of amazing visiting professors, probably more than what you'll find at ut austin. there are also great abroad studios, i think something like 10 this semester alone. you'll hear it called a "digital" school, which is true, but not everyone is necessarily pluged in. unfortunately it isn't on central campus in downtown ann arbor, but is on north campus, which is more like an office park. they are working to make it more like a "real" campus, and have made some big improvements, but i would not call north campus a great place. i would definitely apply to both schools. i hate to say it, but a lot of this comes down to money. in my opinion it isn't worth it to go to michigan unless you get a good scholarship or are paying in state tuition. basically if you aren't careful, you will end up paying for harvard but getting essentially ut austin or uc berkeley or an equivalent school. i sense that you aren't content with the "feel" of risd, and you won't know if you'll be happier in ann arbor or austin unless you visit both places. you will definitely have a great time in ann arbor, but if you live near school you'll be driving, cabbing, or busing and not walking to the fun parties.
It would be in your best interest to visit every school you get into - you will get a much better sense of what is going on than we can offer you. I ended up at Michigan (last choice) after visiting 6 schools.
I knew going in that tuition would be a factor, but I ended up at Michigan not because of the Architecture faculty (which seemed more or less equal at every school I visited, being a grab bag) so much as the art history and film professors I met while I was there that ended up being a much bigger influence on me than my studio professors (except for the inimitible Jason Young). So you never know.
"i imagine umich (undergrad) is the same except all the in-state rich kids are from the suburbs of detroit and they have midwestern accents."
-ochona
Holy Wah ochona, yoos hit da nail right on da head...or as we Yoopers like to say, yoos hit the moose in the caboose with my favorite pasties! We midwesterners have a accent ya know, ja...but don't get me mixed up with those flatlanders from Shi-kah-ko!
Well I think I'm gonna grab me a road pop...gots to get these choppers dried off and warm up my hinder (if you know what I mean) so if ya need me, I'll be in da Sa-ow-na! Holy Wah it's cold!
btw, dmc...Ann Arbor is a nice place to live and the school has more resources than you can imagine ever using throughout your career as a student. I didn't go there but I have several friends who did and sometimes I wish I did...not to mention, the prof's and faculty are really great and in tune with the student body...UCLA/SciArc + several east coast ivy guys transplanted in "da land of da Yooper"!
oh yeah...everyone from da great lake states is a Budweiser-drinkin-snow machine ridin'-snow suit wearing-Skoal chewing-Green Bay Packer fanatic...by the way...
...holy wha! Has anyone seen my Swampers?! Dis is da turd time some tweener ran off with my swampers today. Yah, Hey!!!
naw, i can only opine about one of the schools mentioned, which so happens to be my alma mater, so i have at least an informed opinion about one.
really, it just underscores the qualitative nature of a program's "quality" and that you can't compare them. it's a common architectural trait: we try to quantify the unquantifiable. comparing them is useless.
these are both great schools, and neither of these schools may be right for the thread originator.
we all just gotta visit each school, make our own criteria, and ultimately just take the plunge. or maybe we overthink these things. i went to ut because they sent me a pre-approved scantron application where all i had to do, was sign my name and verify my SSN. no thinking whatsoever about it except that i had been on campus and i liked it.
i didn't compare ut with other schools, i just kinda went. maybe that was the problem with RISD in this case, or maybe it wasn't.
and i lived in chicago, i can differentiate between midwestern accents. i knew a few yoopers. they were always the ones who still came to work on time in the blizzards.
well, there's a pretty complicated story behind my going to RISD. i had a crush on it for a long time, but i didn't know much about their architecture program. anyway, it was my top choice school. i didn't like it too much when i (much later) visited, but it was the only school that let me defer admission, so i just went with it.
for all the things that i don't like about RISD now, i have to say that it was the only place i applied to that offered substantial financial support (10-15k) for grad students -- seriously, we just had to ask for it, it was very easy to get. i'm international, so these places are rare. schools like the gsd or columbia have a "no fin aid for international students" policy. personally, i found it hard and slightly ridiculous to bury myself in loans to go to a school that is not willing to make the slightest financial effort to ensure that i can actually go there.
however, in the mean time i got financial support through an external scholarship, so $$'s not a factor anymore. now i can go to a state/party school, and have some damn facilities. and 24-hr computer labs. and printers that work. perhaps a life too... well, that is if i get in. and yes, i'll definitely visit before i go anywhere.
UMich or UT Austin...? Help!!
Need school to possibly transfer to from RISD. I might have had enough of the quality of teaching, total lack of student support, missing facilities, art students, and the all-American(&Korean) background.
Looking for big school with:
-a great architecture program
-sustainable interest
-good administration
-good facilities
-nice down-to-earth non-artsy people
-normal male/female ratio
-diverse student body
-a real campus
-and many parties (that i'd be missing...).
