i had planned to apply to al&d, but ultimately decided as a us citizen that while the school was great and seemed to match my interests, there were plenty of other programs in the states that i was equally excited about. when i visited the school, it seemed like the studio spaces were overcrowded and i got the impression that they were expanding the student population without a proportional bump in resources. while it's a great deal for canadian citizens, the cost of being an international student can be astronomical, and i was concerned it could be difficult for my boyfriend to get legal residency and employment. after all of that, the $220 application fee sort of sealed the deal.

yes details please!

how and when for the GSD?!?!

congrats stelina and untouchable!!

thank you thank you!!! congrats and best to all!

i agree snark...although i wouldn't say the space is overcrowded -- they have more space than most top schools.

Ahh. anyone have more details about GSD acceptances?

skycaptain, yea i got email then phonecall then package from GSD. I got email last thursday and phonecall and package yesterday.

I'm still waiting for the Yale, cornell, Upenn, MIT but still im goin to GSD

Thanks guys!!

ok to all looking for a glimmer of hope at the GSD

i spoke to someone at admissions yesterday and they hope to get the REST out no later in the mail by this friday

I clarified that yes, there are still some acceptances out there yet to be given out...it always still tends to go in waves although they do try and get them all out at once.....

anyone know anything about MIT?

thanks untouchable and congrats and thanks bristow. lol. gimmer of hope is good considering all i have is a wait-list offer right now.

i don't know why gsd wouldn't send all the emails out at once...i mean, i'm assuming it's a generic msg. they send to everyone - this is the same deal with columbia.

it is wierd

but the impression i get is that "waves" of acceptances is unavoidable

as discussions, narrowing of piles, etc take a while.

kin dof scary though bc does that mean if one were to get in this late in teh acceptant pool...

would you be one of those who just "narrowly" got in?

wouldnt be the biggest boost of confidence now would it....

My heart goes out to all the ppl without an acceptance yet. I was having a stroke before my Columbia acceptance... by now I'd be searching for a bottle of pills to swallow...JK

oh bris...cant think of it like that. if you're in you're in. plus, half the people probably got in for various, unmerited reasons that I will not mention.

bristow, i don't think "narrowly" getting in would hurt my confidence at all. most important is getting in and consequently, the work you do while you are in school. a substantial part of the admissions process seems rather arbitrary anyway. when a school has over 400 applicants, i think being picked at all is pretty awesome -- order doesn't matter in the end.

Started my morning with a fresh cup of rejection from UCLA MArch II.

Got into Pratt and still waiting for Berkeley and a rejection letter from GSD!

congrats druvius on getting into columbia. :P amazing!

hopefully the mail is here. going to check.

Bris: it's like almost missing a bus, but JUST getting on.... At least you're along for the ride, unlike those poor bastards outside... (my apologies to those poor bastards outside)

its cold outside

so buck, if you could go back... would you have applied to some mid-level schools?

I'd be happy just to be accepted... even if I was the last person to be accepted to a good program. Even being waitlisted wouldn't be bad at this point.

hmm, good question. Cant say I wouldve. I mightve taken certain offers I was given but declined due to cockiness and believe in the fact that I could get into any ivy on merits alone. next year though, will be more-mid level schools. Not really mid level though, just lower-high (columbia, ucla, etc)

anyone care to guess about the Rice timetable... thinking here that if they only admit 12 acceptances might fly under the archinect radar?

asbuck,
you are really into rankings aren't you?

no, i just wasnt into schools like columbia/upenn, cause in my mind, they were too one dimensional. princeton, my top choice, was 16th. and UC, a school I had no interest in was 2nd

yeah, that doesn't make any sense. it must be a personal/ego thing for you because people get into Columbia and not into Harvard. Some get into Yale and not UVa. Others get into MIT and not UT. it doesn't matter. i think that's misguided thinking

what? it has nothing to do with who gets in where or where they get into compared to other schools. It has to do, for me at least, with researching their work, faculty members, and overall direction of the program. because im not so interested in making glittery vaginas i wasnt interested in columbia. doesnt have shit to do with their selectivity.

is it my fault that schools with a multi-faceted approach to design and well balanced faculty happen to have low acceptance rates?

