I'm just trying to decide where i want to go, i know it will be florida but i dont know where
OutsideDream86
Mar 16, 07 11:06 am
1. Florida A & M University
2. Florida Atlantic University
3. Florida International University
4. University of Florida
5. University of Miami
6. University of South Florida
Best to go alphabetically. Obviously the letter A is far superior to all other puny letters. Plus it looks like a drafting compass.
colombianarod
Mar 16, 07 11:10 am
but which one(s) is the best?
OutsideDream86
Mar 16, 07 11:25 am
Depends on if you like rattlesnakes or burrowing owls.
Sarcasm aside, what does "best" mean? What are you looking in a school? Bragging rights? Are you going there for your bachelor's or master's or PhD? Do you prefer a school that focuses on computers, crafts and models, or theory? Do you want a school that offers a specialization in historic preservation, digital media, sustainability, or urban design? Do you want a school that offers a lot of courses in professional practice? Do you want a school that offers co-op or internship experiences? Do you want to be in a large program or a small program? Do you want to attend school with very well-known professors/starchitects? Do you want the opportunity to study abroad?
Or you can just go to http://www.di.net/ and base everything on some fairly arbitrary rankings.
Phillip Crosby
Mar 16, 07 11:56 am
i'm a little bit biased... but there's really no competition... and i'd think that you'd be hard pressed to find someone that would say otherwise...
UF is by far the best program in the state...
however, it also depends a bit on what you're looking for...
undergraduate or graduate degree????
UF offers a non-professional 4 year B.Des. + a 2 year professional M.Arch.
USF only offers a professional M. Arch.
Miami offers a professional 5 year B.Arch.
FIU has come a long way in their short history, but I don't really know much about the program. A former co-worker went there and I wasn't impressed with her work.
USF has improved greatly in the last 5-6 years. I've been a guest juror there and most of the work is decent these days. They just moved into a new (old) building and are looking to expand the size of their program, including adding 3 new professors for next year (hopefully I'll be one of them).
I don't know anything at all about FAU or FAMU's programs. I know a few people that started at FAMU and transfered to UF.
If you're into the New Urbanism, than Miami is the place for you. Avoid it at all costs if you want to do contemporary/modern design.
If you have more specific questions, please post. There are quite a few UF grads on archinect including myself, AP and +q. Check out AP's school blog for some insight into UF.
sharkkitten
Mar 16, 07 12:03 pm
Definitely UF
I'm a UF grad, not in architecture, but I can say with assurance that the school there is very strong. Overall the level of intellectual sophistication at UF is surpassed by none in the state with the possible exception of FSU. The engineering school at UF is top notch (the reason why I chose it for my undergrad), which will no doubt be a great resource in pursuing your studies in architecture.
GO GATORS!
Chili Davis
Mar 16, 07 12:18 pm
Not to mention, UF grads say things like "intellectual sophistication."
treekiller
Mar 16, 07 12:31 pm
is there such as thing as "intellectual sophistication" in florida????
(sorry AP!!)
sharkkitten
Mar 16, 07 12:35 pm
treekiller--
It's not all hicks and beach bums. The percentage is smaller, but it's still there. You must weed through the swamps and the sprawl. Best found at or near the universities...Gainesville, Tallahassee, Miami. Stay away from Orlando -- there is none there. I checked.
AP
Mar 16, 07 1:14 pm
I greatly enjoyed UF's undergrad architecture program (4 year B.Design in Architecture).
Having not attended graduate school yet, I can't speak personally to the MArch program. A few of my good friends are there now for grad school and their work is highly sophistimacationalized. that's smarty pants for "it's quality."
check out +q's GSD schoolblog for an example of a UF undergrad student at a different grad school (a common course, due to the strength of the undergrad program). +q and I have other undergrad friends from UF that have gone to grad school pretty much all over, from Columbia to UCLA (and everything geographically in between)...
Quilian Riano
Mar 16, 07 2:11 pm
De un Colombiano a otro:
UF es la mejor universidad para diseño en la Florida. De resto la verdad no se, creo que Miami Dade CC tiene un buen programa (enfocado en diseño digital) que prepara para ir a UF o otras Universidades. Y estoy de acuerdo con todo le que dice AP.
