no one? that's so sad...i thought we had a decent euro following

i'd give it a bit more time, don't despair just yet...while part of your euro crowd i have done none of these programs so I would def. like to hear these comparisons myself too

Ive applied to T.U. delft, and Aalto University (a.k.a Helsinki University of Technology)

I can say its definitely been difficult to find information about programs in Europe (i.e. while living in N.America). Does anyone know how these programs compare?

I wasn't planning on applying for a few more years (we’ll see if I can stay working for that long) but I was going to apply to 3 euro programs on top of a few US schools.

TU delft: MSc Arch, excites me because the concentrations are so research/ theory oriented. Their approach to research seems to be closely aligned with why own idea of how I want to study.

M.Sc. Urban Studies at University College London. This program also seems very research oriented, and it was highly recommended by a professor of mine.

And the third is a toss up between the AA history and theory and the ETH MSc Arc program, not sure the concentration.

All of these programs are FAR less expensive then their United States counterparts, and would fulfill my romantic desire to live in Europe for a portion o my life.

When I put all my options an a scale, the euro schools seem to win out due to their: cost, ability to expand what I think I know about architecture, progressive/ research oriented nature, roots in historic urban development.

So yay for euro schools.

It IS a bit hard to find info about these.

I would have applied to ETH if I was still confident in my German. It has, however, been a long time since I've used it and i fear much of it has slipped away (again).

Regarding TU Delft, I too feel that have a nice balance in their program. I am drawn to the variation in their specializations and feel they offer a focus many other schools lack.

Wageningen, being a small school focused mainly on ag sciences it seems, presents a whole different atmosphere to studying design in. I think there will be a lot of interesting things regarding sustainable agriculture (an big interest of mine) going on which I can plug into. This program is a serious contender for me because of this, and the only landscape arch program I have applied (as its the only one I really want to go to).

AA Landscape Urbanism: I have heard this lies in the shadow of the DRL. If anyone (current or past student) could speak to this Id be very appreciative. Mohsen and Ciro (pretty sure they were the leaders of this back in the day) are no longer there, and I fear maybe the focus has gone with them? Im also not into just making computer generated geometry, so would like to know how much further the projects are taken with regards to research and site etc etc....

Berlage: again not too sure about this. The studio briefs online seem really interesting, but having seen one of the early in the semester reviews this year, I must say the quality of work could have been (and I expected it to be) much higher. Maybe it was a hard topic to grasp, I will have to take another look at the final outcome!

Finally there is the issue of cost, Berlage and AA cost way more than TU Delft and Wageningen and they do not provide an MSc degree!! Toss up on that...

But seriously yay for euro schools. Cost, location and often times research topics beat out those of the US schools I think. Not to mention...after paying about 50k per year for 5 yrs to attended one of the leading US schools, I would say its probably not worth the cost, and I would be glad for the registration that comes with the completion of a degree in NL. I think they undertake, on the whole as a country, much more interesting topics anyway. Why do two degrees in the same country?

** If anyone wants to expand the list of schools discussed here please feel free!!**

i'll be attending the AA MArch Housing & Urbanism program this fall. woot!

I've wanted to attend the AA even while I was still in undergrad at Ohio State so i'm wildly excited.

...and i've always felt that i was born on the wrong continent.

haha! did you apply anywhere else?

AA: In
UCL: Out
London Met: In
U Nottingham (Safety): In
Pratt: In
Sci-arc: haven't sent out notices yet
U Colorado Denver: haven't sent out notices yet.

But it was always between the AA and UCL so they made my decision easy for me.

:) congrats, london is the best!! its going to be awesome.

the only thing that is a drag is I asked the AA admissions coordinator to see if I could be placed with the group of students who wish to be considered for a bursary (I hadn't checked the box on my app for some reason), and she misplaced my email... and i received my offer after the bursaries were already given out. whammie.

still, its a minor inconvenience compared to getting to dash around London/Europe for the next few years.

Although I'm not ready to apply this year, it would still be great to see and hear from some fellow aplicants hoping to attend non-N.American schools.

I don't know why it is, but it seems that many of Europe's top architecture schools are plagued by shitty websites, devoid of any information pertaining to curriculum, faculty, and student work.... So sharing information,experiences, etc. seems that much more essential.

I actually posted this on the other (US) thread, cause I didn't see this one. But I got in to the Glasgow School of Art, the Edinburgh College of Art, and I'm still waiting on a decision for the AA -Housing and Urbanism. I submitted to the late dealine, so I'm not surprised by this. I'm not sure I'll get in, and I don't know how I would pay for it, if I did.

Turtle - What did you do for the English requirement? Did you take the IELTS?