I have to agree with smith..it is not a linear equation as to who they pick, or even how peoplE will turn out....reputations wort waver at these places anyway...after a couple years of watching things..I have to say is...

all my profs were right....ITS A CRAP SHOOT!

asbuckeye, sounds like your cockiness is gonna keep you out of school for a while

hm, I guess you guys are all right. I must've been selecting schools based on rankings/my ego thusly wasting bounds of time/money. you caught me

also, applying to more places increases the chances of the right school selecting YOU. I assume the majority of us submitted generic portfolios... so in the end, the school the picks you. Why not choose after that?

you're right kramer, you're right

... from a strictly strategic standpoint

as for buck, we all have our own reasons for applying to whatever schools we are applying to. You dont need to justify your choices. For instance...anyone care about prestige value? I rest my case

Asbuck, do you think that not having a portfolio or interest in of glittery, trendy or iconic work holds people back in the applications process? I dodn't really want to be one of those architects who twists a piece of metal into an odd shape, uses some fancy scanning machine to create a 3D model of it and then calls it a museum, school or library. (ok, I know it's a bit of exagetation) Not trying to bash all work done like this, but it's definately not what I want to do.

not so much prestige as time-tested. i was interested in programs that have always been/will always be good. and on the advice of undergrad professors, schools that arent as caught up with nowness. but I guess that makes me elitist/cocky.

I dont think it holds you back cou2, no. I dont look down on that work at all either. its just as hard/interesting as any work out there. its just not my thing. and thusly, didnt craft school choices in that direction.

I don't think school selection can make one "cocky"...but we all have trouble figuring this shit out...and so we might react to an unpredictable system is understandably confused.

If it's a crap shoot, I'd like to roll the dice as many times as possible...

yikes! archinect got prickly in a hurry.

personally i think it's important to be selective about what schools you apply to, whether that narrows it down to fifteen or two. it's not worth the time, money, or effort to apply to (or attend) a grad program that you're not 100% excited about, and if you don't make it on the first go 'round, you should absolutely reevaluate the way you present yourself in your applications and go for it again. this is a totally personal and individual process, and each of us is the only one who can say what school is the best place for us. the only time you run the risk of being too cocky is when you start to think anyone owes us admission - they don't.

i didnt mean to call asbuck cocky, he called himself cocky

sarcasm much?

I need to learn to type one day...maybe after grad school.

this is better than daytime television!

I just dont like people making stupid blanket statements that are presupposing that Im stupid enough to pick something Im going to be spending thousands of dollars and several years on and that will craft the rest of my career/life, based on a list.

ff33 wasn't your list of schools similar to asbuck in terms of prestige/rankings?

i find it ridiculous for people to pass judgment on others based on whether an admissions committee gave a thumbs up or a thumbs down.
say someone got into all the schools they applied to - would that make him any better of an architect? if they got rejected from all, does it make them any worse?

i admire asbucks integrity to apply to only programs he was interested in, and not just throw his portfolio at every possible school out there and see what stuck. it may have yielded disappointing results, but i am willing to bet hed rather take a year off and work on his portfolio than pay a couple $100,000 and feel like hes not getting a worthwhile education.

stop being childish.

whoa. just went to lunch.

okay.

asbuck - first, if your reasoning is stronghold about applying to these schools, then you cannot and should not apply to any other school the following year. otherwise you risk contradicting what you're saying right now and ceding to the "next tier" of schools....so...just do whatever you have to do to get into Princeton next year.

seriously. as others have said before: don't compromise, right? but you might have to if you want an education.....

Yes, well this was a first go at it. And based on the results, maybe next year I will need to revaluate my priorities and be slightly more realistic about it. Or, as you put it smith, there is always the "stay the course" rout I suppose. That's always great logic.