did it not send you to a penciled monastery image?

why does no one every mention recommendations?
next to portfolio in my experience they're by far and away the most important criterium considered by admissions commitees...

graduated 3.5, 1240gre....... everyone who applies to ivies (sci-arc, etc) has those stats... portfolio, and the fact that you know a grad, donor, or professor is what gets you in.


do you all not feel like that?



oh and illustrator/in-design for putting that bad-boy together

not me blindly hating on people who know someone at the school they apply to.

i did my own thing, but definitely tried to get my letters from people influential in the schools, got my ass accepted.

just food for thought.

over_under, i think you're spot on that recommendations are extremely important, definitely more so than grades or GRE scores (which i originally typed "GRE sores," which is fairly telling of my experience). however, i don't think it's as important to get your letters from someone "connected" as from someone who knows you well and can be a strong advocate for your talents.

that said, two of my recommenders were GSD alumni and the third was a Princeton alum. none of them have any particularly strong ties to the schools now, but although i don't know if that helped me it certainly didn't hurt.

agreed that the whole "stats" thing is a bit worthless in this arena. a kickass portfolio will hide all your astronomy 201 sins......

definitetly agree skarkitekt, its better to have your recommendations from people who know you well (its just nice when they know you well and know the admissions commitee members also)... though part of me wonders had i taken the offer of letters from a very high profile alum who knows my family much better than he knows me, would i be a bulldog instead of a quaker next year?

anyway... good luck everyone in 09!... i gotta do work... im charging my time to a client and obsessing over archinect, always a good decision!

I've been confused about which route to go after with the recommendation letters too.

so, is it not better to have a recommendation from a design teacher or someone you interned for for 6 months or so as apposed to a pal or friend of the family thats known you for a long time?

Since I'm coming from an unrelated background, I don't know any alumni from any of the schools i'm going to apply to, except maybe one or two teachers. But, by the time application time comes around, they will have only known me for 6 months or so. However, they will be the best judges of my design work.

Is the key to just find someone who will write the best letter or someone who can stamp it with their impressive/relevant credentials?

Plus, is it best to have a variety of sources in terms of type of people or their credentials?

Also, this is a silly question, but the recommendations don't have to be customized to each school do they? I can just ask them to provide me with enough copies to cover my applications, right? no?

had a rec last year from a certain architectural writter/theorist who has taught at all the big schools, and currently teaches at princeton and harvard...either I suck really bad (dont think so), or those recs dont mean as much as you all suspect...at least in terms of the "bigness" of the name on it.

lessermatters
cant speak for what mine said... i think a lot of the schools requested that the recommender send the letter directly and do something like sign over the seal of the envelope, or submit directly online.... and i didnt really care to see them anyway... the way i see it though, the more they can gear it toward the school the better probably? mine were all architecture professors i had in school but anyone who can atest to your character, work ethic etc... i wouldnt think they would necessarily have to be architects... its probably helpful though to have at least one architect in there,(someone who can attest to your design potential) if you arent an architecture student... maybe a teacher for the second one, and then if you need to... a family friend or someone who knows you well for the third one... this is all advice from someone who honestly knows very little except for what my friends and i have experienced over the last couple months, but it seems to make sense to us

anyway.. recs were just the things that a lot of people seemed to underappreciate in terms of their potential to help on an application...
which is why i brought the whole subject up in the first place, i would be curious to see know if, as long as theyre positive, recs can hurt your application or if they only serve enhance it

Hello everyone. I'm new here but am looking into applying hopefully this winter, if not next year. I have a very weak GPA (lessermatters I'm in the same boat) and am worried about my score on the GREs. I'll be taking about 4 months to study if I were to apply this coming December/January.

In terms of my portfolio work, I've been working as an artist and have some works available on my myspace page. Hopefully some of you will have a myspace account to view it. Otherwise, I'll be posting my portfolio up soon because I plan to have it down in a few weeks. If I end up applying the following year, I will attend the LAIAD preparatory program.

Would anyone mind providing a critique of some of my work? Of course, my portfolio would be more focused.

Thank you very much!

Sorry I forgot to post my myspace url.

www.myspace.com/liandlee

Ciao!

Oh one last thing, would any non-arch graduates post some of your portfolios? I would really appreciate looking at more samples.

theres a bunch of portfolios in the 2008 thread. You just have to search around a bit

Thanks I've read a few posts here and there in the 2007 and am now getting addicted to the whole thread. (biting fingernails)

Some of the portfolio links don't work on the 2007 thread. :S Would anyone mind it if I can take a peak of what they did for last year's application process?

