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Applying for BArch

My name is Ian Smith and I'm a 17 year old student currently finishing up my college applications for the Fall '10 semester. Since the deadline for most of my apps is in just about three weeks from now I thought I'd come here for some opinions.

In most cases I'm applying for one of the following: philosophy, graphic design, or architecture. The twist is that I am about to graduate from Tunxis Community College in the spring with an A.S. in Graphic Design. The last high school I attended was the Salisbury School (a male boarding school) for 9th grade. The details are quite boring, but when I graduate I will also be receiving a high school diploma (not a GED) despite taking 100% of my classes at Tunxis. I've gotten dean's list every semester at both schools, my reason for the change was that I didn't feel active enough in the hyper-rural town where I live (also, art classes were not offered in high school).

I've been working feverishly on my portfolio and getting my recommendation letters in and the like (especially hard without anyone to work with me as an advisor/counselor), but it still leaves me feeling a little bit empty in terms of the next semester. So far my final four classes will be Typography and Design II, Design & Production, Digital Imaging, and US History II. I have a number of personal projects I'm working on too but am very curious about any events or activities outside that would be beneficial to my applications. I have travelled a lot on my own, interned at a letterpress shop, and developed some sense of what I'd like to be doing in the future– I'm just unsure if this is the kind of thing that will help me get into an architecture program (I would rather not say which ones yet publicly until I have at least sent in the first part of every application).

I guess I can ultimately sum it up with this question:

Of the three, which should I concern myself with most in my "senior" year: adding more artistic (drawing, painting, graphic, etc) work to my portfolio, developing one single/major project, or dedicating myself to some activity (humanitarian, an internship, etc)?

I realize I'm the one who has to make this decision especially since I'm the only one here who knows myself, but I'm curious to see what anyone here would say (I've been lurking for a while, though this would mark my first post). I see the vast amount of topics here relating to MArchs and other things, apologies if this is the wrong place.

 
Dec 10, 09 4:03 pm
mantaray

You sound like quite a unique candidate. I'm willing to bet actual money that if your grades are decent, you'll be a shoo-in to any B.Arch program.

For the love of cross-disciplinary art+architecture, please tell me you're applying to RISD and the CCA???
Carnegie Mellon also has both a strong graphics and strong arch undergrad program... also encourages cross-disciplinary studies...
Syracuse, Cornell, USC, SciArc, Cincinnati also all strong B.Archs... I probably missed one but those are the ones whose graduates and student work have impressed me...

Dec 10, 09 5:56 pm  · 
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mantaray

Oh, and the answer is two-fold :
you need to do what speaks to you most. There's no one "target" item to have in your portfolio or in your experience -- the most important thing is to discover what moves you personally, what motivates you, what excites you -- and pursue that. If you pursue some activity simply for the sake of pleasing some hypothetical admissions reviewer, and your heart isn't in it, it won't shine anyway.

So, whether it's one single project, or volunteer work, or whatever -- it doesn't *matter* what it is as long as it grabs you.

That said -- in general I would try to make your portfolio well-rounded. So, if there happens to be some area you think you're lacking in, AND it's something that moves you, then pick that over something else that moves you that you've already done.

Dec 10, 09 6:01 pm  · 
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mantaray

ah, forgot Kentucky & Kansas.

But in terms of a true multi-disciplinary, multi-platform/media architectural experience, in my opinion your best bets are RISD, CCA, and CMU.

Dec 10, 09 6:02 pm  · 
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Thanks for your response. You definitely mentioned a few of the schools I was checking out– I'll say for now that I was not able to meet CMU's deadline (December 1st, I'm still working on my portfolio and getting my recommendations written).

I'm sure I'll have to find something that really gives me an opportunity to do whatever I do best. I'm still undecided but I expect it will be more clear as opportunities pop up and some of my rougher ideas start grabbing my attention.

As far as recommendations, I wonder what everyone thinks of this. Of about five people, there are three who I was considering for my architecture apps (Columbia + Harvard being the only non-arch undergrads I'm applying to): my psychology teacher, drawing/color teacher, and the studio owner where I interned. Psychology is a bit of an odd one, but I thought it could be handy since I did very well in the course, it's an academic subject, and a big part of my process is understanding how my work is meant to make people feel and interact. The only downside to my school situation is that being at a college and driving 50mi every day to get there doesn't give me much time to really know any of my teachers– the people I asked were those who I was most friendly with outside of the classroom with, and made an effort to inform them of the things I'd been doing since taking their class(es).

Dec 10, 09 10:19 pm  · 
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nonneutral

Of the three options that you mentioned, the most important thing that you could do is add more artistic items to your portfolio... From my experience talking with Cornell B.Arch professors and successfully applying to the school, it seemed as though what they were looking for was basically evidence of creativity in some form of visual work. I would say that you should go for breadth of projects rather than focusing on a single big one, because they might not like the one big project.
Overall, you sound like a really strong candidate... good luck!

Dec 11, 09 12:12 am  · 
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