also, how much emphasis do we think should be placed on physically visiting a school?
is it a waste of a plane ticket?
can you really get a decent impression of what the education is like from a walk through studio and a campus tour?
is it good enough to read the school's literature and talk to current students via blog/facebook/email?

li dandan:
Are you going to the Clemson open house? Also, when did you hear from Florida?

@PandaEyes - have you been accepted to the Urban Planning program at GSAPP already? I heard it's a great program! Hope you get in :) And it's prob easier for you to get into the M.Arch program next year, if you still have that burning desire to do architecture.

Just a general question to those (e.g. thevillian, and I guess, the majority of archinect population) who have sent apps to multiple schools - did you have a general SOP that you blast out to all the schs? OR did you customise an SOP for each school you applied to? I am just curious how you guys did it, especially since each school is peculiar and quite different from the rest. I only applied to 3 schools and I was already struggling to put together the apps. Would be glad if you share your experience, amidst the joy of getting into your dream school.

BTW, anybody going to Austin this summer? I will be there for a month or so for the summer program. If anyone wants to share an apartment or sthg, hit me up. I will be starting another thread for summer program 2010 applicants too.

Pult,

Thanks for the info, it seems you get roughly the same impression as me from each program. I'm hoping that i get a flash of inspiration at one of the open days that makes it really obvious where I need to be. They're both amazing though that I doubt it's going to be that simple...well I guess I'll see you at the open days then...

ssae,

I have not called yet; I will later today.

I will also be declining my MArch2 positions @ UT and UPenn this week (although I was impressed with the book that UPenn sent...I just gotta let them go though)

@Pythagoras: I set up a 'framework' of my own personal experiences (school, work, future goals, etc.) and sort of weaved in each specific school's pedagogy/focus where it was relevant to mine. I also would specify if a particular school location or professor related to my interests. The portfolios were all me, no tailoring there.

anyways, I was accepted by a handful of schools, rejected by a couple, and waitlisted by a couple.

right now it's between gsapp and rice.. with mit sneaking in there if they let me out of purgatory. I will be in nyc on the 7th, and H-town the 8th and 9th.

If you need any info on Houston I will here now-close to Rice btw. want some info on bars, etc...and why it might actually be nice to live here, please ask!

If you need any info on Houston I live here now-close to Rice btw. If you want some info on bars, galleries, museums, "stuff to do" etc...and info on why it might actually be nice to live here, please ask!

sorry...

@thevillian - thanks for the reply! so you had the chance to visit each school you applied to, and was able to identify specific faculty member that you'd love to work with? That's really hella work, considering you applied close to 10 schools. I am sure you started the app process really early as well.

And GL with MIT!! Hope you get in with a TA + $$$. And I might just end up being your junior next year :)

@ Rest - did anyone send a general SOP (of cse, with minor changes) to the schools? I would like to have a variety of opinions, if you care to share.

Pult & Hellas:

i'll be at both (Y & C ) open houses. Although I am 99% sure Columbia is not on my list anymore. Something about it just turns me off.


and Hirano:

if I recall right you got pretty much into the same schools that I did, and we're both waiting for GSD.

you think if you get accepted there you'll change your mind last minute?

r

Pythagoras - I wrote a general sop and only customized each letter a bit (the last paragraph) for each respective school.

It helps if you mention certain aspects about a school that is right for you - I looked up some of the recent events and offerings at the school and brought up was of interest to me.

kestrel, you might have already stated this earlier but i can't recall... which program did you apply to at UW?

i am still waiting on a response about the 2+ year program and although i know of 2 people that were waitlisted, it doesn't seem like very many have been accepted? ...though just because they haven't posted it on gradcafe doesn't mean it didn't happen. wishful thinking on my part i guess. i am bracing myself for a rejection letter but still frustrated with how sluggish they have been to get the word out and their refusal to just notify me over the phone about my decision.

I just got off the phone with a very nice lady from the GSD admissions department.

