Vick-

there is a search function at the bottom of the forum index and that will uncover lots of useful discussions about MLA programs, portfolios, and the grad school application process.

since there is lots of stuff to wade through, here are few of the more pertinent threads-
MLA tips:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,

portfolio tips:
1,
2,
3,
4,
& many more


feel free to post a new question to these older threads & *bump* them back to the top of the forum.

The BAC has lots of courses available in the evening, also the GSD has lots of lectures and a great summer discovery program.

Awesome treekiller, thanks for the thread links.

off the radar is the conway school out in western mass. its non-accredited but their grads kick ass when it comes to ecological design. UMass also has an intensely ecological undergrad environmental design program.

not covered in other threads are the poles of landscape education... it will help your selection/apps process if you can figure out what you want. schools tend to focus on a few of the following: ecology, horticulture, garden design, aesthetics, theory, the LA profession, planning, to name a few. most schools will give you two or three of these. fyi I'd place the gsd as a planning, theory, Profession program. Penn is similar with more emphasis on Theory. the BAC will be a Professional focus only.

so what attracts you to being a 'scaper?


good luck.

Good to know. I will def enroll in a course or 2 at the BAC.

I'm not tied to Mass - so I will prob apply to schools all across the US. I've been researching posts in these forums about different programs - pretty good stuff I might say! This is an excellent resource.

tree killer

what would be a good school for ecology or horticulture? any schools outside of the US that you know of?

not that familiar with the international programs beyond AA's Landscape Urbanism and Ecole de Paysage (or what ever it's called in france). There must be some great schools in the Netherlands and Germany. Laurie Olin is establishing a new program in Beijing but don't know what he's teaching that can't be learned at Penn, and there have to be a few programs in japan... oh, i worked with a scottish bloke who was pretty talented.

But these are not ecological/horticultural, just design/urbanism. For those, look at public universities in agricultural/forestry regions, especially the land grant/ag schools.

UT-Guelf is doing interesting stuff with living walls. UC-Davis has a great natural science and viticulture program. Yale has the school of forestry that offers dual degrees with architecture.

hope other archinecteur's have better knowledge and care to share.

so pretty much if I want the shiny gold sticker of social approval of a brand name school, it's going to be about formalism? Njall at the GSD seems to have said some nice eco stuff at the open house according to other archinectors....

I know it sounds shallow, but after living outside of the country for several years, I feel like I need a brand name american experience to reindoctrinate me, if that makes any sense. I feel like I would be kind of lost at a land grant school. Japanese school might be okay, but I wonder if it would be useful outside of Japan at all; I'm kind of looking to get out not stay....

You probably can't answer this, but would it be wise to reapply to, say the GSD, immediately in the next year with the exact same application? It was kind of frustrating reading the MLA thread you linked to. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I think I was a pretty interseting and strong candidate for the GSD, and was flat out rejected. :/ I'm thinking about taking a year to add some stuff to the application... (still can't change my GPA though ;_;)

travis-

don't use the same application. Submitting the same application again will give a message that you don't really care. While your transcript and scores won't change, it's worth reworking your portfolio, writing new essays, and talking with your references about how to make your application stronger. the odds are against most applicants these days with the best 'name' schools getting many more applicants then slots.

Brand names have different impacts the further away you are from them. In my town of minneapolis, the gold standard is the U of MN, not harvard. there are few, very few ivy grads out here and my UPenn degree didn't help me land a job.

Your education doesn't make you, you make your education. if you want the japanese experience, don't hesitate. Just know that if you move outside the coastal cosmopolitan centers of the US, most firms will freak out until you have the chance to sell your skills face to face.

I was born and raised in Minneapolis, and yeah, ivy league is kind of a fascinating oddity rather than a credential.

But I'm definately not considering going back to Minneapolis any time soon for school or work (although it's an absolutely wonderful amazing city)

I appreciate your comments though. I actually want to have another crack at making my portfolio again. I made the first one in quark, and it did indeed look awesome on screen, it seemed to not work so well after I had mounted it, etc. hmmm.

Maybe you can give me some advice, since we're working with slim pickings for what my portfolio consisted of anyway since I'm not coming from an art background. 1 page was a model project I did at SANAA, one page was my final project from my landscape studio on Career Discovery, One page was devoted to a renewable energy convention booth I helped design for my company last fall, one page was devoted to a habitat for humanity housing project I did in Thailand, one page for my photography, one page for my terrible drawings. and an misc page talking about my japanese architecture thesis, and some other stuff.

That was me crawling over the finish line as far as content is concerned. When I finished the portfolio, I was actually extremely proud of it and felt like it would make me a strong candidate and my eco/minimalist sensibilities. I'm not from an art background, so I don't have a lot to work with in that sense. I only took survey art/architecture classes in college (because that's what architects recommended to me). And high school was pretty much just the photography class or two. Drawing is a lost cause for me.

We had a portfolio creation seminar during Career Discovery which I referred to heavily while making my portfolio. That doesn't mean I copied a style or anything like that, just how long, type of content, etc. fundamentals for someone who had never made a portfolio in his life.

I had the same portfolio for both MLA and MArch programs I applied to, but seeing as how I have such slim pickings here, there really wasn't enough to tailor the portfolios to different programs. Some SANAA people and a friend of mine who is doing MLA at GSD looked over it and said it was good, but it was just the path of least resistance just to get rid of me more than anything else.