Hrmm.. atleast you are recieving emails from them.. All I've gotten so far from Pratt was a letter in the mail telling me my application number and not to bother them till after the 28th. WTF .. you would think I would get an email up telling me if my application is complete or something

Regarding Pratt, I know it's supposed to have a good art program; but it's hard for me to take them seriously when they keep spamming my inbox with LAST CHANCE TO APPLY type emails.

It's kinda like that Rodney Dangerfield/Yogi Berra joke about not wanting to be a member of any club that let's them in.

Yikes... I didn't get that letter. Did they say you could bother them after Feb 28th or March 28th? Cause I'm gonna bug them asap.

snarkitekt - How much notice do you think is appropriate? I don't imagine I'll be quitting before June, and it could be the end of summer, or (if I don't get an appealing offer and/or financial aid) maybe not this year at all. So no, I'm not telling them yet.

Unfortunately it's not the kind of company I can necessarily count on being cuddly and supportive about my going back to school. With the recession, they're actively looking for reasons to lay people off, and I'm not about to give them one ("well, he's planning on leaving soon anyhow..."). They will get at least one, if not two months notice, which I think is fair. And I'm already making preparations to leave the job in a hand-off-able state.

Good point about the open houses, though. It is an efficient way to take in a lot of info. But do they have to be mid-week?

GiantClam... its specifically said Feb. 28th. .. The letter included a Pratt ID number for them to locate your file .. Let me know if you get any response from them... I might try bugging them if you do.. I haven't gotten any spam from Pratt .. should I be worry if they even have my email address?

I think the spam is just related to whether or not you checked the "receive offers from schools that may be interested in you" when you took the GRE. I didn't even apply to Pratt.

"It's kinda like that Rodney Dangerfield/Yogi Berra joke about not wanting to be a member of any club that let's them in."

I always credited that one to groucho marx...

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx

I was getting the Pratt spam for a while but not recently. That's not so much freaking me out as I found it annoying too. Also i realized that the most recent peice of mail I got from pratt was sent to my parents, whose address I used as my permanent 'after July 09' address on my app.; pratt must've misinterpretted. I'll call them tomorrow...

And will be in touch if I have any pertinent info Zeropulse.

I also got postal mail from Pratt regarding the ID number and stuff... and they sent it twice. And i thought the second was something else! Plus same emails you guys are talking about.

Oh Pratt, please tell us soon, did we get in?

I get spam from pratt and I'm a year away from apps! I think you get the spam if you sign up for the vip stuff.

Oh I know why I get the spam and it is because of the GRE thing, I would just prefer more relevant e-mails from them. I can't wait to revive the "Pratt is WACK" thread in a month or so...

Maybe I should play nice, I've created enough bad karma for myself with my gpa that I shouldn't be making fun of my prospective schools and giving myself even worse karma.

I'm sorry to see Pratt is still completely screwed up. I was hoping things would get better. I applied there in 2007, got in, but decided not to go. The whole process, from start to finish totally made me uncomfortable. Nothing seemed organized and nobody knew what was going on. When I visited, they could not have made me feel less welcome. The professor I met with seemed to be way too busy to take the time to meet with me and made it very obvious.

In hindsight, I probably should have overlooked the application and entrance process. They do have a great program...once your in and past the admissions part.

Thanks for mentioning the Pratt thread...just spent an hour reading all the Pratt craziness on this site. I agree that their emails pitching different programs seem extremely inappropriate in light of the fact that they have already received an application from me. Someone needs to redesign their database to flag that. And their website. I love the part of their site that's labeled "status check" and then it says "We encourage applicants to check their status online about four weeks after submission of application and documents," but don't actually provide a link to make your life easier. The whole site goes in circles. Am I being too picky? I don't think it's that hard to design a good, intuitive website.
....this waiting is dragging on for much too long without enough activity here or on thegradcafe. Does anyone have an opinion on that New York Post cartoon? I'm all about inappropriate humor but this just wasn't funny. Thoughts?

meow- i woldn't have drawn a connection between the monkey and obama. that monkey doesn't look anything like obama. i'm not saying that wasn't the cartoon's original intent, just that I wouldn't have noticed.

