Don't go to UTSA. Come to UH. I went to ACU as well. Don't go to A&M either. I know what I am talking about. UH is a great design school.

I teach undergrad at UH. Come visit. I will show you around and let you meet who you need to get in.

NYIT is a mixed bag, I'm graduating this year and have attended the Manhattan Campus for almost 5 years now. The Manhattan Campus has a decent faculty but absolute crap facilities and from what I understand the Old Westbury campus has way better facilites but with slightly less variety as far as adjunct studio professors go.

I would not suggest either. The large scholarships make it seem deceptively affordable but if you live on campus its going to cost you an arm and a leg in Manhattan and there is no student housing in Westbury. OW is typlically an elite older money suburb so there is nothing to do there off campus and the campus itself is dry (so is Manhattan). Many of the people who attend both schools are commuters just looking to get degrees and get out so they can push their careers forward although there are a few of us who have tried to make the "college experience" happen although that all revolved around living in the dorms, which even for their locations (UWS and Brklyn Heights) cost a fortune to live in.

The primary advantage to the manhattan campus is the faculty. Many of the adjuncts teach at Columbia, Pratt and Cooper as well as NYIT and many of them are employed in Brand-Name firms or have their own shops.

All that said, for arch undergrad in NYC Pratt is the only other real alternative (unless you are really good and can get into Cooper Union) and from what i hear its got the facilites but everything else about the school is lackluster, again that's just what i hear.

Frankly the other places on your list are probably better.

Texas schools have a bad habit of being disconnected from the rest of the what's going on in Architecture-nationally and internationally. I think that Rice, UT, and UH are set up to expose students to the possibilities of what Architecture can be better than any schools in the State and the region. Rice has great resources and a fantastic faculty. The same is for UT and UH. I might be biased, but I am impressed with and excited about what is going on at UH. The School houses BArch, MArch, Industrial Design, and Space Architecture. Our fabrication center is emerging into a really amazing resource for experimentation. The faculty is diverse with degrees coming from schools around the world. Coupled with that, the visiting faculty list is always very interesting and the studios they work within have achieved some very interesting results.

I make these comments based on what I have experienced as I have studied internationally. I have been exposed to what is going on at what you might consider "top" schools of thought in the world, and that is where my basis for an opinion comes from.

School will be what you make of it. If you want to be a great designer, no teacher can make that happen. You have to take what they give you and pursue it even further for yourself.

thanks mjh00c. i would not min at all going to UH. i love houston and it would be a great place to go to school but i'm pretty sure the deadline has already past and have to in role in a school of architecture before next semester. other wise i would probably try and go there rather than UTSA. but if i can still get in, i would love to schedule a visit. i've heard a lot of good things about UH. and A&M wasn't even a consideration. form what i've learned about their program, i haven't been that impressed with their program and i also want to go to school in a big city which is also why i'm not wanting to go to texas tech. but i do know about Texas schools and architects tendencies to be isolated for the rest of the world which is why i was considering leaving the state to go to school.

thanks for the heads up apurimac. pratt is another school i would love to go to but i hadn't considered it an option because the application deadline has passed and i need to be in an architecture school by next semester.

hmmm, interesting post.

i went to a small school in Abilene (ACU) as well. Finished undergrad (non-arch related degree) and now I'm attending UTSA for architecture grad work.

Texas schools do tend to be disconnected at times.

UT and Rice both have a great rep but they're difficult to get into.

I was advised to apply to UH at one point, but I can't stand the city. I had some connections and family in San Anton, so that's how I ended up here.

UTSA is dealing with being a young school that has grown too fast. We're in process of hiring a new dean, which will drastically change the culture.

There are some AMAZING professors here. If you can get into their studios, pick and choose the right courses, there's some awesome opportunities to learn a lot!

They're also heading up some great study abroad programs to Japan, South America, Italy and Mexico.

Hope that helps...

so we all know Ronnie.