Have no idea what to do about the other two schools, hard to find info on them, other than what is on their sites, as many of you had said.

I haven't taken the English proficiency exam yet. I wasn't excepted with a conditional offer barring an IELTS score, so maybe I can for-go it? We'll see, I'll let you know.

how embarrassing! accepted* bah it was an aggressive evening...

turtle, are you from the usa? you dont need the english test if you are from a country whos primary language is english.

i didnt take it either!

yikes, TU Delft says 8 weeks till a decision is emailed due to the large volume of apps received.

that's a pretty long wait...!

I got into the AADRL and UCL AVATAR, wut wut!

congrats!

i got into the berlage(!)

...pickle is they want confirmation of enrollment before i get a decision from tu delft!

i knew that would happen.

how would you guys go about telling a school who's offer you accepted that you no longer wish to attend there?

It was a non-binding contract for London Met (no money involved) but now that I plan on attending the AA I don't know what the best avenue to break their hearts is. :)

I waited until the last possible day to accept LMU's offer but I was accepted in early February and needed to reply by March 1st...

discuss.

if its non binding then there isnt a real issue.

just tell them your plans have changed and you will not be attending.

AA DRL Alum here...

Not to sound like a biased be-otch, but all the AA programs kind of fall in the shadow of DRL... that said I wish I would have done Em-Tech and skated out of graduate school with only 1 year o student loans! blah. And to think that I chose the AA over the Ivy League (which also has the added bonus of being only 1 year) but I thought "I want to live in London for as long as I can... therefore made a stupid decision that I will be paying for over the course of the next 15 years... oh joy! don't get me wrong i do love the AA and it does produce a very specific type of sudent and thinker. I am just not sure it was worth the cost.

Plus I never really thought.... oh I always wanted to study computer programming perhaps I should be an Architect. The AA is really into scripting, which yes is cool but I am no Computer Programmer. I wish they would have spent a little less time trying to "tool" us up and actually do their jobs and teach us!!! But that is the thing about the AA... you pretty much teach yourself and your fellow students.

@ 1237,

That's a very intriguing point of view. Thanks for bringing a different perspective. Are you still in London?

@ Trutle,

Did you post a portfolio somewhere? I'd be interested in looking at it.

ok -- bbeen makingsome important shits....

mo,- dont go ---ucl

----

berlage = tu delft


:)
BLESS aLL!


tED

why: don't go --- ucl?

Dam, I ended up choosing the AA cause it has actually turned out cheaper than the Ivy League schools, aside from its prestige.

it comes down to resources - all uk schools are public except the aa - UCL is better than most as its funding is tied to research output and Bartlett staff write [admittedly about naught]

urban studies in the uk is equal to cultural geography and if you want to design projects you are must better off going to the aa

only if you want to do a phd at ucl would i do it

urban studies is walking the street and making observations on that path - personal journey/identity/cultural practice [borden skateboarding and the city]

AA has so many things going on at once you're in the oeuvre not just the course

H+U doesn't script and yes avoid LU [it should shut down]

there is a new MPhil with chris lee [dip 6 fame]

I'm with de flaneur,
The 16 months at the AA_DRL seems to be much cheaper than 1 year at any Ivy League School. That is even considering the exchange rate.

TED - would that be London Met's MA program that should shut down?

AA Landscape Urbanism [LU],

it just seems to be fashion and more solid content can be had from H+U or DRL [unless you wish to only do 12 months - but i think LU just about style]

I see. I take it you refer to the present incarnation of the DRL then..there wasn't a whole lot of solid content in the parametric urbanism DRL cycle imho.

hey, i'm an american student, and was recently accepted to the MArch urban design program at the bartlett. I'm from an architecture background, and I've never been to Europe, which was a big reason I applied there.

Honestly, I still don't know much about the program (a professor had recommended it), and their website sucks/looks like it hasn't been updated in a couple years.

Is anyone familiar with this program/ can share their thoughts on it?

has anyone heard back from the AA who applied to the March deadline?

@ revlis, I'm still waiting as well from the March deadline. I was contemplating contacting them, becasue I have to let the other schools know that I will/will not be going there!

To others accepted at the AA, how long before you heard an answer from them?

@ Jared you might check out the forums in thestudentroom.com. It seems to be a UK based forum, and they might have what you're looking for there. http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=256
Otherwise I've been googling the heck out of the schools that I got into.

What does everyone think about a school called Oxford Brookes? What is their reputation?