Phillip Crosby
Mar 16, 07 2:57 pm
TK, don't forget that AP is "urbane and sophisticated"...
by the way, the place for sophistication is st. petersburg...
treekiller
Mar 16, 07 3:21 pm
I have the highest regards for AP, just not the state that he resides in... it's a long story not worth retelling.
Phillip Crosby
Mar 16, 07 4:24 pm
i won't hold it against you for not holding the sunshine state in high regards... i've lived here almost my whole life and don't have the warmest feelings for it myself... the only reason that i'm surviving right now is that i live in downtown st. petersburg which i consider to be one of the only (if not the sole) bright spot in the state in terms of urbanism...
one possible sign of hope though, the state legislature is currently considering a bill that will require all state and municipal buildings to reach LEED silver certification starting in January 2008... hopefully it will pass... they're a little late to the party, but better now than never i guess....
Phillip Crosby
Mar 16, 07 4:26 pm
sorry to hijack the thread...
back on topic and slightly related to the above rants...
going to UF for undergrad will give you the best shot at moving on to a "big school" for graduate school... as AP alluded to, most of the best undergrad students move on to the ivies and other top schools for grad school... as a result, UF's grad school is not quite as good as the undergrad program...
Phillip Crosby
Mar 16, 07 4:27 pm
so, if you want to eventually get out of florida for a major metropolitan area, go to UF...
tidalwave1
Mar 16, 07 6:52 pm
unfortunately for a lot of us Orlando is where the jobs are. of course there is no there there. but, lots of condos have gone up (are going up) downtown. i dunno how anyone can afford them but they are there.
brian buchalski
Mar 16, 07 7:37 pm
umm...for some reason i keep thinking florida state has the best architecture
colombianarod
Mar 17, 07 10:43 am
yeah but here's the thing i have an averga gpa of like 3.4 and i dont think they(UF) will take me in, if UF doesn't who are the runner ups?
tidalwave1
Mar 18, 07 12:08 pm
one could definitely say that Jenn Sterger is part of the built environment...
Phillip Crosby
Mar 19, 07 9:54 am
it sounds like you're looking for undergrad... correct me if i'm wrong...
if you don't get into UF then I would consider FIU for undergrad... Miami is a more recognizable name, but I have an issue with their New Urbanist agenda...
for undergrad, you could also consider going to one of the community colleges that feeds into UF... essentially you would do the first 2 years of your education at the community college and then you would go through the pin-up process at UF just like the UF students...
if you don't know about pin-up at UF, here's a quick run down... after the first 2 years (4 studios) every student pins up their best work in a roughly 4x8 area on the wall... then they're kicked out of the building and the professors on the selection committee come around and decide who will get in to "upper division"... then sometime that summer you'll find out if you get to continue in architecture at UF or if you'll be finding a new major/school... in my day the class size was just about cut in half...
archiphreak
Mar 19, 07 1:10 pm
A 3.4 GPA and you're worried about getting into UF? Have I missed something here??
UF has a decent program for architecture. FAMU should be near the bottom of the list. I've sat in on critiques for both in the last several weeks (midterms) and UF, by far, has the most impressive and inventive work. I'm still biased for SCAD, though not as yet in Florida, and I know I'll be flogged for saying so, but hey, you can't beat the level of education at SCAD. You'll pay 10 times as much as UF, but it's worth it from where I'm sitting. The best advice is just to go online and print the curriculum for the ones that you're wanting to attend and compare them. Go with the one that seems to have the most challenging program. You can also contact Alumni via most college websites to ask questions and get feedback. Good luck.
AP
Mar 19, 07 1:36 pm
archiphreak (hey there J) - to get into UF out of high school, students typically need a 4.0 and 1400-ish SAT score. it's gotten incredibly competitive, especially in the last 3 or 4 years.
if someone gets an AA at another florida school (state or community college), the requirements are not as high, hence +q's comments (in spanish above) about going to Miami Dade Community College and pinning up for UF's upper division (mentioned by architphil).
students educated at UF's undergrad are among the best prepared in the country (this is a fact) for admission into the most respected (for lack of a better term) graduate architecture programs. for example, the 2005 MArch 1 advanced placement class at GSD included a total of 15 students. Five of them were from UF undergrad. this is not uncommon.
this is not a comparison to SCAD, which i know very little about.