You can get into the program even as late as this summer(UH). I think getting out of Texas is not a bad idea. Go to NY. Pratt definitely. I think Parsons program is a BFA. Houston isn't that bad if you stay inside the loop. outside 610 is a different world...a scary one.

my family has a long history here and and i've also been going to ACU for 2 years and i'm still surprised how many random connections i run across through this tiny university in the middle of no were.

well i did go back to look at Pratt's they do have rolling admissions but they advise you to apply for before Feb 1. so i think i'm going to apply anyway and just see what happens because a lot of people have told me to look at Pratt if i want to go to new york.

but your not the first person to advise me to leave texas.
for grad school for sure i'm not going to be going to try and go to school in either chicago or new york. considering the size, talent, economy, and population growth of texas, it's a little frustrating for that this design field in this state seems to be so resilient in embarrassing the out side world. we have the money, size, and talent to keep up with chicago, new york, and california but only a handful of designers and developers seem to be interested in doing so. i'm just wondering how many very talented architecture students have left texas for the same reasons that i am? but any way that's just my 2 cents.

unless i get excepted into UT, UH sounds like it would be a very good opportunity for me. i'm very interested in urban design and urban architecture and houston is probably more urban than any city in texas. i am also interested in a school that is not going to try and restrict my creativity to the regional design and is going to encourage there students to be very knowledgeable about the out side world and very innovative building designs. this is why i was wanting to go to UT and stay far away from A&M. UH sounds like a school that has what i'm looking for. so i would be interested in schedule a campus visit mjh00c. do you mind if i email you some information or how would this work?

No Sleep, i'm sophomore at ACU in the pre-architecture/interior design program so if your still in grad school at UTSA, we probably know some of the same people... including Ronnie...

but yeah that's good to hear about UTSA. I keep here the same things that your saying about the program over and over again which is reassuring. So it seems like UTSA is turning into pretty good architecture program. I know that a lot of the top architects in the San Antonio and Austin went school at UTSA. but the problem with UTSA is that it seems like most of the students that graduate from there get jobs in Texas and work here there whole lives. I know the top firms in Texas have no problem hiring students form UTSA but I'm wondering if my resume will get over looked by firms in chicago and new york because i went to a school that they didn't really know anything about. so does anyone have some input on this? after grad school, do firms care about what undergrad you went to?

Click on my name and send me a message. I will get in touchw with you and we can go from there.

The issue is that at ACU, they aren't really teaching Architecture...or pre-Architecture for that matter. It's more so constructon science, which isn't Architecture. Drawing floor plans is a small part of it, but I wish they exposed students to more design rather than drafting.

Well that is why I am leaving. I don't really think that I am learning what I need to know here to be a good architect. They did get a new architecture professor here that went to grad school at Texas and worked in Nashville for about 7 years. He seems to be a little more liberal in his teaching philosophy than the other two professors so maybe he'll be able to change some things.

go to uh. i graduated there and now live in chicago. even though it's the best one on your original list, do not go to iit.

If youre intention is to go on to a really good grad school, perhaps a 5 year B.Arch (which is what IIT awards) might not be the best option for you... its not a given that a grad school will allow you to do only 1 year to achieve a masters...

so, say for instance you came to IIT, youd do 5 years, graduate with a b.arch... you could get an M.Arch at some schools by doing 1 additional year, but its not automatic... you might still need to do 2 more years at columbia or yale... meaning you do an extra year of school for basically no reason...

what the b.arch is REALLY good for though is if you want to go abroad for grad school, or if you want to go to a masters program in something other than architecture but still want to practice architecture later...


i guess the point is this... IIT gives you a lot more flexibility when it comes to grad school... you wouldnt NEED an M.Arch... however if you are CERTAIN you WANT an M.Arch, IIT is probably not the best option unless you want to stay there to complete the extra 6th year.

actually i've already decided i will be attending UH in the fall. it seems like a much better fit for several reasons. first is that i get the impression IIT is a very technically based school and i think i would much more enjoy a school that has more of a focus on design and studio classes like UH. I also came to the conclusion that IIT would be great for grad school but it wouldn't be worth the money i would have to spend on undergrad. i think a state school would be much more realistic and then i can save up money to spend on an expensive grad school outside of texas.

but in all honesty, i think i would be better suited for a grad school like SCI-Arc, Parsons, or Pratt rather than IIT. i first suggested yale and columbia because of the reputation of those universities but i think it would be wise to find out more about Columbia's and Yale's programs and the students they are looking for before i jump on the ivey league ban wagon. i still have a few years before i even start applying for grad schools so i have some time to think about it.

migrod

even i already decide that UH would be my best option, i still don't fill like i know very much about the school's architecture program. so just out of curiosity, why are you so certain UH would be a better option than IIT?