Also, outside of England, what about the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts?

don't know much about the school itself...it is part of Oxford university though (you know as in Oxford-Cambridge) which you might call the original Ivy league so that should count for something :)

hi jake,
oxford brookes isn't part of oxford university. It's a different University altogether, but also based in oxford (the town). oxford uni itself has an art school (the ruskin) but doesn't have an arch degree. Cambridge uni does.

re Masters: DRL and emtech are both great design-lead courses. but its group nature means that the experience depends on who you get on a team with. So choose wisely. Emtech director mike weinstock just published a book so you should check that out if you're interested. I'd stay away from Landscape Urbanism.

As always, people love bitchin about how their course is better/worse than the others, but in the end, how well you do depends on your personality more than anything else. The breadth of approaches at the AA is huge, so don't think shiny parametric stuff is everything.

I did AA diploma a while back. my work deals with networks of micro-scale infrastructure in the city, and has a focus on large-scale models and installation fabrication. if you're interested my portfolio is here

www.lawrencelek.com

good luck!

entirely right, i stand corrected. oxford brookes is not part of oxford uni. it has however scored high (top 5 for a number of years i believe) in uk arch diploma rankings during recent years. good luck with your choices.

I forgot that the AA had pretty much only group based projects.

-empea, where are you finding these rankings?

Hello all,

Planning to attend the Bartlett for MArch this September...anyone else in the same boat?

@ revlis - I contacted the AA to ask about the status of my application and was told it would be mid-may (so probably a no in my case). You should go ahead and contact the school to see where you stand if you haven't already.

@Kristofferson - Congrats!

Sorry to bring up a practically dead thread, but for those still waiting to hear from the AA that applied to the late (March) deadline, there is hope! I just heard from them this morning via email. Note that this was for the Housing + Urbanism program. They really threw my plans for a loop. I have to decide between the AA and the Glasgow School of Art, who already have some of my money! Dang.

Good Luck to all!

Does anyone know if/when final decisions go out for the AA?

ive tried emailing the admissions ppl but no response.

any info would be great.

I was told by someone who contacted the school that the final decisions were to be made some time this week. But you might contact the school to check, that person applied for the undergraduate program I believe.

Has anyone heard back from TU delft?

I received a conditional admittance a few weeks ago, assuming that all my paperwork (passport, application info, etc) was in order, but nothing since then.

I'm having a hard time deciding which school to go to (Delft, Helsinki). I am from Canada and did my undergrad there, but also have euro citizenship (Finland) Having never lived for an extended period of time in Finland (or europe for that matter), I think Helsinki would be an interesting option. It would also be an easier option in terms of relocating, communicating etc. Though I still haven't seen much current output from the school, I am interested in nordic design and the faculty seems to be comprised of mostly well respected, practicing architects.
Delft on the other hand is intriguing because of its focus on analytical/theoretical design, not to mention its proximity to so much in western europe. Overall I'm sure the quality of education is higher as well, however, I do wonder if the massive number of students in the program affects this.

any input would be much appreciated.

I havent heard from the AA yet, but dont really care at this point...(why on earth does it take them so long when they had the shortest application of all...5 weeks is turning into 8)?

Im seriously considering TU Delft, but will likely not do Architecture...and do the new (launched after app deadline) Landscape Architecture specialization. As soon as they respond to me about the switch not needing too much legwork.

I had the same concerns about it being such a large program, but in the end I realize I am going for working on specific things and will be able to do my work as I wish either way.

I also had a really hard time deciding what school to attend...between large delft and a small agriculture school (wageningen). Im not sure I have made up my mind yet, but it seems to me that I would be happier in a place with more going on...and also with a stronger context in all aspects design. For you it seems the decision is between living in the country your family came from and learning about it (which seems like a really good idea) and studying in a place with a long history of strong education and attracting really good faculty members. Can you go visit the schools and countries to see?

Good luck! I'm also torn. If you pick Delft we should talk more...figure out their housing system etc etc.

Ah, final thought...the reason I am attracted to delft was the range of their specializations. For an MSc programme, I havent found a comparison with such specific focus.

I think its really good b/c of that.

I agree about the AA. its pretty insane that they haven't gotten back to people yet. deposits are supposedly due at the end of May. they really aren't leaving much time.

When I got my info from the AA I was told to ignore the May deadline, and my new deadline was June 18. So they do give you a new timeline based on when they contact you, it seems.

However, I am also strongly considering other schools that I was accepted to. A main reason being funding the studies at the AA. I would have to do private loans and those are bad news in my book.

Well i just heard that i got in the DRL program. so others might be hearing very soon.

very exciting! there is still hope.

Congrats rev!

Just out of curiousity, how are you planning on paying for it? Loans, robbing a bank, lottery, sugar daddy/mama? This is the part I'm really trying to justify, whether the private loan is worth it.