Okay, I guess I'll throw my hat into the ring. I was very active on the 2007 thread and the superstitious side of me thinks that may have jinxed my chances, but oh well.

My background:

Began my BA degree at UIC in 1995, got shitty grades and dropped out in 1999. Resumed my BA degree at DePaul University in 2006, and I've been getting pretty much straight A's so far. I now live in NYC, but I still have a few independent study things I need to wrap up before I finally get my BA in spring of 2009. I also need to take my calculus and physics prerequisites, which I'll do at CUNY Manhattan Community College here in NYC.

I took my GRE's in the fall of 2006. I don't remember my exact scores, but they were decent.

In 2006, my portfolio consisted mostly of professional projects (I've been working in the architecture business since 1995, despite my lack of a degree) and some old school projects from UIC.

My letters of recommendation came mostly from people who knew me professionally, and from one professor from a non-architecture course at DePaul.

At that time, I still had a lot more work do to on my BA degree, and I realized that even if I had gotten accepted anywhere, it would have taken a miracle for me to actually finish my BA degree in time to actually enroll in grad school.

Schools applied to (in rough order of preference): Cornell, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Penn.

Schools accepted to: n/a

Schools rejected from: Cornell, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Penn.

Nursing my bruised ego, I completed some more classes for my BA degree, and then moved to NYC last summer and enrolled in the Intro to Architecture summer program at Columbia. Now, I'll be re-applying to M.Arch. programs this fall, and I think I'll be in a much better position.

For starters, I'll be completing the bulk of the remaining work on my BA degree this summer and fall, and will only have a few loose ends to tie up in the spring. I'll finally become a college graduate in June 2009. In addition, I recently won a Student Excellence Award from DePaul from a research project I did last year, which will beef up my undergrad credentials a little bit.

My updated portfolio will include some of the projects I worked on at Columbia last summer, as well as the Advanced Project I'll need to complete as part of my BA program. As such, the projects have much more of an academic focus, they're much more recent, they'll show much more of my thought process (always important), and they'll be of much better quality. The portfolio itself will also get a major re-vamp, and I'll be taking more of the advice that I failed to take the last time around.

My studio critic from Columbia has offered to write me letters of recommendation, and has also offered to critique my portfolio. He's now the director of one of the M.Arch. programs I'm applying to, and has taught at Columbia, Pratt, and GSD. Not a bad person to have in your corner.

I'll also be getting letters of recommendation from a well-regarded professor at DePaul (the same one who nominated me for the Student Excellence Award), and from a former supervisor at a respectable architecture firm I used to work for.

All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll be in much better shape this time around, and I've been assured that I'm a "shoo-in" for at least one of the programs I'm applying to.

Here's The List as of today, roughly in order of preference (although each program has its pros and cons):

Harvard GSD
Pros: Excellent all-around program, top-notch faculty and facilities, all the benefits of having the Harvard name on your resume.
Cons: Cost, mandatory relocation to Boston area for 3+ years.
Columbia
Pros: Cutting-edge program, location in NYC, Columbia campus already feels like my own backyard, Avery Library, good name recognition.
Cons: Cost, cramped and antiquated facilities, known for being a little off the deep end in terms of pedagogy.
City College of New York
Pros: Dirt-cheap tuition, brand-new facilities (as of 2009), location in NYC, some interesting faculty, and I'm on good terms with the director of the M.Arch. program.
Cons: Still a relatively new program that hasn't had time to earn much of a reputation, lacks the "name" appeal of Harvard or Columbia.
Pratt
Pros: Art school with lots of creative energy, location in NYC, has a solid reputation.
Cons: Cost, having to ride the dreaded G train.
Parsons
Pros: Location in a very cool (and convenient) part of NYC, Art school, My sources say it could be headed in an interesting direction soon.
Cons: Cost, doesn't seem to attract much attention among NYC architecture programs, and I understand they close the studios at 1 AM.

Notably absent from the list this time are Cornell (my top pick in 2007), Yale, and Penn. I'm thinking Cornell is too remote from NYC, they're between deans, and I understand there's a lot of in-fighting among the faculty these days. I also have reservations about the programs at Yale and Penn (Yale too conservative, Penn too digital), but I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise.

Stuff I still need to do:

Between now and the end of the fall: Complete my Advanced Project (or at least enough of it to include in my portfolio), begin taking math and physics classes, update portfolio, apply to M.Arch. programs.

Winter / Spring: Finish calculus and/or physics, tie up loose ends for BA degree, freak out in March while waiting for acceptance / rejection letters, save up as much money as possible, and take a weekend trip back to Chicago next June for my commencement.

