I may know a bit about ASU. What do you want to know?

I would go to ASU. They have great facilities, and a lot of great professors. By the time you get out, the economy will probably be booming in Phoenix, and you'll have a good chance at landing a great job there. Phoenix has a lot of surprisingly great architecture, and a job at the right firm could take off your career in a big way. I don't regret attending ASU. It's also pretty cheap.

Yea, i would go for ASU! I agree with le bossman

I am looking at similar schools... UW, U of O, ASU, CCA and UBC. I have heard If you are looking to spend a lot of your time making models ASU is the way to go. Their physical models are apparently top-notch. That said, I am going to visit and can't speak from experience just what some people have said... U of O seems to have a strong reputation here in the Northwest for sustainability (which I am sure you know already). I have ran into many oregon grads in the seattle are who are from practicing in Seattle. So far everyone I have spoke to says good things...

thanks for the info lebossman...were you there for graduate school? Winston Smith...I'm just looking for some first hand experience from there, about the faculty, facilities, program focus, international opportunities, internships chances, specialty programs, etc.. everything i know is from the school website. Going to the ASU open house next month and looking forward to exploring it myself.

I also heard U of O is good, but I'm sort of trying to get out of the northwest, since Ive spent my entire life here and need a change. UBC was a no-go as of today via letter, so that narrows my consideration by one more, but still waiting for the word from UCLA and UW.

"...I'm just looking for some first hand experience from there, about the faculty, facilities, program focus, international opportunities, internships chances, specialty programs, etc.. everything i know is from the school website..."

The faculty:

I would say there is a real stark contrast between the master builder Architects and the Master Designers.

About half the faculty are practicing Architects and are super knowledgeable about Architecture and are great teachers. Wendell Burnette comes to mind (there is a bio of each faculty at their website last time I checked). Also John Meunier is top notch and a real class act. R. Nicholas Loope is also a keen mind.

On the other hand there are the "master designer" theorist types who can't build themselves anything worthwhile or teach Architecture like it was meant to be. It seems like the other half of the school's faculty would fit solidly in this category. Most of these folks are unlicensed sycophants who graduated from all the p.c. universities that only engage in nothing more meaningful than brand promotion. One particular professor who visits quite often from California comes to mind in this category (although he happens to be licensed (and a photo of him has been appearing on the homepage of archinect lately (of course))). Most of these people are just hippies who never grew up and who have figured out how to live off of the largess of the educational system and the naivette of young aspiring architects.

So, to me at least, it seems like the faculty is either top notch or bottom of the barrel. The "theorists" at ASU were winning the battles at ASU a few years back...it seemed at that time that unfortunately, as social trajectory might predict, lately the school had been going down p.c. paths like "interdisciplinary" paths which erodes away at the autonomy of the Architect to make the best and final decision. But, it seems that this is the general rule at every school anyhow, if they are NAAB accredited at least.

Facilites: Relatively excellent, for a state school. Great wood shop, Architecture Library, Mold making, Lazer cutting equipment. For studio I heard they had been talking about removing the walls that divided the studio environment (class of approx. 40 typically subdivided into 3 studios/ semester). Personally, I would have gone to ASU for that exact reason (subdivided stuido to cut down on distraction and enhance interaction with less individuals at any given time)...I am unaware if they ever followed through with that...

I heard printing had been a problem a few years ago. They had a central one stop shop "print shop" but it was grossly inadequate and the grad students had to share it with all of undergrad and all the other design disciplines which made making deadlines neat to impossible. To solve the problem a few students in each studio pooled money together and bought a decent large format color printer and supplies. I heard that it worked out great for everybody and everyone ended up being pleased with the solution (though the line to print at 3 am when there was a crit at 9 am was long).

Program Focus: Their website pretty much does a good job of summing it up...perhaps things have changed in the last few years I don't know. My description of the faculty's priorities above hopefully eludes to this as well (1/2 very theory oriented, 1/2 very practice oriented). Of course, the website overpromotes the more vocal theoretical aspects of "certain" agendas like the Dean's and downplays the more latent-and-more-ever-present-in-the-actual-day-to-day practice of studio (if that made any sense praise allah).

International Opportunities: I do know that a few years ago there were a number of exchange programs/ study aborad opportunties in Europe and South America. It seems like these programs were geared mostly to the time between semesters though, I think it is Catherine Spellman who is the most knowledgeable about these programs (if she is still at ASU I don't know). If she is still there I'm sure that she wouldn't mind if you contacted her to discuss. I know of one chap in the MArch graduate program who interacted quite a bit and befriended some Brazilian exchange students (I know he thought that one of the girl was pretty hot).

Internship chances: I have a friend who was a teaching assistant who befriended a couple of the Professors he assisted and was given internship leads through that connection. Internship chances might be limited by the current dismal state of the economy in Arizona but there are a number of high quality firms in the Phoenix and Scottsdale area who are always looking for cheap labor to fill the CAD production gaps. The schools offering of internships to grad students is rather robust.

Specialty programs: I know a few years ago they had at least an MArch/ MBA option and a MArch/ Masters in Real Estate Development? option. They also had I believe some programs in development with the Engineering/ Construction school I think. There might be more. Contact them directly for more info, I'm sure they will oblige with more info.

Overall, ASU is a great package, though personally the one big, massive, nearly fatal drawback is the over-preponderance of esoteric, "modernist" theory (but where in the entire NAAB galaxy can you go to avoid it -except MAYBE Notre Dame, which is exactly where I would have tried to go if I had known about their program when I was applying to grad schools).

Not that I necessarily did or didn't attend ASU...just spouting off here what I have come to know over the years.

Attending an open house is a superb idea. Nothing beats a little good old fashioned "pressing the flesh" and "rubbing elbows" with the program you could potentially end up devoting a few of the best years of your life.

Hope this made at least a lick of sense and is at least somewhat helpful.

edit: The schools offering of internships to grad students is rather robust.

should read "The schools offering of TEACHING ASSISTANTships to grad students is rather robust."

sorry about that. also, numerous typos...typing too fast today.

hmm...the remark about the master builders and master designers seems a bit strange for me. i was there for ugrad, and had just about every professor; most of them are still there now. i wouldn't say the school was very theory intensive. renata hejduk comes to mind, but she was still a fantastic critique. they were all great imho. dan hoffman was one of the best professors i've had, as was catherine spellman. some teachers know how to build better than others, but ultimately when you're in school, it's still about design for me. i had a background in construction when i began there, and i still feel the school teaches construction fairly well either way. of course, it's been about eight years since i was there.

they did in fact remove some of the walls, but the building is still pretty chopped up. the facilities are great in my mind.