Which one should it be?
do you're saying you have a problem with americans and koreans at RISD? interesting...
i've never been to michigan but i've heard the city itself is a bit boring, whereas austin is a cool city. it doesn't live up to its reputation, but it's still a cool place. outside of the tiny city center it's nothing but sprawling spanish colonial condo parks (even the hipsters live in such abodes) but within the downtown and on the UT campus as well as UT's neighboring neighborhoods it's definitely very happening.
Sounds a lot like Michigan actually, albeit without the slush, and instead of spanish miscellaneous, Ann Arbor has Tudor and Fourdor condominiums.
Go to UT. Screw Michigan.
what year are you in? one of my friends applied to transfer into UT from U. Houston (5 year program) after completing her first year here and was accepted at UT but would be required to repeat 1st year there. her portfolio was great for a 1st year student it was just thier policy. you better check stuff like that out before you transfer.
The program at Michigan is good and seems to be well respected. There may not be a strong sustainable focus, but the Environmental Tech classes are great, you can do more if you are proactive. The facilities are good (2-laser cutters, router, starch printer, in-house plot/copy store, big studio, and many computers (at Library) etc...) The administrators are highly involved with the students and the staff is super friendly and helpful. Male/Female ratio is 50/50, and possibly more females. The people in general are friendly. There are parties at the studio almost every week, free beer, wine, food, or cheap beverages and food. The Arch school is on the North Campus, which also has the engineering, music, and art schools. This is not a great location, but has most of what you will need at school. It is about 1 mile from the heart of Ann Arbor. There are some good bars and the city is very safe. The buses service is free for students. Ask Megan if you can contact some students or visit if you have the opportunity.
Good Luck.
robust 84,
i just wish there were some diversity among the students...
mp3,
i think repeating the 1st year is a given no matter where you go. that's what makes the decision to transfer so hard...i would think you can get credits for some of the classes taken though.
thanks for the input everyone.
it sounds like UT-Austin might be your match. UMich is more art-driven and UT has a very strong sustainable focus.
-a great architecture program
UT and umich both have one
-sustainable interest
potential malaprop could be read both ways, but UT is very much sustainability-driven
-good administration
i thought UT's was ok, not much of a concern for me in school...cared more about the faculty. UT's dean has always pretty much just set a loose agenda and let the faculty range far and wide.
-good facilities
i kid you not, louis kahn drafted the courtyard of UT's goldsmith hall. i have such great memories of that building and its neighbor, sutton hall. never seen umich so how would i know? also, UT has a lot more stuff than they had 10 years ago, from what i hear.
-nice down-to-earth non-artsy people
down-to-earth, non-artsy people? well, neither school. try texas a&m in college station.
-normal male/female ratio
UT: 50/50 or so
umich: ? (i'm not claiming that this is a scientific comparison)
-diverse student body
i bet UT and umich are the same. REAL diverse.
at the UT SOA (undergrad) you have ALL kinds of rich kids. rich kids from the suburbs of houston, rich kids from the suburbs of dallas...even the token rich kid or two from the suburbs of san antonio.
you have rich white kids with brown hair, and rich white kids with blond hair, and a few rich white redheads, i'm sure. and don't forget your smattering of rich asian kids. might be (might be) 1 or 2 hispanics...granted they may or may not be rich...but don't even try and find an african-american. there was a total of one in my first year...and none when i graduated.
why, there might even be a republican or two during the first couple of years (but they either convert or go arch.e).
oh, and there are like 10 undergrad kids from out of state who are also rich. out of all of those, maybe 1 or 2 are from out of the country...and you bet they're rich, too.
i imagine umich (undergrad) is the same except all the in-state rich kids are from the suburbs of detroit and they have midwestern accents.
-a real campus
UT's got it. i have been to a fair number of campuses and it's my absolute favorite.
-and many parties (that i'd be missing...).
UT always shows up in the lists of party schools. don't worry, you don't have to miss the parties. the frat parties always let in anyone with a dirty white baseball cap OR khakis + ropers OR the name "tyler".
i know a rich hispanic guy who went to UT
hahahaha, i liked the part about diversity ochona. and yeah, i'm down with tyler...
when i was growing up, hispanic meant that you were of latin american ancestry but were FROM the US.
there were plenty of latin americans (rich, all) when i was at UT. i knew a guy FROM mexico, a woman FROM colombia, etc.
but, they were residents OF latin america who came to UT as foreign students and citizens...as opposed to hispanics, of which there were very very few.
any thoughts/comparisons with berkeley?
it probably just comes down to whether you want to be in austin or aa.