and, yes, i've seen the UF work, and there seem to be some really talented students there. but i've also had the exact opposite experience where people coming from UF can't even tell me where the floor is drawn in a building section. this, to me, delineates a lack of knowledge on the graduates part. so, to make a short story long, it could go both ways. in any education you get out what you put in, for the most part. there can be a solid curriculum that yields students with almost no knowledge of architecture as well as the next generation of StArchitects. Flip a coin and hope for the best. I'm on my way to being licensed so I could care less about my education. ;-)
Phillip Crosby
Mar 19, 07 3:24 pm
i know that i really shouldn't go here, but oh well...
i don't know a whole lot about SCAD, but i've heard from a couple of sources that "it's a school for rich kids that get a degree simply because they paid for it"... i don't know how much truth there is to this... i've only worked with one SCAD grad and he was pretty good though not great... let's just say that he had a fluid conception of time which was frustrating as i was his project manager... i just took a look at the online gallery and while some was pretty good, some is definitely not my cup of tea... anyways, enough scad bashing... sorry...
by the way... archiphreak, architecture for humanity called and would like to have their catch phrase back...
archiphreak
Mar 19, 07 3:52 pm
hey, i've been using that phrase for so many years i can't even count. (not that i'm bitter about it or anything). and, phil, like i said, most places you get out what you put in. all schools are going to have those that excel and those that do not but still seem to pass. cream rises to the top at the end. and no offense taken to the "scad bashing".
Ciao.
colombianarod
Mar 19, 07 8:59 pm
ok so basically if i have a 3.4 trough out high school i wont get in right? this sucks man
Philarct
Mar 19, 07 9:07 pm
hey guys while ur at it
what are the best schools
for architecture in VA?
im searchin too, gonna
transfer from a community
college
Phillip Crosby
Mar 20, 07 10:17 am
philarct, i don't know too much about schools in VA... the only ones that i am aware of are UVA and VT... i would consider UVA to be more prestigious... but i don't think that VT is too bad of a choice either...
Phillip Crosby
Mar 20, 07 10:21 am
colombianarod... i wouldn't assume that you won't get in... i would still apply... particularly if you have a portfolio of stuff from art classes or something similar to show some level of design talent... and decent SAT scores would help too... the architecture school is a little bit different animal than the university as a whole... but UF has become one of the most prestigious (for lack of better term) public universities... as such, it has become pretty difficult to get in without stellar academic credentials...
Philarct
Mar 20, 07 3:10 pm
cool
thanks architphil
colombianarod
Mar 20, 07 11:25 pm
thanks for your help archtphil
trace™
Mar 21, 07 8:54 am
Yup, UF is extremely competitive. One of the best undergrad programs in the country, though.
I would suggest getting that GPA up. If you go part time, most schools will disregard high school gpas and sats if you have more than, say, 30 credits.
Gainesville is the perfect college town, too.
UF and UCLA - gonna be quite a weekend!!
Steven Ward
Mar 21, 07 8:57 am
i visited tschumi's building at fiu. it was pretty cool. amazingly simple, like a bubble diagram blown up to life-size.
school was out for christmas break, so i only got to see empty studios.
I'm just trying to decide where i want to go, i know it will be florida but i dont know where
1. Florida A & M University
2. Florida Atlantic University
3. Florida International University
4. University of Florida
5. University of Miami
6. University of South Florida
Best to go alphabetically. Obviously the letter A is far superior to all other puny letters. Plus it looks like a drafting compass.
but which one(s) is the best?
Depends on if you like rattlesnakes or burrowing owls.
Sarcasm aside, what does "best" mean? What are you looking in a school? Bragging rights? Are you going there for your bachelor's or master's or PhD? Do you prefer a school that focuses on computers, crafts and models, or theory? Do you want a school that offers a specialization in historic preservation, digital media, sustainability, or urban design? Do you want a school that offers a lot of courses in professional practice? Do you want a school that offers co-op or internship experiences? Do you want to be in a large program or a small program? Do you want to attend school with very well-known professors/starchitects? Do you want the opportunity to study abroad?
Or you can just go to http://www.di.net/ and base everything on some fairly arbitrary rankings.
i'm a little bit biased... but there's really no competition... and i'd think that you'd be hard pressed to find someone that would say otherwise...
UF is by far the best program in the state...
however, it also depends a bit on what you're looking for...
undergraduate or graduate degree????
UF offers a non-professional 4 year B.Des. + a 2 year professional M.Arch.
USF only offers a professional M. Arch.