So, there it is....

LIG, im surprised you would not consider Columbia as digital, if not more so, than Penn.

From what I understand, Columbia is a big enough program to have a pretty good variety of studios, both digital and more conventional. Although GSAPP certainly has a certain "digital" reputation, it seems like there's enough room in the program for a variety of design approaches.

Also, in reading posts here on Archinect, I get the impression that GSAPP isn't quite so heavily digital-focused now as it was a few years ago.... And most of the Columbia people from that era are now at Penn.

Living in Gin: hopefully you'll get in this time. I'll be applying for the 1st time to GSD as well. In my case, I finished my BArch. in '98 and MS Construction in '03. 6 years experience working as a construction management consultant, but we don't do any design. My intention is to get a job in an architectural firm when I finish my MArch II. Can you expand a little bit about your experience with the Columbia Summer program. Was it worth it for somebody like you with professional experience?

I had a great time at the Columbia summer program and got a lot out of it. I think that had a lot to do with my particular studio critic, who taught the program pretty much the same way he teaches the first semester of an M.Arch. I studio. We began with very abstract visual exercises that gradually became the basis for our final project, which was a real building design. Our section's critic also had a great deal of dedication to the students, as he'd often stay late or come in on weekends for desk crits.

From what I could see of the other sections, some of them never got to design a "real" building, and stuck exclusively with abstract exercises. Your mileage may vary, but I think I would have found the program rather disappointing if I had been in one of those sections.

Coming in with a strong professional background, it was sort of a weird experience for me. One minute I'd be yawning and looking at my watch while the instructor explained basic drafting concepts to the class, but the next minute the discussion would be completely over my head when he got into more abstract design ideas and heavy theory.

My only real regret about the program is that my finances forced me to get a part-time job about halfway through the program (which became my full-time job once the program was over), and I feel like I missed out on a few lectures and workshops during that period, and that I wasn't able to give my final project 100% of the effort it deserved.

(Lesson learned. I'm hoping I can avoid having to work while in grad school, even if it means I have to take out additional student loans. I think it will be worth it in the long run to be able to devote 100% of my effort to my studies, which is something I've never been able to do during my undergrad years. Wish me luck on that one.)

For what it's worth, two or three people from my section got accepted into Harvard this year, and another got into Princeton.

All in all, I highly recommend attending one of the summer programs, especially if you don't already have much of a design background. Harvard, Cornell, UCLA, and a couple other schools also offer summer programs, in addition to Columbia.

LIG, from what i know of you on archinect, seems like you're a good fit at gsd. i'd reconsider yale and princeton though. it's just a small $80 application fee.

Thanks for the reassurance about GSD.... I haven't completely ruled out Yale or Princeton yet, either. In fact, I'll be up in Connecticut this weekend and I'm planning to swing by the Yale campus to take a look around.

[hit the "submit" button too soon]

Princeton has always been sort of a mystery to me, as I've never met anybody with any significant connections to the program and I've never been on the campus (despite having lived relatively nearby for several years). I understand it's a very small program and almost impossible to get into, but that once they let you in, they tend to be pretty generous with scholarship money. I'll have to take the train down there someday and check out the place.

hey there,
I'm new to this board since I got here by googling M.Arch portfolio :)

I have a liberal arts background (major Philosophy and Art History, where I also happened to take a year of calculus) from Haverford, a year of art school, and various web design and fine art jobs.

I am attracted to Architecture because compared to the things I've been doing, it's so practical. You are actually doing something useful for society and it requires real knowledge of construction and materials. And it is a creative profession with a career track. And I am interested in the way things work, environmentally friendly building techniques, materials, researching to figure out the specs of how something must be made to work well.

I have good grades and GRE scores, I just have to figure out what the hell to put in a portfolio. Most of what I have is paintings and some drawings, a few designs for posters and such, nothing very structural.

I don't know, I am thinking now that the way to do this is get a job doing anything, answering phones, whatever, in an architecture firm to make sure I want to end up in one and take one of those summer programs next year instead of going through all this application mess cold.

Does that sound about right or am I just letting you people stress me out????

soph -- definitely take a summer program and use that material in your portfolio. also, take your time with the applications. given your background, you'll be surprised how much you will improve in the course of making your portfolio if you invest a lot of time and energy into it and think of it as a long term (5-7 month) project as opposed to just a cobbled together compilation of creative work.

Soph:

Hmm.... If you already have some creative work to put in a portfolio, I'd say go ahead and apply to some programs and see what happens. Admissions committees aren't necessarily interested in seeing real building designs; they're interested in seeing evidence of your thought process and creative ability. If that creativity comes in the form of paintings and graphic design, then make that your portfolio. I actually wish I had more in the way purely artistic work to show and a little less in the way of real buildings.

