Don't overestimate your income potential upon graduation. Within a couple years of graduation, nobody will care what it says on your diploma, they'll care more about what's on your résumé.

Is ASU is worth a car payment, or sacrificing early retirement?

i think you should shoot for the stars and apply to a UC/Private school system.

state colleges all have a certain pedagogy or goal and that is to produce really good draftsman (detailing, construction documents, etc.). the good thing is that firms need those kind of people so finding jobs is pretty easy. the bad thing is youre not really expanding your creative side.

 

UC/private school system however are very research focus so your studio will push you in challenging designs, more research intensive, etc. Not to say that the state schools wont, but just looking at the professors between the state vs UC/private, state colleges have more practitioners while UC/private have more research (yet also practice too)

this of course is not 100% across the boards, but pretty close when were looking at just ASU, CPP vs UCLA/USC/UC Berk.

Batman, I appreciate your feedback.  I actually applied to UCLA and Berkeley and did not get in. Understandably so, however.  During application season I had just landed my first job at an architecture firm and didn't have a lot of time to work on my portfolio. I know I could have done better, I just know. So as disappointing as that is, I don't have the patience to wait another year and apply -I wish I did!

Honestly people make a lot of pronouncements here without any facts. Both ASU and CPP are very good programs. Faculty in all architecture programs that are highly rated (including ASU and CPP both rated in the top 20 nationally) are interested in design. Remember architects that end up in academia went to good schools and did well primarily by being good designers. (No matter what you think of your professor he or she graduated in the top 5% of his/her class- otherwise they would not have been hired at a university- for obvious reasons faculty value education above all else). Visit final reviews at the schools you are applying to in order to judge for yourself what students in those programs produce. People on these forums are usually only aware of the school they went to and are largely ignorant of what happens elsewhere. 

Last thing - all programs in Los Angeles place tremendous value on design- Woodbury, USC, Sci-Arc, UCLA, CPP, Otis, etc. It is a part of the culture of Southern California. And on a pragmatic level all those teaching at these schools understand that producing good design is required to gain employment.

if you really want to go to either of those schools, waiting for a year isnt that bad. it goes by quick if you have something to do like

1. work for an arch firm with connections to those schools

2. research with a professor at one of those schools.

and dont worry about whehter the program is ranked or not.