She claims that they only have a "handful" of students on the waitlist every year. They do not rank the people on the waitlist. After the April 15 deadline they will see how many spots they still have open and then they revisit the waitlisters applications to decide who will get the spots. She also said that some years they take no waitlisters and some years they take almost all of them.

All of this was for MArch2, but I'm assuming the MArch1 would be the same.

.....more waiting........

Pythagoras-

I did basically the same as praxis99. I wrote a general one, and the last paragraph worked like a form where I could sort of paste in the various aspects of the program that interested me. I succeeded in getting into Columbia, my top choice, but was rejected from Harvard, and waitlisted at Yale and UPenn, so results were mixed in my experience for that approach. No telling how much it affected my admissions though... I have a feeling they can probably tell the difference, but most likely expect this approach.

jetreit,

I heard from florida yesterday via email with a pdf of my letter attached, then when I got home my physical letter was in the mailbox (dated Friday). I live really close to Gainesville which is why it arrived so soon.

And no I am not going to the Clemson open house. I can't take off of work this week and I have to take my dad (he was in a major car accident) to his appointments on friday. I wish I could go!

@Pythagoras, have you made a decision on which summer program to attend?

I did the exact same thing with my statements as ecarob and praxis. And I used the same one I did last year with a slight facelift, then the last paragraph was where I customized it.
Clemson required specific essays though. Or maybe it was Minnesota... so my method failed there.

does anyone know the dates of Open Houses at UW or USC?

@ thevillian, praxis99, li dandan, ecarob - thank you for the kind words of advice. Yeah, I'll make a mental note of what you have said and see how the various approaches can work for me when I apply this fall. Hope to hear more from others...(hey word2bird and SBeth85, I'd expect u guys to say to something! And that's cuz I have come to know you as someone who's always eager to help others. LOL ).

@ mitboi - hey, nice to hear from you too. I am leaning towards UTSOA's Summer Academy for various reasons (duration, schedule, cost and quality). I am also considering Intro to Arch at GSAPP and M+M at SCI Arc. Berkeley's [IN] Arch is awesome but I cant afford to take an 8-week leave of absence from work. LAIAD seems pretty cool but it's definitely out for me. Wht 'bout you? Have you applied?

pythagoras:

a former professor i had (who used to be involved with GSD admissions) said that the grad admissions people can spot a slightly modified template a mile away. he went on to say that, though a standard essay worked for undergrad, each SOP should be tailored to each school/program you apply to.

with portfolios, GREs, transcripts, etc, the last thing any of us want is to write/proof 5 or so SOPs. that said, i think ecarob and praxis99 have the right idea about dropping school specifics into a more general structure.

To Berkeley admits -
Has anyone received the official acceptance from the graduate division that was mentioned in the e-mail?

Thanks

clearlyambguous

Did u get accepted at USC??? They have an open house scheduled for April 25th but I can't tell if its for bachelors or graduate (or both).

Anyone accepted at sci-arc with financial aid?

I need to make a decison between USC and Sci-arc

two sides to the coin rsw4: my first go around I went with the [personal SOP] + [school-specific paragraph] equation and that = rejection across the board. this time [integrated SOP] = acceptances to 6 top programs.

of course there were/are many other variables, but tacking on a 'school-tailored' paragraph to the end of a statement otherwise unconscious of it's specific audience seemed weird to me.

@kestrel - is the UW open house this Friday? Not sure how I'd swing a trip up there from CA this last minute, especially since I still haven't found out, but if I do know by then, and I can make it happen, then, yeah, we'll have an archinect rendezvous!

@kestrel: I went to the UT open house and it threw my entire decision thing out the window. I was leaning toward Columbia going in, and now I'm torn between UT and GSAPP. Completely different programs. Practical versus theoretical. I've done a couple jobs with solely the practical (construction-type jobs), so maybe GSAPP is the way to go...

Open house next Wednesday! Seems like a lotta you guys on the forum are gonna be there too.

Money-wise, I got $50 a semester from UT. $50. Not a typo.

