i graduated (from the undergrad program) almost 10 years ago now, so i don't know a whole lot about the current situation there, but i'll tell you what i know to bump this up and maybe AP or q+ or someone else who has been there more recently will respond...

at least when i was there, there was definitely more of a focus on the undergraduate program... my impression was that the school was a stepping stone for both students and faculty... most of the best students would go on to more prestigious (i know that is subjective) schools for grad school and most of the good, young professors would be around for 3-5 years before moving on themselves... that said, there was a core group of older professors who had been there for a long time...

these days, there are very few professors left from my day... they have either retired (voichysonk, pohlman, thorne, etc) or moved on (kariouk, gooden, mccarter, etc)... in the last year several profs that had been there a long time have left... mccleod became the director of the program at USF and took sanders with him... and tanzer became the new dean at UVA...

How times change...Gooden, Weidemann, Hill were great.


Advice? Just enjoy, Gainesville is a perfect college town. Good times.

follow the trace advice, just enjoy gainesville. could not have put it any better.

or if u really need scholastic advice, a group of students

http://www.dcp.ufl.edu/galleries/solar-decathlon

made it into the international solar decathlon along side Virgina Tech.

http://www.solar.arch.vt.edu/


http://www.sdeurope.org/index.php/eng/






http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/08/21/lumenhaus-virginia-techs-smart-solar-house/

I work with a lot of U of F grads (both on my level and with bosses)and they have all been pretty solid.

Just as a heads up, there are many people here on this board who will think anything less than Harvard GSD, Yale, Columbia, and any of the other historically reputable schools are simply unsatisfactory and unworthy of any respect.

and to keep off scholarly subjects, the mtn biking is surprisingly good. Not sure how it is now, but there were some really fun trails around town, superb place out in Ocala. More good times.

I did the core grad program 5 years ago and thought it was very good. It's one of those things where the more you're willing to bring to the table the more you're going to take away in the end.

I think a lot of people who complain about UF grad went in thinking it might just be a continuation of the undergrad program, but the professors are much more hands-off with the grad students, particularly in the thesis year. You really need to be someone who is able and willing to generate and explore your own methods and ideas and is able to work well without a lot of specific direction. In grad, the profs really want the students to direct the conversations and they won't always be around to give you a desk crit every 2 days. To my mind, that's how any grad program should work, but some people who went straight in had a hard time adjusting. If you really have the motivation, there's a lot of latitude there for you to shape your own studies and come out with some great work.

All that said, when I was there, there was a definite priority of resources given to the undergrad program. My sense is that is changing though. Martin Gold is the new director and is probably one of the more research oriented people to hold that position in a long time. I know that he valued having a strong grad program so I can't imagine that he would do anything but strengthen it. The grad program also recently got its own website which not seem like a big deal but I think it goes a long way toward creating a stronger identity for the program.

As for construction knowledge, I'm not sure it's something any grad program really stresses, as has been discussed exhaustively in other threads. UF does have a very good building construction school and you can take electives there or I believe you can even add time to your M.Arch and also receive a Master of Building Construction.

For what it's worth, I am a new student and went to the graduate student orientation today. The faculty seems very encouraging and genuinely interested in helping people get publications and funding for travel and research. At a lot of schools, the professors are too busy with their own research and previous obligations to take on new students' research projects. The faculty here did not seem that way at all. If there is some pet project you want to work on, you should send a few e-mails to see if someone there would work with you on it once you're a student there.

They also just got lots of money to spend on facilities and have a new lab with a laser cutter, 3d scanner, etc. that should finally be up and running within the next month or two, so I guess you should ignore comments in previous threads about the facilities being outdated.

E-mail me if you want. I don't know how much help I can be since I am so new, but I might be able to ask around for you.

something that n400 said is really important... since UF is located pretty much in the middle of nowhere in gainesville it is a bit difficult to get big name visiting professors (although they still do occasionally, for instance marlon blackwell taught there last year)... so if it is important for you to work with nationally and internationally known architects than UF is the wrong place... on the other hand, this also means that most of the professors that are there generally care about teaching... they'll be at every studio session rather than dropping by 2-3 times a semester like the big name people do at more "prestigious" schools...

Thank you to architphil, trace™, todd, med., 4arch, and n400 for your feedback. I love Gainesville and hopefully it will be a nice change of pace after undergrad in an urban campus and now working abroad in an even larger city.

I've already received plenty of flak from my peers since I went to a "top-tier" undergrad, for not continuing in the program...I say "**** the DI rankings". I've come to realize that graduate school is what you make of it. I really like UF's hands-off approach since I am already passionate about my projects (I can't wait to start thesis) I don't want someone to hold my hand, just someone to bounce ideas off of.

I am applying to several other graduate programs but UF seems to be the early favorite.

-n400, best of luck with your graduate studies and hopefully I'll be joining you next year.

Thanks, LITS.

I don't know about "hands-off". They are keeping me pretty busy. You should really talk to someone there about it. Have you visited the school?

I visited the school when I was applying to undergrad and I have been talking to recent grads (05/06). Obviously things are a little different now. I do hope to make a visit when I return to FLA for a few weeks in Dec/Jan while school is in session.

The "hands-off" comment was related to what I have been told about thesis. I know the studios are quite intense and that a great volume of work is expected.