I'd say go ahead an apply this year... You may be surprised at what happens. The worst that can happen is that you don't get accepted anywhere, and then you have your "Plan B" of attending one of the summer programs, working in a firm for a year or two, and then trying again. Even though I didn't get accepted anywhere last time and I ended up having to follow my own "Plan B", I think I'm a stronger candidate this time for having already gone through the process once before and knowing what to expect.

Clear!!! Zap!

Does anyone have suggestions on good GRE Prep courses? I'm in LA, so if there is a class type situation in that area, I could potentially do that. but I'm probably going to need to buy a really good book or prep package and take that route instead? also, how long did you study for?

I wouldn't spend the time or the money on a GRE class; both are better spent on your portfolio. I studied using the Princeton Review book and it worked great for me, I’ve also heard that the Kaplan book is a good resource.

Enough has been said regarding the importance of the GRE, so precluding the argument over whether or not a good score is indeed a valuable asset, I'd say that in order to do well (1400+ 6.0 etc.) you should study for about two months.

Lessermatters,

I'm in LA as well and am planning to study for 4 months. I'm using the Barrons GRE book 2008, Barron's Essential Words, and Cracking the GREs.

I don't know what part of Los Angeles you're in, but there are always the usual prep classes such as Kaplan or Princeton Review. I think there were a few discussions about this in another thread but there are also online prep classes.

Where are you stationed in LA?

Downtown. But I'm in marina del rey for work, so i"m all over the place. I think i'm gonna try the books first and see if i can make some head way with those, if it seems like too much, i might look into some classes or tutoring. I have a pretty weak gpa out of undergrad, so i was thinking a good gre could help make a case for me.

Yeah, I have a weak GPA as well and am terrible with standardized tests. If things don't work out this year, I'll be going to the prepatory program at LAIAD, in which case I might see you at.

Musiknouveau27-

I just started LAIAD's grad prep last week. It seems very cool so far. good luck with your apps!

oh you're in the summer program? How do you like it? I was thinking about the year program. Anyways, good luck too?

Curiosity finally got the best of me, so I took the train down to Princeton today to check out the campus. Unfortunately, this is between terms so the whole campus was pretty much a ghost town, and it was so humid today I felt like I was walking around in a steam bath. Probably not the best conditions to garner a first impression, but oh well.

The campus is absolutely beautiful -- Lots of gothic buildings, traditional campus quads, and very many mature trees. Not quite as spread-out as Cornell, but much more so than Yale, Penn, or Columbia. It actually reminded me a bit of the University of Chicago campus.

The architecture building is in a nice location near the center of campus, and seemed very well-kept. It's not a particularly flashy building, but more of a dignified, retrained modernism. As such, it seems to have aged rather well without looking dated. (DAAP, take heed.) The door was open, so I decided to take a walk around inside. There wasn't much to see, as the whole place had already been cleaned out for the summer, but the studio spaces seem ample with a good amount of natural light. Of the few projects that were still pinned up in the first floor gallery space, there seemed to be a pretty good variety of work, which I take as a sign of a healthy program. There's nothing worse than going into an architecture school and finding that all the projects look the same.

The only real negative was when I walked around the nearby business strip looking for a pub where I could grab a beer and a decent burger. On most college campuses this wouldn't be a problem; I couldn't walk ten feet around Ithaca without running into an interesting-looking pub. (I guess that's to be expected when you're in a place where there isn't much else to do but drink.) At Princeton, any sense of typical college-town funkiness had been completely stripped away. How many colleges have Talbot's and Ann Taylor right across from the campus? I was hoping to find something with a little more collegiate flavor, but maybe I wasn't looking in the right area. I eventually had my beer and burger at a trendy microbrewery. Beer was excellent; burger was mediocre.

So, that's my visit to Princeton. With that, I can now say that I've visited every Ivy League campus that has an architecture program. (Sucks to be you, Brown and Dartmouth.) I'll most likely apply there, but given that the chances of admission seem exceptionally remote, I'm not going to get my hopes up too much. At the very least, I'll have to make another trip down there once the weather is cooler and fall classes have begun.

LIG ... you should have stopped and said hello ... I was in the building today.

Oops... For some reason I always thought you were at Yale. Not that I would have recognized you, anyway...

I'm sure I'll make it back down to Princeton in the fall, and I'll be sure to announce my trip here beforehand.

A few questions about binding for portfolios?

