What about Georgia Tech? I just applied there for undergrad but they do have a master's program– it's not the ivy league but I'm guessing it's not that bad (plus you could actually get a scholarship as you're in state). Sounds like you wanna be in Los ANgeles though ;) sorry I don't know the books in their curriculum.

I think your approach is commendable - don't give the fight, you'll be well read by the time comes

Doesn't SCAD have architecutre?

hi montagneux, the thing is, we dont have access to the programs that some schools up north and westwards are offering: advanced and more innovative architecture. scad has good and straightforward programs tho.

sublime - don't think the ivys or sciarc-type programs are your only shot. you DO have access to some great things in GA, and i'd look into GATech a little more. monica ponce de leon did a few studios there a couple of years ago that yielded some great work - work that she shows in her lectures and that only happened there.

sure, the state schools are a little less focused on new technologies and specific design directions than some of the others. they have a wider responsibility, having to serve more interests simply by the nature of their state-wide constituency.

but that doesn't mean they are lacking what you're seeking, just that you'd have to know what you want and go after it.

books are great and folks here are likely to give you a wide-ranging list of recommendations that may or may not suit your interests. the reason i'd encourage the school environment over self-teaching is that the opportunity to explore ideas as a group is very powerful - communal learning, with dialogue, is going to be a lot more valuable than just reading.

and, possibly more importantly, the opportunity for mentorship - from directly learning and interacting with someone farther along the path. in any school you should be able to find an instructor in whom you see an expertise in those things you want to learn most. maybe several. school is a chance to put yourself in their circle of influence, soak up as much as you can, and build on it.

it's a lot harder to read a book and find in yourself the ability and motivation to put ideas into action. but seeing ideas in action and discussing their implications with fellow students and instructors can make it much easier to make things happen yourself.

sublime. I live in Atlanta and am very familiar with Tech, its faculty, and its direction. While I believe it is probably the best school in the South in many aspects, it doesn't have the same resources and progressive mindset as the mentioned schools, nor schools of similar caliber in the north east and elsewhere. I applied to grad school for this summer/fall to sci-arc as well as some other ivy schools so I understand your dilemma and mindset.

As for reading, I found this site researching the one year grad programs at sci-arc. It contains readers from many of their courses. You can look at sci-arc's website for more info.

also, monica is no longer at tech. it is now lars spuybroek from NOX. i will keep my comments to myself on his current work there.

which is kind of the problem isn't it steven? it isn't the reading materials but the people that make the difference. when ponce de leon is not there what does the studio work look like?

i didn't do ivy school for undergrad or for masters but did for phd and it was an eye-opener. being taught by exceptional people and studying with exceptional people and making lifelong friendships with exceptional people is what the ivys offer. they don't have such a different curriculum or access to better books...not really. unless it is a place like AADRL or similar.

doesn't mean you can't do well or pursue amazing things. it may mean that you become one of those exceptional people on your own though.

so jump, would you recommend an ivy education for a masters since you had such an experience with doctoral studies?

i agree with jump, at least to some degree...

first, gatech is a really good school (i did my m.arch. there)... and i believe that lars spuybroek is still there, so he could teach you all the crazy computer stuff that you could learn at the other schools that have been mentioned... i really enjoyed my two years in ATL and i learned a ton... at least when i was there the program was particularly strong in urban design as a result of ellen dunham-jones, richard dagenhart, and most importantly doug allen...

that said, jump is right... just reading books/journal articles written by the well known people that teach at ivies isn't enough... its all about actual contact with the people... being able to talk with david leatherbarrow whenever i want is awesome... i learn stuff from him in just normal daily conversation...

yesterday was a good example for me... a few years ago when i was working on some competitions i was looking at some projects by KBAS and PEG:ola for inspiration... yesterday i was sitting on a midterm review jury with these same people (julie beckman, keith van der sys)... even as a fellow juror, i was learning things just from listening to these people talk...

GSAPP offers their lecture series on Itunes, and the GSD has live webcasts of their lectures. I've been checking those out recently.

anyone familiar with jenny sabin very intriguing work.

what we need is a MArch version of the Personal MBA:
http://personalmba.com/

There's a few random course syllabi posted online for MIT's program:

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Architecture/index.htm

I agree that having access to the people who wrote the books is more valuable than the books themselves.

but - it is tough not having the resources to gain access to these people.

@beta... jenny's great!

bucku, i didn't used to think so, but lately i am wavering. great people rise no matter what (or at least i choose to believe that is the case), but the doors that open because of those personal connections and great situations makes it so much easier.

much of my wavering comes from experiences just like architphil points out. sometimes i wonder what i would have done if i had had profs in masters school that were as sharp as some i have met in recent years. probably i would not have had such an easy time of things (m.arch was not challenging for me, except where i made it so), but that would have been awesome.

in the end it is about our own ambitions that takes us where we want to be, but man oh man wouldn't it be awesome to have profs and friends who have larger ambitions than your own - and not just for themselves, but for you too? i think that is where the exceptional work comes from.

so in that regard, yeah going to school with great profs and colleagues matters. doesn't have to be ivy, but they seem the most likely place to be sure of being in that kind of atmosphere...

Thanks to all for the responses and links. helped a lot.
I personally believe that talent and brilliance is a result of favorable circumstances that happened in one's life. IF we aspire to be as smart like some designers out there, we should be often more vigilant of where we allow ourselves to be situated... w good people, good city, good school (?)etc

The schools that interest me are inaccessible , so I chose to just mimic their curriculum by acquiring readings and books.
... this reminded me of one Tadao Ando , once was a boxer ( and learned carpentry,im not sure) , and didnt have any formal architectural education. He bought a Le Corbusier book, the rest was history...

yeah well that is the story sublimespace. my studio for phd was in lab run by my prof (a fellow named ohno) and tadao ando...he was retiring when i started but still was around. anyway, he was in fact a good teacher and a professor in spite of his lack of education in university.

BUT

stories change depending on how much you know. ando was a boxer when he was 17, but then he traveled the world and changed careers. i am told that in the 1960's if you were leaving japan you were very wealthy, or well placed. It was a time when the USA still had to give permission to leave the country, and it cost lots of money to travel. i am not sure how that all worked out but he has a developer in the family (can't recall if it is his twin brother or a cousin), and his family was not entirely without resources. so the myth of a boxer reading books and then turning into master builder is not really the whole story. just the interesting part. am pretty sure that i show he wants it.

in one biography it talks about how he began his career doing interiors for the clubs of yakuza with his twin, and then worked his way up to architecture, but who knows what the truth is.

somehow that is not part of the myth exported overseas. after all, who would give a Pritzker to a man famous for designing the digs of the mafia?

I do like the story about how he nearly decked Peter Eisenman though.

anyway, yes you can learn on your own, but ando never learned from books, he learned from traveling and then he made a business and worked like hell for 20 years and became famous. the books were just a small part of the whole package.

good luck!

don't forget one important thing, you learn the most from the people around you, most of whom are the students around you.

I think you could answer this question much more simply: most architects don't publish, and according to "Dr. Garry" most academic architects, even at the ivies, are no exception. So mister "Good Will Hunting," you can't get this education at the public library — you have to show up and compete.

wow, great link toast. thanks.