@Pythagoras: I took a look at the UTSOA's website. The $ and duration certainly looks good. I am also in the same situation as you that I shouldnt take too much time off work. But, for about 3 weeks, it worries me the quality that you can get out from the program (and for portfolio use). what do you think? Otherwise, I am thinking about GSAPP and GSD.

for the multiple app question: I had a general outline then warped each one to fit the schools. By the end of 9 separate SOP, I think I'd psychoanalyzed myself up the wazoo. Almost more exhausting than the portfolio.

Fuzzy,

I haven't been told yet whether I am in. A person at the office checked my stats on their system, and a decision hasn't been made, he said this week tho. This is getting difficult and super frustrating. Did you get your stuff in by Dec 1st (priority scholarship) deadline?

clearlyambguous

Yes, i got my stuff in before the deadline actually. I visited their school yesterday and they seemed extremely busy with everything. I am pretty sure they are just getting things together at the moment.

Hey Pythagoras,

I'm still on the waitlist for Columbia urb. planning. I spoke with the admissions office, and they're not giving any updates until after April 15th.

sixtrain,
try not to spend that $50 all at once. You should try to break it up over the entire semester so you will really feel the impact! Tell GSAPP that you will go to their program if they can match UT's offer (just cause that would be a funny conversation...)

Waitlisted at Sci-Arc!...My dream school. first semi-good news in a long time.

Please, please turn them down, so I can get in!I want to move to LA!

ok thanks folks! SOP is important but I think if you have a rock-solid portfolio, the SOPs wont matter that much...hmm, I think we are heading back to the century-old topic of which component is the most important in an app, which has been discussed and re-discussed many times over on this thread and elsewhere on archinect. Let's just stick with discussion on how we approach the SOPs to multiple schools : )

@ichweiB

Hi there. I was wondering what post grad program you applied to at SCI-Arc. Are you able to log in to their website? I am a little confused about that as I never received an e-mail providing me a user name and password. Can you explain that to me briefly? Have you heard anything at all from SCI-Arc?

Thanks A lot!

mitboi

I share your concerns. I wont want to spend time and the little $ I have on a program which wont help me much in terms of portfolio development. Based on what I understand, the Summer Academy at UTSOA is an intense 5-week (not 3-week) program. And I like that it's ending in early July, which will leave me time to spruce up my portfolio and get the rest of my stuff together to be in time for submission in the fall. There's a review of the the Summer Academy somewhere on this forum. Very positive stuff, and I like that Kevin Atler and his TA (Stuart Bone) are such friendly people. I havent come across any archinecters amongst this year's pool of applicants who have attended UTSOA's summer academy last summer. So this does worry me a bit, else I am keen on the program.

GSAPP and M+M are pretty expensive program, though I am sure they are just as good/better (?). The problem I have right now with GSAPP is, I am not getting response from the school on some questions that I have and it does get on my nerves at times. M+M is the most expensive of the 3 programs we are talking about here, so I really need to weigh my options.

Honestly, I m not sure how much the quality of the port will vary amongst schools. I like UTSOA for its practical aspect and the $ (tuition & housing) seriously makes the program much more attractive to me at this point in time.

BTW, M+M, UTSOA and GSAPP all have a 5-week program. Berkeley Cornell and many others do offer a much longer 8-week course. These are way tooo long for me. It's a good chance for you to meet fellow archinecters who have been admitted and are required to attend the summer studios.

PandaEyes: I was thinking about waiting it out for Sci-Arc too, unless I get an unconditional acceptance from RISD (which I also love), or GSD . I am living in the south now and it rains every single day, so I would wait out the year just for the awesome Cali weather.

hey sorry if i missed that part too many pages to catch up with since i last logged in here, anyone heard from gsd regarding $$? if yeah generous or not so? especially for international students
thanks

For anyone accepted into WUSTL:

Have you received any financial aid info yet??

Or does anyone know how generous they tend to be with aid money? Still waiting on that...

really love their program - really hate the price tag.

Hey sixtrain,

I'm also struggling to decide between Columbia and UT, but as someone with no architectural background whatsoever, I'm wondering if I should opt for the more practical school? I wish I could have made it to the open house, I'm very curious to know what the facilities are like there. Also seems like they have a lot of projects going in the community, seems interesting.