i can't think of any reason i would open a copy of the new york post though. more from the same cartoonist: http://gawker.com/5155855/ten-masterpieces-from-sean-delonas

after having read some of your statement of interests...well the gist of them anyway...i'm beginning to think mine wasn't specific enough. it was more of a personal...i suppose less formal one for me. really just speaking my mind about my passion for architecture...but not exactly describing the type of architect i want to be...i mentioned something about sustainable design and really really brief ideas that i had in mind...but that's about it.

did you guys write more of a formal statement? or include technical/career oriented details in yours? i've seen some that sound like a paper for a creative writing class...and others that sound like "hello i am applying for your program because i love architecture and design."....


and do most of you have a background in design and art? my portfolio was built from scratch. i haven't taken art since the 6th grade. it SCREAMS amateur work. i tried to make it look all "artsy" and professional but who knows how successful i was at that.

anyway i'm rambling now cos im really nervous after seeing so many acceptances here...it's driving me crrrrrazaWO$IUW#)$%(!!!!!

where did you read these statement of purpose? That's the one thing I'm really confused about in applying so I think it might be helpful to see some examples. I've read various statements for medicine and law but no examples on architecture. any help on this issue (on samples) will be greatly appreciated.

I was probably leaning more on creative writing type myself for my own statement, since my technical knowledge of the niches within architecture are limited (I got a BFA major in painting). But I do love architecture/landarch and design as well. So I don't know, in conclusion, examples will help. thanks.

The statement is less about expression than it is about information. Do not write anything that does not convey something truthful about why you are interested in a particular program.

You can be as specific or as generic as seems honest. They expect people with different backgrounds and varying degrees of specificity in terms of career goals. The least you can do is have a nuanced understanding of each program and to convince them why it is perfect match for you.

The portfolio is the area where you can express the facets of your creative vision without needing an explanation for each color, line, or shape. You can be as open ended as you want as long as its contained within some kind of structure or logical hierarchy.

You only have 500-1000 words to use in your statement. Every time you are unsure if you should keep a sentence or continue editing it, think of the other people competing for the same spots as you, and consider the fact that many of them may have done more writing than you in college. This should convince you that you need to use every sentence to say something unique about yourself, not necessarily about the field of architecture as a whole.

gs11 and NotAn,

I'm fairly certain they do everything by email -- they said that if the waitlist status changed they would email me and if I didn't want to remain on the waitlist, I should email them. I wouldn't abandon hope though -- I've only heard of a couple people being waitlisted so far; I haven't heard of anyone being accepted or rejected. To early to tell? I really don't know.

F2, thanks!

pinkbug:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-essays/300945-statement-purpose-risd-architecture-grad-school.html

^ wow. does it have to be filled with pathos?

Thanks Alpha.

CAD Mangler--
I am in the exact same position as you. I hate to say it, but you cannot take chances in this economy, and especially not with an employer who does not encourage going back to school. As long as we give them a couple months notice and make sure we leave our projects in a good position to hand off, I think we are fine.

Entasis79 - I've also been noticing massive differences in the schools' styles of dealing with me as an applicant. I'm trying really hard to not be turned off by things like typos, grammatical errors, and bizarro typeface choices in the things the schools send me. But issues like being able to get a response to an email seem pretty core to how they run their department. It's hard to believe that a program that's a pain to deal with during admissions will be very supportive once I actually get admitted...

Got a call from UVA today telling me I got in. Package in the mail. One down, three to go.

Mzungu - congratulations! What other schools are you waiting for?

Compared to last year according to thegradcafe.com, UVA is early in letting people know. Could this forebode similar behaviour from other schools, or am I extrapolating too much from very few data points?

Mzungu, congrats! Congrats to all else as well.

Arkitect.wannabe- I don't like the tone of that grad admissions essay you posted. I read it before when searching for examples on which to base my own, and it still doesn't sit well.

