Not Canadian, but a Canadaphile.

I worked with someone who went to Dalhousie (isn't that TUNS, in Nova Scotia?).  It's supposed to be good.  He wasn't.  He was a bullshitter who didn't do his work, or at least as much as he should have.  I don't know anyone who went to Calgary, but Calgary is a nice city, sort of Canada's Denver.

The ocean of the Maritimes or the ski slopes of the Canadian Rockies?  I'd go with the ocean near Halifax.

I'm a fan of programs that provide practical skills in addition to good design, and not just avant garde design by itself.

Hey Trffl,

I am currently completing my third term of studies at Dal in the BEDS program (B3). Pretty much all of what you said was right. There is definitely a lot more focus on "by hand" work in the first few semesters. In the first semester of studies, most people hand draft, and the changeover started to happen more in the second semester, and the third semester was a fully digital final submission (but you could hand draft and then scan). Model making is still something that all of the professors seem to like, and will comment at the critiques if you don't have a physical model. 

Dalhousie does not teach you any computer programs, but do have some tutorials done by upper level students. As a class we have been suggesting that in representation courses that more programs be taught. In the second semester we did get to learn a lot about hand drafting methods, and axos, etc. 

What you said about the BML influence may be true, and probably seen most in the second semester of studies with the house design. He is the design professor for that semester, and a tutor as well. This is really the only semester that students study with him, so the influence doesn't hit as hard as you may be thinking. His partner in practice, Talbot Sweetapple, is also a tutor so this also does have influence since they are quite similar. The work term portfolios of our class are starting to be put online on the Dal website, so I would maybe suggest looking at those to see what current work is like. As for the "practical" vs. "out there".. I wouldn't say that there is a huge push towards things that are more "buildable" necessarily. I mean.. I haven't felt that push in my designs, although it is something that I like to think about. Many of my classmates designs in the last semester certainly weren't totally "buildable." Saying that, there is a bit more of a push towards fitting in to the context, so that's where you may be seeing less "out there" work from the students. BML was a big promoter of that in our last semester with the house design, as we were designing for Lunenburg -- his specialty. 

All in all, although I may complain about the program and the way that some things are run, I have really enjoyed my last few semesters at Dal, and looking back I have learned a lot more than I thought I had (a lot of learning is self motivated). The professors have been quite good, and the design tutors have been good as well. 

Sorry that this is coming quite late after your post, but I hope it can still help.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Just to give you a different perspective from Nicole B, my take on your points about Dal:

- More "by hand" work: hand drawing, model building, etc - true in the beginning and you can continue this way until thesis if you want to (most people go digital after a couple of terms, though)

- Less "out there," more emphasis purely on buildable architecture - definitely less "out there", buildability of some of our projects is questionable though. I would say that traditional forms are preferred. That also makes the "UFO" projects stand out more (sometimes in a good way)

- Probably a nicer place to live - subjective, up to you. It gets pretty miserable in the winter here

- Longer, more expensive, but has 3 coop terms - yes

- Exchange/travel seems possible but is less tightly "locked in" with the curriculum - there is currently only one exchange possibility (Portugal in M2 term - starting from this year), also in M2 there is a studio that goes away for a month or so (last year - Columbia, this year - Montreal, were going to go to Chile, but something did not work out). Also in terms of travelling - your best chance is going away on work-terms.

- Overall, seems like more of a "safe bet": has a good name, has a well-established program  - I sure hope that's true

Let us know what you've decided