I have never heard a kind word about berkeley. every prof i ever spoke with about grad school said to stay away. some people that i work with who went to grad school 10 years ago said that they were told the same thing by there profs in undergrad. I am not saying that its a bad program but i have just never heard anybody say something good about it. they recently updated there website though, which was nice since it was a bit wierd seeing pics of people in arch school in the early 90's.
Screw Berkeley and Michigan. Go to UT.
Ever seen the movie Slacker? Now imagine Slacker starring a bunch of people from Michigan. F that. UT.
never been to austin, nor ann arbor, so it's hard to pick. if i get in, i'll go visit both. slacker? hmm... no, never even heard of it ...
right now, i have exactly 6 days to update my portfolio, track down my college adviser who's on leave, and write a personal statement for michigan. and i still can't believe i'm doing this again...
i've heard ann arbor is really nice, and i can personally attest that berkeley (as a city) is great. but for an undergrad learning experience that can be anything you want it to be, nothing beats UT and austin.
if you want to spend the next five years (because you WILL have to redo 1st year at any school) in a kinda laid-back college town, you can find that in austin.
if you want to spend it in a place where just about everyone has an iron in some creative fire, you can find that in austin.
if you want to spend it in a place where you can actually afford to live while you're in school, you can find that in austin.
if you want to spend it in a place where you might actually be able to afford to live when you're out of school...i dunno, austin's real estate is showing no signs of any slump, but maybe invest in a place now...
take a break and rent yourself a richard linklater film festival:
slacker
dazed and confused
suburbia
waking life
a lot of great scenes shot in austin
oh i'm a 1st year grad not undergrad...and waking life put me to sleep like a baby haha
aha...well, then. even better for you to go to UT, since there is an in-state quota for undergrad architecture students but not for graduate students. the grad student body seemed much more diverse, and not so laden with entitled rich kids.
UT AUstin is the most smug/artsy..."I'm cooler than cool" place to be in the fucking globe! Haven't you heard.."keep ausitn weird"...its the cities adopted and not to mention totally pretentious slogan. RISD probably isn't that bad considering this is mixed in with a healthy dose of state pride also.
O.k. wait. Austin is about as unpretentious as you can get. I know. I went there. If the people there are rude, it probably is because they really are cooler than you (generally, not specifically you perturbanist). I agree that the slogan "Keep Austin Weird" is really dumb.
What IS screwing Austin up is all the Califonians moving in. Housing prices have skyrocketed and the place is starting to look like something from the movie "Blade Runner".
I was considering moving there in the future and building for cheap. Now I feel bad for having these thoughts. Sorry, baboomba.
Watch out Portland...
yeah all the austinites are moving to portland now, as i've been told...I don't they like it either.
Portland will eventually suffer the same fate. Time to buy a shotgun and lock the doors.
dmc- I applied to tranfer to UT-grad-from another school-I had a year complete at another school. I got in to UT and they are accepting my credits from the other school.
tinydancer,
where did you transfer from? how do you like the change so far/ happy with the move?
also, let's throw UVa in the discussion while we're at it. they have a Feb 1 deadline as well, I could still make it
this is what you need to remember about austin. it's the city of the day job. the guy waiting your table, sacking your groceries, fixing your bike...they all have something else that's REALLY what they do.
most of them are in bands.
I preferred heavy metal karaoke when I was there...
dmc- I was accepted last year and I actually deferred for a year to return to work to make some money...so I will start in August ...but I have had an apartment in Austin and been down on weekends to visit and love the city-I can't wait to move down there.
I was attending UC (Cincinnati). I liked UC, but my husband was in Texas, so that is why I transfered. So can't report fully on the program yet, but in dealing with admin so far on the transfer they have been really nice and helpful.
tiny, with a lil bit of luck we'll be classmates...
does anyone know about UT Austin's use of digital media in the design process? Are 3-D modeling and computer design at all part of the M-Arch program?
Does anyone have any work examples of what UT austin graduate students are producing? The website lacks a good student work section.
Thanks for the help, i swear if i can get through this acceptance process, i will be able to do anything
dmc- good luck-e-mail me to discuss more off archinect
this decision is not something to get that hung up on. they are both great schools. you can't make a wrong decision. why do you want to leave RISD? it is probably your dissatisfaction with your current environment that can best determine what your single best choice will be.
bossman--
it's because of risd that i have that list at the top. if you asked me last year when i was applying, i didn't have too much of an idea of what i wanted from grad school.
i'm applying to both places, but i just wanted to get a hint of how the schools are similar/ different, and in which ways... granted the umich portfolio is really rushed. but admissions is such a game of luck, you never know :).
