I received offer for M.Arch1 from USC with $40,000 scholarship a year, and Berkeley without money.
My situation is my husband is currently in LA, but I really love Berkeley, can anyone give me some advice on how to make a choice? Like the comparison of studio, employment after graduation?
Thanks a lot!
Non Sequitur
Mar 19, 18 10:56 pm
Take the cheapest option. No M.Arch is worth 20 years of student debt.
ArchitectureChick
Mar 20, 18 12:34 am
USC Pros:
- With that scholarship USC will be cheaper by ~$10,000 per year over Berkeley
-Save money (and heartbreak) by being able to continue living with your husband
-Famous Trojan Network is legit, it will be very beneficial especially if you stay in Southern California
-Nice, clean, new building
-Graduate program ranked #10 2018 DI
-Department putting money where their mouth is with big pushes toward upgrading the program such as hiring Milton Curry
-Free shuttles throughout LA
-It's in a bad area but USC campus is safe due to advanced tech like facial recognition cameras watching everybody, locked down campus at night, guards everywhere, and free rideshare within the area. (may not be a pro... but I think this is sadly better than what Berkeley is doing)
-Traditionally has a more practical pedagogy.
-You will be given an adviser to custom tailor you curriculum.
-Encouragement to take courses in other majors within the department and even other USC schools.
USC Cons:
- It's in a bad area.
-Nice building but you share it and the fab shops with undergrads and art students.
-Their M.Arch1 is relatively new and is in the process of evolving so there is some uncertainty about what exactly you're getting. It jumped into DI's rankings at #10 this year so that's encouraging but one year is kind of a small sample size (especially when it was unranked for so long). Michigan jumped to #1 in 2010 and now it's not even in their top 10.
Berkeley Pros:
- Grad studios are at the top of the building, quite beautiful up there
- Fab lab is big and is better equipped than the current USC ones
- Has a more theoretical pedagogy
- It is much harder to get into Berkeley M.Arch, last year they got ~1000 apps.
- Ranked higher at #8 in DI's 2018 rankings. Long history being ranked in DI's top ten.
- Well connected with Bay Area companies
- Very walkable
- Some stigma that they don't produce students prepared for the practical aspects of being architects but I think this isn't quite true because in CA their students almost always have the highest pass rate across all 7 exams of the ARE.
- Free day bus/shuttle around Berkeley, free night shuttle at night, free door to door for late night/early morning.
Berkeley Cons:
-More expensive tuition due to your situation
-You also have to pay for housing (which is not cheap.. especially for what you're getting)
- It's in a bad area, at night it is not smart to walk home without using one of the night safety services
- For budget and political reasons you will never see Berkeley with the same safety measures as USC
- At night certain areas of the campus can be unsafe
- Owning a car would be a burden
- Commuting would be painful (traffic and parking is almost always at capacity)
- Alumni pride/network pales in comparison to USC
TL;DR
Non sequitur is correct. It is almost always smarter to pick the cheaper option. USC will be significantly cheaper even before you factor in the savings of living with your husband. Pick USC.
P.S. If you could share your own pros and cons of each program I think it would be beneficial to current and future people that are weighing their choices.
Cheers!
placebeyondthesplines_
Mar 20, 18 12:45 am
it’d be nice if more of this forum was as thoughtful and helpful as this post. thank you for being a kinder contributor than most (myself definitely included). you alluded to this, but those DI rankings really don’t capture a very full picture of academia in architecture (as I’ve said before, no one actually thinks Wash. U is a better program than Princeton, or Kansas State than MIT in a previous year; the DI methodology is truly wonky and pretty unreliable).
ArchitectureChick
Mar 20, 18 4:17 am
Thank you. I agree that there have been a few puzzling aberrations with the DI rankings throughout the years (and thus large changes must be met with skepticism), but if you average out the DI rankings of schools over ~5+ years you get a list that is not so wonky with the exception of Princeton (considering their unique program I think this is understandable). With that being said while I don't think people should base their decisions heavily on rankings I do think it should be one of the many factors that they consider.
infiniteloop
Mar 20, 18 5:02 am
Hey thanks for the write up, it was really informative! It's been hard for me to get up to date information about certain programs. I wish more people did this. Maybe make a new thread to get the ball rolling? Open houses are coming around soon so I'm sure there will be lots of information to share.
samamms
Mar 23, 18 2:02 pm
Thank you so much for this informative reply! This is really helpful and thoughtful. I'm pretty new to architecture, so it's really hard for me to provide any insights for the comparison of schools. I will attend the open house to gather more information.