I showed my essay to someone who worked on an admissions committee for a top school for several years, and he butchered it to come across something like that essay above (the one i don't like), so maybe the persuasive bs art essay is the gold standard for admissions committees. Maybe I was wrong to disagree and leave it the way I originally wrote it. In that case, I do not belong in academia. Can't wait to find out!

i read the essay the you posted above, or rather read the first paragraph and stopped reading due to lack of interest. yes it stands out from the generic pile of essays, as more original, but i would most definitely prefer my generic essay than that crap.

i also don't think there is a standard admissions committee, so while (n400) your essay was butchered by one guy, it might be praised by another, same counts for your 'new' essay...

I've noticed this too, kungapa... I hope it keeps up.

About letters of intent: For those of us in the non-arch background boat, this letter was quite a leap of faith. The balance I think most of us were trying to achieve was this: Trying to express interest in a specific and concise manner while avoiding technical areas in which we know nothing about. For some of us, who literally have zero arch background, this was difficult.

I tried to stay as honest as possible, and to exemplify my critical thinking as it might transfer to architecture - while staying within 1.5 pages. Not easy. But I hear that for us non-archers, our letters are second only to our portfolios (which is weird, because they're looking for potential from untrained people, hence the First Professional Degree). I like Oregon's idea of having people include a biological essay that is a little more free form...

Again, congratulations are in order for those who are getting the good news. I hope it's infectious! I also read the NYTimes article on envy today...working on it!

Regarding the Statement of Intent the only piece of advice I received was from the admissions lady at Harvard (I didn't actually apply - just wanted some professional advice). All she could suggest was to sound like yourself. She told me that applicants often try to include ideas that they THINK the admissions committee would want to hear. Apparently they can spot those out fairly easily since they come across so many statements each year.

Is anyone applying to the schools that I've applied to?

University of Toronto
University of British Columbia
Cornell
Syracuse
Parsons
SCI-Arc

If so, have you guys heard from them yet?

I can only speak for SCI-ARC, and in checking GradCafe, they are usually the last to give notice - sometimes even early April even for acceptances. Go to Results Search on TheGradCafe.com for your other schools...

Someone on gradcafe.com got in to UWM a week ago (congrats if you're on here) but I haven't heard from them yet...

I realize I'm not being rational right now but I can't help it. I check everything constantly and the entire time I am thinking that no news is NOT good news. Hope you all are coping better than I.

I don't think the Post cartoon was offensive and I don't think Obama was the monkey. I think it was more the general "joke" that "a monkey could have written this". While in bad taste because of historical ideas about people of African descent and a resemblance to primates, I don't see the reason for the hoopla. I don't think the cartoon should be ignored (its not funny anyhow) but it should not receive the pub it has gotten.

hey arkitect.wannabe, when i applied to m.arch programs 4 years ago, i decided against cornell because they weren't accredited at that time. did they get it? i'm assuming by now for sure but just curious....

imsleepy: I agree that the cartoon should be primarily ignored, though I appreciated n400's link to the cartoonist's previous works...bottom line, he sucks (most of his stuff is abrasive without eliciting a laugh).

As for obsessiveness, I agree, it's a problem. I spent the day re-grouting my bathroom and caulking my kitchen just so that I wouldn't spend the day re-reading the 2008 thread, b/c all this is just too addictive.

Wine..in decent quantities...helps also...you know, just fyi

arkitect.wannabe: I applied to Parsons, haven't heard from them at all since that weird email a few weeks ago saying my application was missing something. I posted earlier that I got someone on the phone confirming that they had everything from me, but that weird lady who sent the email in the first place never responded, even to follow up emails.
Has anyone heard from her?

newport2009,

and everyone who applied, Cornell is not accredited for MArch I. Their NAAB relationship has been tenuous for several years due to their lack of facilities, and the delay of construction of Milstein Hall (OMA project). Important steps have been made to complete this, but their accreditation is still in jeopardy (even undergrad). The financial crisis has not helped, obviously. Despite this giant blemish on their reputation, I think it is temporary, and their MArch I will be certified eventually.Knowing these circumstances, I still applied there because I trust that it will all fall into place.

