I'm in a similar situation, and I'm curious to hear others' replies as well. I'll be visiting my top grad school pick later this month, and while I have a few specific questions to ask, there may be other questions I should ask that don't come to mind.

Ask them what their future direction is in regards to Dean and other faculty. Also, if there is visiting faculty that you are excited about - find out how long their stay will be...you don't want to chose a school for a specific professor only to find out they are leaving in two years by the time you have an option studio to take them.

If you are interested in teaching later, I would ask what student teaching opportunities are available. I found out after the fact that my program didn't really have any...oops!

In regards to admission, is it ok to ask what the applicant to acceptance ratio is for the incoming class? Or employment prospects as it pertains to on-campus intereviews and percentage of students employed upon graduation.

I have searched for this information here, and on school websites, but have been unsuccessful.

Any suggestions on where to obtain this, besides asking?

If you can't find it on their web site (some have it and some don't) you can always call the admissions office and be anonymous

Are you applying for MArch?? BArch and MArch programs in the school can be very different from each other.

After finishing my 1st year in MArch here are some questions I would have asked:

What are some expectations, if any, from an incoming grad student?
What are things you look for in a portfolio?
What are some of the key things you hope the student takes away after completing the program? After the first year?

If you don't already know, I would ask what the studio sequence is, and what kinds of options studios were offered in the past few years. This will give you a good indication of what the school's pedagogy is, and what the particular faculty are interested in, which to me is extremely important.

Great question, mantaray. When I speak with the adcomms this week that question will be at or near the top of my list.

Thanks for the input everyone! I asked many of these questions. Here's an update on what happened:

1. I was accused of being a socialist.

2. I was told that the foundation (kinda like a school of thought) from which I base my ideas, having been popular in the 70's, was no longer in style.

3. It was stated that the architects do not have a responsibility to society.

4. He said that while education is important to the making if an architect, it is not something that architecture can achieve.

5. etc.

As you may have guessed, I disagree with guy on just about everything. My question now is what do I do about it?

I love the school's facilities and a couple of their programs look really cool. The student work (in terms of technique) is far better than some other school's other work I've seen. BUT one of the best part of grad school should be the arch. theory that informs your design and this dude made is sound like that is neither a priority or a consideration. Although, this is only one professor.

My dilemma is this: Do I go to a school where I do not hold the same ideals as most (which means that I would rarely be preaching to the choir) and risk being unable to study EXACTLY what I'm already interested in in hopes these interests will be supplemented by other ideas that might broaden my overall quest OR do I look for a place more like me where I can actually begin to digest the broad range of my current interests while being guided by mentors???

Also: How important is it to go to a school where there's work (i.e.-architecture firms) in the area? Do most Grad. students only do internships in the summer and get a coffee shop job for the rest of the year?

Wow... What school were you visiting, the Howard Roark School of Architecture? If that professor's views (especially #3) are typical of the faculty at large, I'd run like hell.

Any professor worth his/her salt should challenge your way of thinking, and expect you to challenge theirs. That should happen even within a program that's firmly in line with your broader interests about the role of architecture in society. If you find yourself "preaching to the choir" all the time, then you aren't learning anything and you're not getting your money's worth.

That said, there's no point in giving your time and money to a program that's fundamentally opposed to your ideals. Being challenged and forced to defend or revise those ideals is healthy, but you shouldn't feel obligated to spend 3+ years pounding your head against a brick wall or doing a bunch of crap that doesn't interest you.

how discouraging. I am curious to know what school you visited, now

Virginia Tech. I spoke with the Chairman of the Graduate school of architecture there.

Their involvement with the solar decathlon is impressive.

he accused you of being a socialist for thinking architects have a responsibility to society? wow. what a douche.

the other day a co-worker who went there was just telling me what an amazing program they had when she was there. but that was many years ago, so i'm sure the department has changed a lot in that time. i was going to start looking into their program after her recommendation, but now i'm not so sure. have you talked with anyone else at that school who has similar a perspective, or is this guy a total wingnut there? though i guess if he's the chairman, his view might be pretty standard.

That's exactly what I'm wondering: How much of this guy is actually a part of the school's mentality.

He called me a socialist because I am interested in a collaborative learning/designing environment. I used the words teamwork and collaboration and he said (many times throughout our discussion) that those were "code words for socialism" and at VT they train 'individuals' to be 'rational' thinkers.

All of this while comparing the school to the Bauhaus (he was mostly referencing attention to craft though)!

He said a lot of weird things and frankly, I wonder why/how he became the Chair of the Grad Dept. He was obviously well read, and I'm sure I could learn a lot from his knowledge, but seriously: WTF?

I was mostly concerned with his commentary about my interests being out of style;

In short, I'm interested in how cognitive studies coupled with a methodological approach to research can inform architectural design to positively impact social interaction and well being.

It just seems weird that he would say that's out dated...Do you think I'm old and boring? I always thought that was generally a contemporary idea.

hmm.. that's pretty worrisome that he feels collaboration in the field is a code for socialism. you should have asked... so, sir, when was the last time you conceptualized and delivered a project on your own? lol

thats a huge problem for kids coming out of school
they are so used to being completely in control of every aspect of their design, they do not know how to work with others

you are right, no project is ever delivered by one person alone



i imagine this guy hasnt worked on an actual project in a long time, or, as someone mentioned, read the Fountainhead one too many times

That was my exact response!

I asked him how he thought that educating the individual and providing no collaborative experience would prepare them for working in an industry that is inherently collaborative.

He disagreed with me about it being collaborative and referred to it instead as hierarchical -one designer- but that doesn't prepare people for a realistic situation...not that I'm saying any grad school will do that; however, I do think that working with others is a valuable lesson to take away from education and that good design cannot be done in a vacuum.

while it is definitely hierarchical, i think not as much as he seems to be implying
the one designer does not get to make any decision he wants with no one else giving their say, or having any influence



the problem with architecture school is that it teaches students to think like they will be the next big Starchitect

its a fine line really
because in school is when you should be flexing some design chops and experimenting, as you cant do it quite as much in the real world, at least right away
but you need to be given the whole story of what an architect is and does

its a shame this guy came across so wrong
i doubt he is that out of touch, i think it might be more that he just was saying things wrong
i have heard good things about VT, so i am surprised

perhaps he is forgetting that probably one of the main reasons you get to do things yourself in school is so you'll be able to communicate with and understand the job of specialists who will actually do that portion of the job in real life.

unless of course, he has multiple degrees in mechanical, civil, electrical, AND structural engineering, to name a few. as well as runs his own city where he established his own building codes and zoning requirements and permits process, and is a contractor and expert in construction. sounds like a champ.

Yeah, maybe he's socially awkward...

The conversation didn't scare me away from VT or anything, it was just puzzling. I thought they were great in a lot of respects: super unpretentious, great facilities, excellent work, solar decathlon winners, demonstrated technical skill, cute location, etc. I'll probably go back in the fall and try to talk to a few other professors there.

"unless of course, he has multiple degrees in mechanical, civil, electrical, AND structural engineering, to name a few. as well as runs his own city where he established his own building codes and zoning requirements and permits process, and is a contractor and expert in construction. sounds like a champ."



i assumed that was all of us?

"he feels collaboration in the field is a code for socialism."

Most of comtemprary architects are misunderstanding contemporary philosophies. The sentense you had mentioned is kinds of out-dated as the dean said. It's like almost "modernism".

In terms of "post-sturcturalism",
what the chair in VT grad said is right.

Contemporary society is ' the conjuction of individuals' but not the connection or collaboration between individuals.

"It's like almost modernism."

I mean what you said to the dean is a kind of idea of modernism.