Cornell is a 5 hour bus ride from NYC, and during your first two semesters at the Ithaca campus you may not have many opportunities to visit the city. The summer term at the Cornell in NY space brings in interesting studio critics and will give you a chance to learn more about professional practice in the city. I don't know who is currently teaching at Cornell, and I think your best chance to learn more about the program is to contact the M.ArchII coordinator and ask to be put in email contact with a current student. The program has changed a lot in the past 3 years so you may get different responses from current students versus alumni.

I'm an alum and I was a student at Cornell during when the board initially gave the program a conditional accreditation because of the facilities-NOT the architecture program itself. Now that they are taking care of that Cornell is not likely to lose its accreditation. As for the new building a considered a 'joke', aesthetics have nothing to do with weather or not the new building meets the standards set by ADA or the accreditation board. I personally liked the Tod and Billy design for the new building the best but I think the OMA one will be alright.

I don't know why the Milstein Hall is considered a giant joke?

Last year I did have this point of view of the proposed/under construction project in my personal blog.

Milstein Hall is scheduled to open for Fall 2011. If you are matriculating into the post professional M.Arch II program in Fall 2010, you won't have classes in the unfinished building and the most of Milstein you will hear about is construction from the site.

I agree that Cornell is unlikely to lose its accreditation. Previous issues with the facilities, including ADA accessibility and studio spaces, have been resolved or are on the way to being resolved with the completion of Milstein Hall. Also, in the event that Cornell does lose accreditation, it should not matter to you if you already have a professional degree.

The three semester M.ArchII goes by very quickly. Whether Cornell is the right school for you depends on what you are looking to get out of an M.ArchII education.

Thanks for all your reply. I do have a professional degree, so the accreditation is not my concern. I just concern about the educational quality, its reputation , its human network and etc..

This year Cornell change its last year's schedule, the NYC semester is put in the beginning and start in June, I don't know whether is because the Milstein Hall construction. But now I have a problem that my thesis dissertation of current degree crashes the time of NYC semester. So I still try to figure out how to solve that...