imo, not worth the time or money. most architectural firm has interior dept, why not just come and work? work exp. trumps any amount of schooling, especially if u already have a degree in arch.

its alway good to have the architectural license here in the us, even if u are not going to own ur practice. it is leverage to negociate better salary. i would look into requirements for u to take the architectural licensing exam. depending on the state u are going to be, u might be able to take the test with less than 1 year of school. check ncarb.org

hey niro!
thanks for the suggestions!!
i have been looking for a job in the US since 4 months now. But I havent even been called for even one interview yet... which is another reason why i was thinking of doing my masters. I will certainly look into the architectural liscence procedure!
thanks alot!!

Maybe you could apply for a Post-Prof MA in Interior Design, one aimed at people who did their Bachelors in Int Design? That way you wouldn't need to sit through Design101 classes.

Alternatively, get an MBA or some other degree that will get you noticed and be more useful.

Well if you already have a degree in architecture... are you planning on teaching? You can learn all you need to know about interiors in a professional office environment. Unless you have really deep pockets, is it worth it? Who knows, don't listen to me.

Definitely not worth the time and money. NYSID offers continuing education courses on site and in D&D building, which I suggest taking in order to get a better understanding of interior finishes, such as rugs, fabrics, etc., but definitely not 2 years of Master Program!
And also you will better understand the type of Interior Design community in NYC, which is VERY different from Arch. gangs.

thanks everyone for taking out the time and writing to me...its helping me get a clearer perspective on what i should really do!

Your timing asking this question leaves something to be desired. Anyone involved in studying or teaching at one of these programs is in the middle of finals, and thus very short on time, and temper.

As I've said previously, there are similarities between the professions, but they are not the same. Would you decide that you could jump into landscape architecture without more education? How about urban planning? People make both of these changes within the context of a workplace, but many people also return to school to study them.

Most people select an interior design masters for similar reasons to why they might select an architecture masters – because they want to learn something of the profession and have an unrelated undergraduate degree, because they have the degree but want to learn something specific in greater depth, or because they have a specific project they want to explore in depth with the guidance of the faculty they are looking at. Or because their parents won’t pay for a masters in painting.

Look at the contents of the curricula. do you want three terms of structural engineering, or two terms of color theory? Is it important that you have advanced versions of required undergraduate classes, or is it more important that you can pass out of ADA and building codes? Do you want a course that prepares you to be LEED certified, or would you rather have a philosophical discussion about the historical foundations of nature? Do you want a history of interiority class, or choices among the many specialties of a world class faculty of art history? What do you have to take, and what do you get to take?

The curricula you've selected couldn't be much more different from one another. Pratt's program is designed for career switchers, Parsons is focused growth for individuals who already know the profession. The program at SAIC is a NAAB candidate architecture degree that requires none of the areas unique to interior design. The only thing that they have in common is that they are all highly selective, so they don’t need to admit people who have no clear goals.

I’ll agree that someone with an architecture degree has been exposed to many of the ways of thinking that are endemic to any other design practice. That’s roughly equivalent to saying that a licensed structural engineer knows enough about design to get an entry-level job at an architecture firm. They may be similar, but they aren’t the same.

The feedback of the other posters seems to be premised on the idea that you just want to get entry-level work in the field. Is that what you want? Right now design is extremely fashionable as a career choice, and a difficult sector to get actual work in. Just because conventional wisdom is that interior design work is “easier” than architectural work doesn’t mean there are more jobs – in fact it probably means there are fewer.

Many of the graduate students I’ve worked with have not only had good degrees, they have had several years of professional experience. They went back to school because they had something they wanted to know, and the faculty they chose to work with could contribute to that. So what is it that you want to know?

Speaking as a sociologist, there is very little reason to believe that education in any specific area contributes substantially to economic success in that same area (with the exception of pre-licensure activities). There is a correlation between educational success and economic success in general however. On that note, and practically speaking, A foreign architecture degree does not qualify you to be NCIDQ certified, so you'd miss out on that potential aspiration. You may not want to own your firm, but I seriously doubt anyone wants to spend their entire life working at the entry level.

If you are willing to share your aspirations, I’d be glad to make some suggestions for where to consider.

hi! i really appreciate your insight on the subject! I am definitely willing to share my aspirations and will eagerly await your feedback!

You are right in saying that no one would want to spend their entire life working at the entry level and neither would I. But I believe that once you get a chance at the entry level, and show potential you can always grow.. Is education the only way, not experience?

I want to get into interior designing, and I want to explore each and every aspect of the field! But I am not sure how much more beneficial will spending 60,000$ and two years be, over working for 2 yrs! Experience wise as well as financially.

How difficult can it get for someone from India (US citizen) to get a job here? Is masters the only way to go forward?

This is a wonderful opinion. The things mentioned are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone



Cynthia Kurtz
Lawyer Marketing

goyal06,
its very simple, school & degree does not guarantee a job, but having a job can potentially benefit future schooling.

many corporate offices offers financial support if you are going to school while working at the firm, some will even allow you to work part-time with an agreement to work for them 3-5 years after you finish school.

on the subject of entry level job, it does not make much sense since after 5 or 10 year of working, people can careless about where u went to school. they do care about your working experiences, or if you are licensed.

u'll find plenty of ur bosses in the work place that didn't goto an ivy school or even a masters degree, but what they have is experience & connections.

In most cases, there aren't many factors that make it possible to say that there is a relationship between education and employment. Yours might be one of the rare actual cases.

If you aren't a US citizen and you want to work here, you need a work visa. That means you need an employer who is willing to claim that your skills are so unique that no one in the country can do the same work. it will cost your employer somewhere in the neighborhood of 12,000 to 24,000 to pay the immigration lawyers who will secure your visa, and it can take months. There are firms who do this for good talent.

On the other hand, a student visa is easier (provided you do the application correctly), and it comes with a bonus: depending on what you study, you can usually qualify for one or two years of vocational training visas after graduation. I've known a few canadians who took a US degree just to get that opportunity -- they got government grants to cover the cost of education, and they got work experience which was necessary to break into their fields at home.

You are facing a serious uphill battle, especially as you will have to prove you can afford both the degree and your cost of living before you get a visa. You won't qualify for the federal loan programs that most schools use as their bread and butter. Does your own country guarantee funds for foreign education? Can you pay out of pocket?

That's just the bureaucratic side.

On the academic side, I'd encourage you to keep your doubts between yourself, your family and friends, and your therapist. The vast majority of students that reach out to a member of the faculty to express such doubts are trying to set lower expectations, and the get both a worse education and lower grades as a result. If we see hesitance in an application packet it goes to the bottom of the maybe pile, even if you can draw like Piranesi.

In re your question about the financial cost-benefit of an advanced degree, when I used to teach at a business school, we did a case study in the introduction to finance that I'm told is common to most business education in the US -- which has students calculate the cost-benefit of education in several different scenarios. the punch-line is that it can actually be financially beneficial to do an MBA when you can get one on in-state tuition while living with your parents. Otherwise, even an MBA at the University of Chicago is a sink for your money from which you will never recover.

"How difficult can it get for someone from India (US citizen) to get a job here? Is masters the only way to go forward?"

i presume he/she is us citizen.

even she he isn't, i know a couple people who got the sponsorship & financial from the co support so they can get their license.

I HATE interior designers.

"I HATE interior designers."

Amen.

On another note,how difficult would it be for a person with a US citizenship living overseas to find work in US? How can they conduct job search outside of internet and how can they handle the interview thing? Because as you know an interview does not guarantee a job so is he going to just go back if the he doesn't get the job?? So many questions...