That said, there are a few graduates out there who are probably really pissed off, waiting for this to be done with.

meowkytekt ... I am also a Parsons applicant and received those emails and sent multiple emails inquiring about the missing items ... a few days later I got an email from the from David Leven (admission director) instead. He said that it was a electronically produced email sent out to all applicant that was not suppose to be sent out to everyone... he also confirmed that my application was completed...

hey arkitekt wannabe-

I got an email from sci-arc about 2 weeks ago regarding my application completion, and about a week ago I got an email with financial aid application info. The financial aid app. is 'due' (not a hard deadline) march 2 so get in touch with them soon if you haven't already recieved this info.

And ... congrats mzungu!

GiantClam: I also got an email from SCI-Arc a couple of weeks ago but that was to say my credit card info hadn't gone through...it's all sorted now cos i called shelby ikeda right away. since then i haven't heard a thing.

ocotillo: im so glad u told me because i thought they WERE accredited...i guess i just skimmed through that paragraph on their website about their accreditation...assuming of all schools CORNELL would be accredited...oh well i doubt i'd get in anyway

meokytekt: yeah i tried calling them several weeks ago but no one picked up. no emails no nothing. apparently theres a site to check whether your application is complete...but it requires a student number which i don't have.

newport2009: u said u applied 4 years ago...are you in a M.ARCH program or practicing architecture right now?

ZeroPulse: thanks for the update.

arkitect.wannabe: I don't have that student number either. I saw people talking about it on this thread earlier...and briefly panicked but then realized that it doesn't really mean anything, a lot of the schools seem pretty disorganized and that's a reflection on them, no on me. Still annoying though.

okay call me obsessed but i've been refreshing this site like...every 10 minutes to see if there are new postings. o-m-g.

im really curious about the M.Arch 1 portfolios...i haven't had an arts class since the 6th grade so i really don't know where my portfolio stands with everyone else...esp ones with a design background...

and by arts i mean...just art. haha

Just got an email from Pratt saying that my application is complete, it is at the Arch department, and ready for review. Notices will be sent out no later than April 1st.

Yay, lost in stress, I got that too. Finally, confirmation from all of my schools!

Oh and that essay arkitekt wannabe posted kinda made my day.

It was so different from mine that at first I freaked a little bit ('they'll think mine is boring')... Then I kept reading and felt a lot better. Though that essay may be creative, or whatever, it isn't very well written, and somewhat immature. I mean claiming to be a doctor because you know the 'perfect' angle for sunlight to enter a hospital room? I showed my husband whose an artist thinking of crossing over to architecture, and he thought it was cheesy and didn't want to finish reading it.

Ok maybe we are snobs. But I don't think that essay should be our standard of exemplar.

Imsleepy - that was me in regards to the UWM post on gradcafe. A bit earlier than I was expecting to hear from any school. Still excited though! No financial aid info as of yet though.

SCI-ARC - I've also gotten the financial info from them. They seem pretty thorough compared to some other schools I applied to.

congrats mzungu on UVA!

Also got the same email from Pratt... hope we hear from them earlier than April 1st! Lol.

Congrats to those who got acceptances!

sourdough: what's the financial info that you received from SCI-Arc? Is it only for American applicants? Did you request it or did they just send it?

giantclam: i agree with you and your husband! it's pretty much the classic example of "trying too hard" isn't it? i don't know. maybe we should hold onto our opinions until after april...haha

Hey arkitekt-

I got the SCIarc fin aid pack by default, not request, tho I don't know of it's only for US students.

And, true, maybe we shouldn't judge thar essay too harshly before hearing about our own applications. If for no reason other than karma, haha. It be nice if there was a broader sample of essays for those of you wanting examples, though, cause not only was that example pretty particular, but wasn't the best example of masters level composition, in my opinion. Not saying it's bad, but I'm not bowled over either.

That said, I can't help much cause I am selfishly keeping my SOP to myself, nor would I call myself a great writer. But hey it is a personal essay and IMO a student wishing to study at the MArch level should be able to write this on their own.

And, that said, I admit the essay was the most challenging part of the aplication for me. Though it took more time and work to put my portfolio together, the thought process I went through for those essays was much more difficult, and more emotionally trying as well.

arkitect: Yup, same thing as GiantClam said regarding SCIarc aid pack. Pretty much a checklist of materials needed to send them (Photo ID copies, tax return copies, etc)