yeah i agree. well umich is a good school, but its a big program and isn't focused. it is the type of place where you'll find different groups of students doing what they are interested in. i wouldn't call the regular faculty organized, but this is an advantage if you know what you want out of your education because you can pursue it on your own. unfortunately i think many of them are too young, or are part of their fellowship program which turns over profs every year. you will have access to a lot of amazing visiting professors, probably more than what you'll find at ut austin. there are also great abroad studios, i think something like 10 this semester alone. you'll hear it called a "digital" school, which is true, but not everyone is necessarily pluged in. unfortunately it isn't on central campus in downtown ann arbor, but is on north campus, which is more like an office park. they are working to make it more like a "real" campus, and have made some big improvements, but i would not call north campus a great place. i would definitely apply to both schools. i hate to say it, but a lot of this comes down to money. in my opinion it isn't worth it to go to michigan unless you get a good scholarship or are paying in state tuition. basically if you aren't careful, you will end up paying for harvard but getting essentially ut austin or uc berkeley or an equivalent school. i sense that you aren't content with the "feel" of risd, and you won't know if you'll be happier in ann arbor or austin unless you visit both places. you will definitely have a great time in ann arbor, but if you live near school you'll be driving, cabbing, or busing and not walking to the fun parties.
Man, how much detail do you need?! Screw Michigan.
man, how many times do you need to say screw michigan?!
It would be in your best interest to visit every school you get into - you will get a much better sense of what is going on than we can offer you. I ended up at Michigan (last choice) after visiting 6 schools.
I knew going in that tuition would be a factor, but I ended up at Michigan not because of the Architecture faculty (which seemed more or less equal at every school I visited, being a grab bag) so much as the art history and film professors I met while I was there that ended up being a much bigger influence on me than my studio professors (except for the inimitible Jason Young). So you never know.
"i imagine umich (undergrad) is the same except all the in-state rich kids are from the suburbs of detroit and they have midwestern accents."
-ochona
Holy Wah ochona, yoos hit da nail right on da head...or as we Yoopers like to say, yoos hit the moose in the caboose with my favorite pasties! We midwesterners have a accent ya know, ja...but don't get me mixed up with those flatlanders from Shi-kah-ko!
Well I think I'm gonna grab me a road pop...gots to get these choppers dried off and warm up my hinder (if you know what I mean) so if ya need me, I'll be in da Sa-ow-na! Holy Wah it's cold!
btw, dmc...Ann Arbor is a nice place to live and the school has more resources than you can imagine ever using throughout your career as a student. I didn't go there but I have several friends who did and sometimes I wish I did...not to mention, the prof's and faculty are really great and in tune with the student body...UCLA/SciArc + several east coast ivy guys transplanted in "da land of da Yooper"!
ps ochona, thanks for the non-bias reviews...
oh yeah...everyone from da great lake states is a Budweiser-drinkin-snow machine ridin'-snow suit wearing-Skoal chewing-Green Bay Packer fanatic...by the way...
...holy wha! Has anyone seen my Swampers?! Dis is da turd time some tweener ran off with my swampers today. Yah, Hey!!!
Holy Wah
fair and balanced: i report, i decide.
naw, i can only opine about one of the schools mentioned, which so happens to be my alma mater, so i have at least an informed opinion about one.
really, it just underscores the qualitative nature of a program's "quality" and that you can't compare them. it's a common architectural trait: we try to quantify the unquantifiable. comparing them is useless.
these are both great schools, and neither of these schools may be right for the thread originator.
we all just gotta visit each school, make our own criteria, and ultimately just take the plunge. or maybe we overthink these things. i went to ut because they sent me a pre-approved scantron application where all i had to do, was sign my name and verify my SSN. no thinking whatsoever about it except that i had been on campus and i liked it.
i didn't compare ut with other schools, i just kinda went. maybe that was the problem with RISD in this case, or maybe it wasn't.
and i lived in chicago, i can differentiate between midwestern accents. i knew a few yoopers. they were always the ones who still came to work on time in the blizzards.
sisu, baby.
well, there's a pretty complicated story behind my going to RISD. i had a crush on it for a long time, but i didn't know much about their architecture program. anyway, it was my top choice school. i didn't like it too much when i (much later) visited, but it was the only school that let me defer admission, so i just went with it.
for all the things that i don't like about RISD now, i have to say that it was the only place i applied to that offered substantial financial support (10-15k) for grad students -- seriously, we just had to ask for it, it was very easy to get. i'm international, so these places are rare. schools like the gsd or columbia have a "no fin aid for international students" policy. personally, i found it hard and slightly ridiculous to bury myself in loans to go to a school that is not willing to make the slightest financial effort to ensure that i can actually go there.
however, in the mean time i got financial support through an external scholarship, so $$'s not a factor anymore. now i can go to a state/party school, and have some damn facilities. and 24-hr computer labs. and printers that work. perhaps a life too... well, that is if i get in. and yes, i'll definitely visit before i go anywhere.
i actually think the best thing about umich right now is the catia.
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