Miami offers a professional 5 year B.Arch.
FIU has come a long way in their short history, but I don't really know much about the program. A former co-worker went there and I wasn't impressed with her work.
USF has improved greatly in the last 5-6 years. I've been a guest juror there and most of the work is decent these days. They just moved into a new (old) building and are looking to expand the size of their program, including adding 3 new professors for next year (hopefully I'll be one of them).
I don't know anything at all about FAU or FAMU's programs. I know a few people that started at FAMU and transfered to UF.
If you're into the New Urbanism, than Miami is the place for you. Avoid it at all costs if you want to do contemporary/modern design.
If you have more specific questions, please post. There are quite a few UF grads on archinect including myself, AP and +q. Check out AP's school blog for some insight into UF.
Definitely UF
I'm a UF grad, not in architecture, but I can say with assurance that the school there is very strong. Overall the level of intellectual sophistication at UF is surpassed by none in the state with the possible exception of FSU. The engineering school at UF is top notch (the reason why I chose it for my undergrad), which will no doubt be a great resource in pursuing your studies in architecture.
GO GATORS!
Not to mention, UF grads say things like "intellectual sophistication."
is there such as thing as "intellectual sophistication" in florida????
(sorry AP!!)
treekiller--
It's not all hicks and beach bums. The percentage is smaller, but it's still there. You must weed through the swamps and the sprawl. Best found at or near the universities...Gainesville, Tallahassee, Miami. Stay away from Orlando -- there is none there. I checked.
I greatly enjoyed UF's undergrad architecture program (4 year B.Design in Architecture).
Having not attended graduate school yet, I can't speak personally to the MArch program. A few of my good friends are there now for grad school and their work is highly sophistimacationalized. that's smarty pants for "it's quality."
check out +q's GSD schoolblog for an example of a UF undergrad student at a different grad school (a common course, due to the strength of the undergrad program). +q and I have other undergrad friends from UF that have gone to grad school pretty much all over, from Columbia to UCLA (and everything geographically in between)...
De un Colombiano a otro:
UF es la mejor universidad para diseño en la Florida. De resto la verdad no se, creo que Miami Dade CC tiene un buen programa (enfocado en diseño digital) que prepara para ir a UF o otras Universidades. Y estoy de acuerdo con todo le que dice AP.
TK, don't forget that AP is "urbane and sophisticated"...
by the way, the place for sophistication is st. petersburg...
I have the highest regards for AP, just not the state that he resides in... it's a long story not worth retelling.
i won't hold it against you for not holding the sunshine state in high regards... i've lived here almost my whole life and don't have the warmest feelings for it myself... the only reason that i'm surviving right now is that i live in downtown st. petersburg which i consider to be one of the only (if not the sole) bright spot in the state in terms of urbanism...
one possible sign of hope though, the state legislature is currently considering a bill that will require all state and municipal buildings to reach LEED silver certification starting in January 2008... hopefully it will pass... they're a little late to the party, but better now than never i guess....
sorry to hijack the thread...
back on topic and slightly related to the above rants...
going to UF for undergrad will give you the best shot at moving on to a "big school" for graduate school... as AP alluded to, most of the best undergrad students move on to the ivies and other top schools for grad school... as a result, UF's grad school is not quite as good as the undergrad program...
so, if you want to eventually get out of florida for a major metropolitan area, go to UF...
unfortunately for a lot of us Orlando is where the jobs are. of course there is no there there. but, lots of condos have gone up (are going up) downtown. i dunno how anyone can afford them but they are there.
umm...for some reason i keep thinking florida state has the best architecture
yeah but here's the thing i have an averga gpa of like 3.4 and i dont think they(UF) will take me in, if UF doesn't who are the runner ups?
one could definitely say that Jenn Sterger is part of the built environment...
it sounds like you're looking for undergrad... correct me if i'm wrong...
if you don't get into UF then I would consider FIU for undergrad... Miami is a more recognizable name, but I have an issue with their New Urbanist agenda...
for undergrad, you could also consider going to one of the community colleges that feeds into UF... essentially you would do the first 2 years of your education at the community college and then you would go through the pin-up process at UF just like the UF students...
if you don't know about pin-up at UF, here's a quick run down... after the first 2 years (4 studios) every student pins up their best work in a roughly 4x8 area on the wall... then they're kicked out of the building and the professors on the selection committee come around and decide who will get in to "upper division"... then sometime that summer you'll find out if you get to continue in architecture at UF or if you'll be finding a new major/school... in my day the class size was just about cut in half...