1) Should I spiral bind? It's cheap and quick...but SUPER UGLY!
2) Should I bind the book myself? Using waxed thread and japanese thread knotting
3) Get it professionally done hard back and all ($$$$)

If you have discussed this part of the portfolio process elsewhere, let me know which thread.

How is everyone btw in this whole process?

check last years post, but more importantly check each schools requirements. Some schools want is stapled so they can take it apart, some have thickness requirements, etc.

While I'm typing here, for those that are reapplying to schools (like me) UC Berkeley will send you feedback about your application if you contact them. I haven't received mine yet so I cant say how useful it use but its available.

What's with the hate on for cyclopz?
The kid's work is good.
Although I tried reading the articles but gave up, you need to throw in a exec summary my friend.

A word to the wise cyclopz, you seem to be smart and your work looks good I really don't think you need to worry too much about grad school.
However the fact that you posted this stuff here and asked for info means that you have some self esteem issues (as do most ppl whom post here), those issues manifest themselves as cockiness on this forum (whether you inteded that or not and as evidenced by the backlash) and they WILL manifest as the same during an interview at a potential school and may throw off the interviewer.
Confidence is not the same as cockiness, your work is good, a confident person knows this and doesn't need other's opinions to validate it to himself, a cocky person thinks it and wants to show it off so that he/she can bask in the admiration of others....don't be that second person you won't make any friends worth having.
I'm not saying this to be a jerk, I'm saying this b/c I was once the cocky person and super insecure to boot, the cockiness was my defense mechanism.

Some numbers for UC Berkeley's Masters program from this year:

They received 730 applications for all the programs
110 for the one-year Master program (post-professional)
They offered admission to 11 students from the 110.

Applications are reviewed by a three person committee and they submit a report individually about your application.

Hey all-

-Sorry for crashing your thread (I was an avid reader of "2007 applicants, Commiserate here!" and am currently an MArch at MIT)-

Everyone who's considering applying this year, I strongly reccomend attending fall open houses of the programs that interest you. They can really give you a picture of the focus of different programs, as well as their day-to-day dynamics and future goals. Plus, usually free food and booze! hee hee.

Agreed... Even if you can't make an open house, I think it's crucial to at least visit the school and talk to some people familiar with the program.

Does anybody know when the major open houses for this fall will be? GSD is November 7th, but out of the schools I'll likely be applying to, that's the only one I've been able to find posted online so far.

LIG, unfortunately your sense of Princeton (the town) was dead-on. cartier and rolex they've got, but if you're looking for some reasonably priced (or just good) food and drink, you're out of luck. there just apparently isn't any kind of student-oriented bar or restaurant scene whatsover - the students all seem to either go to new york every weekend or have house parties. personally I'm planning to invest in a decent backyard grill... and possibly a kegerater....

I'll be applying this year. Planning to do an M.Arch program with a good focus on sustainability.

BA Hampshire College 2002, major Architecture, Art History, Critical Theory (no gpa but transcript is full of written evaluations)

No GREs yet

Work history includes 2 years editing for a company that publishes Art and Architecture books, 2.5 years as a cabinetmaker/designer.

Letters of Rec should be good--I was close to and stayed in touch with two of my undergrad professors

Portfolio should be interesting. I'll be including the houseboat project I've been working on the last two years, and some stills from a film about train-hopping I made as well as an undergrad project or two and work from my editing/woodworking jobs. Maybe exerpts from my senior thesis (arch theory paper).

I'm applying to:

UT Austin (in state)
UC Berkeley
UBC Vancouver

I'm interested in people's opinions. Looking forward to commiserating. Good luck to all!

gl enemy, i'd just be weary of putting excerpts of your senior thesis in your design portfolio. i doubt anyone will read it. save your best words for the letter of intent.

I've heard good things about UT Austin, and I understand Berkeley has a pretty strong emphasis on sustainability. Have you considered the University of Oregon? When the topic of sustainable design comes up, UO is usually mentioned in the same breath as Berkeley.

I spent my first 18 years in Oregon, and don't really want to move back there. Yet. Especially not to Eugene. Would make my parents happy though.

Ah, that makes sense. I've ruled the University of Cincinnati for similar reasons.

* ruled out...

there's not enough commiserating going on.

step it up a little.

i'm doing the gsapp summer program right now, which is kicking my ass in a way, but then again, i'm having a kick-ass time, so can't say i'm miserable per se!

i get to build my first presentation model over the weekend. today, i was asked to think about program and site for the first time.

can anyone recommend a text that discusses topics such as site analysis, program, material, etc. (i guess the myriad elements of architectural design) at length?

thanks!