Hi,
I received offer for M.Arch1 from USC with $40,000 scholarship a year, and Berkeley without money.
My situation is my husband is currently in LA, but I really love Berkeley, can anyone give me some advice on how to make a choice? Like the comparison of studio, employment after graduation?
Thanks a lot!
Take the cheapest option. No M.Arch is worth 20 years of student debt.
USC Pros:
- With that scholarship USC will be cheaper by ~$10,000 per year over Berkeley
-Save money (and heartbreak) by being able to continue living with your husband
-Famous Trojan Network is legit, it will be very beneficial especially if you stay in Southern California
-Nice, clean, new building
-Graduate program ranked #10 2018 DI
-Department putting money where their mouth is with big pushes toward upgrading the program such as hiring Milton Curry
-Free shuttles throughout LA
-It's in a bad area but USC campus is safe due to advanced tech like facial recognition cameras watching everybody, locked down campus at night, guards everywhere, and free rideshare within the area. (may not be a pro... but I think this is sadly better than what Berkeley is doing)
-Traditionally has a more practical pedagogy.
-You will be given an adviser to custom tailor you curriculum.
-Encouragement to take courses in other majors within the department and even other USC schools.
USC Cons:
- It's in a bad area.
-Nice building but you share it and the fab shops with undergrads and art students.
-Their M.Arch1 is relatively new and is in the process of evolving so there is some uncertainty about what exactly you're getting. It jumped into DI's rankings at #10 this year so that's encouraging but one year is kind of a small sample size (especially when it was unranked for so long). Michigan jumped to #1 in 2010 and now it's not even in their top 10.
Berkeley Pros:
- Grad studios are at the top of the building, quite beautiful up there
- Fab lab is big and is better equipped than the current USC ones
- Has a more theoretical pedagogy
- It is much harder to get into Berkeley M.Arch, last year they got ~1000 apps.
- Ranked higher at #8 in DI's 2018 rankings. Long history being ranked in DI's top ten.
- Well connected with Bay Area companies
- Very walkable
- Some stigma that they don't produce students prepared for the practical aspects of being architects but I think this isn't quite true because in CA their students almost always have the highest pass rate across all 7 exams of the ARE.
- Free day bus/shuttle around Berkeley, free night shuttle at night, free door to door for late night/early morning.
Berkeley Cons:
-More expensive tuition due to your situation
-You also have to pay for housing (which is not cheap.. especially for what you're getting)
- It's in a bad area, at night it is not smart to walk home without using one of the night safety services
- For budget and political reasons you will never see Berkeley with the same safety measures as USC
- At night certain areas of the campus can be unsafe
- Owning a car would be a burden
- Commuting would be painful (traffic and parking is almost always at capacity)
- Alumni pride/network pales in comparison to USC
TL;DR
Non sequitur is correct. It is almost always smarter to pick the cheaper option. USC will be significantly cheaper even before you factor in the savings of living with your husband. Pick USC.
P.S. If you could share your own pros and cons of each program I think it would be beneficial to current and future people that are weighing their choices.
Cheers!
it’d be nice if more of this forum was as thoughtful and helpful as this post. thank you for being a kinder contributor than most (myself definitely included). you alluded to this, but those DI rankings really don’t capture a very full picture of academia in architecture (as I’ve said before, no one actually thinks Wash. U is a better program than Princeton, or Kansas State than MIT in a previous year; the DI methodology is truly wonky and pretty unreliable).
Thank you. I agree that there have been a few puzzling aberrations with the DI rankings throughout the years (and thus large changes must be met with skepticism), but if you average out the DI rankings of schools over ~5+ years you get a list that is not so wonky with the exception of Princeton (considering their unique program I think this is understandable). With that being said while I don't think people should base their decisions heavily on rankings I do think it should be one of the many factors that they consider.
Hey thanks for the write up, it was really informative! It's been hard for me to get up to date information about certain programs. I wish more people did this. Maybe make a new thread to get the ball rolling? Open houses are coming around soon so I'm sure there will be lots of information to share.
Thank you so much for this informative reply! This is really helpful and thoughtful. I'm pretty new to architecture, so it's really hard for me to provide any insights for the comparison of schools. I will attend the open house to gather more information.
Thanks~