A 3.4 GPA and you're worried about getting into UF? Have I missed something here??
UF has a decent program for architecture. FAMU should be near the bottom of the list. I've sat in on critiques for both in the last several weeks (midterms) and UF, by far, has the most impressive and inventive work. I'm still biased for SCAD, though not as yet in Florida, and I know I'll be flogged for saying so, but hey, you can't beat the level of education at SCAD. You'll pay 10 times as much as UF, but it's worth it from where I'm sitting. The best advice is just to go online and print the curriculum for the ones that you're wanting to attend and compare them. Go with the one that seems to have the most challenging program. You can also contact Alumni via most college websites to ask questions and get feedback. Good luck.
archiphreak (hey there J) - to get into UF out of high school, students typically need a 4.0 and 1400-ish SAT score. it's gotten incredibly competitive, especially in the last 3 or 4 years.
if someone gets an AA at another florida school (state or community college), the requirements are not as high, hence +q's comments (in spanish above) about going to Miami Dade Community College and pinning up for UF's upper division (mentioned by architphil).
students educated at UF's undergrad are among the best prepared in the country (this is a fact) for admission into the most respected (for lack of a better term) graduate architecture programs. for example, the 2005 MArch 1 advanced placement class at GSD included a total of 15 students. Five of them were from UF undergrad. this is not uncommon.
this is not a comparison to SCAD, which i know very little about.
-AP
Dizzy (slacker get back to work), go here.
SCAD
hope it works, my first time posting a link here.
and, yes, i've seen the UF work, and there seem to be some really talented students there. but i've also had the exact opposite experience where people coming from UF can't even tell me where the floor is drawn in a building section. this, to me, delineates a lack of knowledge on the graduates part. so, to make a short story long, it could go both ways. in any education you get out what you put in, for the most part. there can be a solid curriculum that yields students with almost no knowledge of architecture as well as the next generation of StArchitects. Flip a coin and hope for the best. I'm on my way to being licensed so I could care less about my education. ;-)
i know that i really shouldn't go here, but oh well...
i don't know a whole lot about SCAD, but i've heard from a couple of sources that "it's a school for rich kids that get a degree simply because they paid for it"... i don't know how much truth there is to this... i've only worked with one SCAD grad and he was pretty good though not great... let's just say that he had a fluid conception of time which was frustrating as i was his project manager... i just took a look at the online gallery and while some was pretty good, some is definitely not my cup of tea... anyways, enough scad bashing... sorry...
by the way... archiphreak, architecture for humanity called and would like to have their catch phrase back...
hey, i've been using that phrase for so many years i can't even count. (not that i'm bitter about it or anything). and, phil, like i said, most places you get out what you put in. all schools are going to have those that excel and those that do not but still seem to pass. cream rises to the top at the end. and no offense taken to the "scad bashing".
Ciao.
ok so basically if i have a 3.4 trough out high school i wont get in right? this sucks man
hey guys while ur at it
what are the best schools
for architecture in VA?
im searchin too, gonna
transfer from a community
college
philarct, i don't know too much about schools in VA... the only ones that i am aware of are UVA and VT... i would consider UVA to be more prestigious... but i don't think that VT is too bad of a choice either...
colombianarod... i wouldn't assume that you won't get in... i would still apply... particularly if you have a portfolio of stuff from art classes or something similar to show some level of design talent... and decent SAT scores would help too... the architecture school is a little bit different animal than the university as a whole... but UF has become one of the most prestigious (for lack of better term) public universities... as such, it has become pretty difficult to get in without stellar academic credentials...
cool
thanks architphil
thanks for your help archtphil
Yup, UF is extremely competitive. One of the best undergrad programs in the country, though.
I would suggest getting that GPA up. If you go part time, most schools will disregard high school gpas and sats if you have more than, say, 30 credits.
Gainesville is the perfect college town, too.
UF and UCLA - gonna be quite a weekend!!
i visited tschumi's building at fiu. it was pretty cool. amazingly simple, like a bubble diagram blown up to life-size.
school was out for christmas break, so i only got to see empty studios.
What about UCF? Do they have a good program?
Hands down it's Miami Dade Community College.