ADavin,

I'm in at WUSTL, and also am waiting to hear about financial aid.

PandaEyes: I was thinking about waiting it out for Sci-Arc too, unless I get an unconditional acceptance from RISD (which I also love), or GSD . I am living in the south now and it rains every single day, so I would wait out the year just for the awesome Cali weather.

rsw4,

regarding Ga Tech, what program did you apply to? 2 year or 3 year?

ecarob - are you going to the gsapp open house?

and the facilities are ridiculously amazing at UTSOA. I was really impressed! they do have a lot of projects in the area and that region of Texas is apparently experiencing incredible growth (Austin was the fastest growing city last year or something like that). UT's really nurturing and supportive, as are the students there.

I think if money were no object, I'd choose GSAPP in a heartbeat. I love the school, loved the summer program there, and love the rigor and conceptual strength of the program. But $260k of debt* is hard to swallow. Nothing to take lightly, at least. And Austin has a fantastic program and even if it's not on the bleeding edge of arch theory, it's not like you won't learn how to design.



*that's $110k for 3 years of tuition plus 6.8% current Stafford loan rates, with interested added over the 30 year loan period assuming consistent monthly payments of around $700. quick and dirty calculation with a stafford loan calculator.

Yikes, that asterisk sure felt like a punch to the gut. Definitely hadn't done that math all the way through... and you're not even taking into account living expenses.

Yes, I will be at the GSAPP open house.

@Pythagoras: very good points. I must have misread the dates to think the program is only 3 weeks. you're right, for $1300, its a lot cheaper than gsapp's $3000. As you said, from this year's applicants, nobody took this program. I'll do some research and see about UTSOA. Thanks!

pythagoras_ regarding the statement of purpose, i had two very different essays. this was mainly because of berkeley's application request for a statement of purpose AND a personal history statement. mit and ucla had the first application deadlines, 12/15, i believe. at that time, i only had one essay, so i used that for those two schools. not that this has any correlation, but mit rejected me and i still haven't heard from ucla, so i'm expecting rejection there too. then, berkeley's application was due on 12/17, but they have this candidate registration page where they give you till 1/7 to post your portfolio and other misc. documents such a resume or cv, gpa worksheet, etc... at any rate, i ended up using the essay template i sent to mit and ucla as my personal history statement for berkeley and wrote a whole new SOP. the new one is what i used for most of the other schools, where i have been accepted, so who knows? i do think that since my essays were essentially more customized toward berkeley, that may have helped me state me case. if you'd like, hit me up via email and i'll send you the essays. i can send you the two i submitted to berkeley, and if you want to see all, i can email them too so you kind sort of see how i just flipped it. if time is an issue, the template thing is easiest. for me, it was, because finishing the sop's were the last thing i did to complete my apps, prioritizing my portfolio as we have all been encouraged to do. ultimately, a fabulous sop isn't going to help a weak portfolio, so you know what you've got to do. similarly, a great portfolio and weak sop can get you rejected or worst, wait listed.

oh, and about ut austin's summer program, while i've never checked it out, the gsi at berkeley who helped me with a letters of rec told me he participated in their summer program and liked it. however, he wasn't offered admission to ut austin, and he now attends berkeley. again, there's no sure fire way of getting in, but i def. think the summer programs help those of us without an arch background. you should also try to create personal projects for yourself and include other works outside of the summer program stuff in your portfolio.

loremipsum_ i personally haven't received the email berkeley referred to in their original correspondence. i'm going to be patient though since i know they were on spring break last week. hopefully, we receive something before the open house on monday. which by the way, will you be attending? email me or find me on facebook (robertafeliciano@hotmail.com), since it's easier to keep in touch that way.

ok, for those STILL waiting to hear from Berkeley about MUD...

Thank you for your patience during this very busy admissions cycle. As you know, application notifications have been delayed but are scheduled to be sent out via e-mail by the end of this week. Once again, thank you for your patience.
Best,
Jamie

bird - thanks, I friended you, and will be attending the open house and exploring Berkeley this weekend.