i.d or business.......

how about asking yourself what you are most interested in???

There is no magic combination, like B.Arch + MFA = failure, or M.Arch + MBA = success. You have to figure out what would constitute your own happiness, and pursue it. Maybe you don't know that right now, and that's ok. There's nothing that says you need to decide today.

Do you really want an MBA? Think about what you want to do with your architecture degree and let it shape your schooling.

-> Enter the management aspect (MBA)
-> Gravitate toward a design studio: architectural installations, furniture, etc (Industrial Design)
-> Planning (Urban Design)

how helpful is a masters in industrial design? I want to do that but i dont know how much of an advantage it'll give me in my career

the best degree is one that expands your mind, gives you a thirst for lifelong learning, teaches marketable skills, and pushes you beyond what you thought you could accomplish. so what does an mba or an mID give you?

i have absolutely no clue

if you don't know, then don't go.

you have an entire lifetime ahead of you, don't waste it on extraneous education.

doesn't masters help in the long run? just wanted to know how does a masters in industrial help. What can i expect?

MBA - this will give you the knowledge you need to excel in the real world, whether you move to be head of a firm or start your own business.

Everyone should have at least a minor in business! Architecture is a business, like any other. The more you understand how it works, the better you'll be able to evaluate how to pursue what makes you happy.


Don't listen to the naysayers here, empower yourself to do anything. You never know where life will take you, but you do know that it will be in the business world.

Also, not continuing with more business education (both in re dev and regular biz) is my only regret, education wise. Running your own company requires a lot of skills, the more you start off with the easier it'll be and less stress/more reward possibilities.

how does having an mba add value to your architectural degree? it doesnt really. now if you have architectural experience and then get an mba. you might be on to something.

a business degree will give you a whole new world view. i'm currently taking lots of entrepreneurship classes and economics classes on the side along with my b.arch and i have to constantly re-negotiate in between the two worlds...which is good because the practice of architecture is really business oriented esp in today's world.

an mba is for people who have business experience to administer.

An MBA, in all accounts, will probably give you a strong potential client base as the network you develop in college will likely provide you with work. Especially if you make friends with potential developers. This network will only get stronger depending on the name on your diploma. Its probably only worth it if your looking at upper tier schools like Stanford, USC, Harvard and Yale.

Even if you do not emerge with the base you wanted, you'll still have gained the skills that elude most architects: how to run a business.

what about industrial design?

My cat got an MBA.

laistm: I think the first question is, why do you feel you need a Master's degree? It is quite likely that you don't need one at all.

The other question, since you seem so intent on finding out about a Master's in Industrial Design: do any schools even offer this degree? If they do, you should research them, and if you research them, that research will answer your question.

the problem with having two design degrees is just that, it is two design degrees. Could be fun, but one won't necessarily help a career in the other.

All good sense above.

Academia is not the only route to qualified success. Consider working: Two or three years of good work will leave you wealthier and with a wider understanding of the world to take back to further studies, if, then, you feel they are still necessary.

Second, you won't get onto a worthwhile MBA course unless you have achieved something at work, and the integral of that is that you will not get much out of the MBA. Because you have no internalised model of the ways of the world on which to attach the learning that is offered to you...

The schools that can choose their students choose those who have the most to offer. Unless you have experience of what actually happens in the world outside of school, you are not on their list of preferred students. The peer group you end up with will be similarly unworthy and will go on to lives of mediocrity without ever asking you to build their dream beach hut.

If you do want another degree, who do you want to use it for? Who is going to want you more because of it? If you take the MBA (or similar), and have no experience other than an Architecture degree you will look much like any other fresh graduate with a business degree, you will just have a spare architectural thumb.

If you are not driven to stay in school by a strong vocation for design studies, or business studies, go to work. Don't consider this your final opportunity: The right studies at the right time.

Psy - that's a good point about acceptance, I forgot about that.

thats why i'm working for a couple years before i go to grad school.

i heard from my seniors that it really helps to have a masters esp when you'r pitching for international competitions?

I agree that having a Masters does help, there is a large and increasing number of Fortune500 CEO's who have PhD's. I do not mean in my previous post to demean in any way the value of doing the study. But, getting value out of your education doesn't necessarily mean doing it all before you start your career. There are lessons in the workplace that will give you the character and confidence to get the most out of graduate studies.

The Financial Times has an interactive MBA school ranking that allows you to find the correct school for you. I have seen listed (probably here) some best hundred design schools too. Search the archives...