<p>I'm glad to see you're so interested in architecture and New Urbanism in particular. You certainly have a bright future ahead of you. If you are accepted at the architecture programs for the schools you listed, then you should be very proud of yourself. To even apply to those schools and be competitive as an applicant is vindication in itself. In all likelihood I'm probably going down the planning track and not the architecture path, for a few reasons. First, I can't draw to save my life, I'm terrible at calculus, and nearly half of the architects I talk to tell me not to enter their fields (imagine that!) But really, I'm very excited about going to the UW planning program. It's one of the top programs at a public university (can't afford private) and it's a lot less intense than the programs you are shooting for. You're probably in a different academic league entirely, so I'm sure you will thrive at the schools you are aiming for. I have a 3.5 GPA and a 1400 SAT, so not exactly top stats (a few extracurriculars, but nothing noteworthy - I am no child prodigy unlike everyone else who seems to prowl around CC).</p>
<p>It's very cool to hear about your interest in New Urbanism...Many developers and architects themselves are unaware of the movement, let alone high school students! I'd like to hear more about this project of yours. I myself am writing an EIS for a New Urbanist development in Redmond, WA for my senior project.</p>
<p>Oh by the way I read "Suburban Nation" last year, and I totally agree with you. Awesome book, especially the section on modern-day "housing segregation by income." I don't know how far you are, but you'll like that seciton.</p>
<p>If you need more reading material, I have a bunch of books checked out from the lib:</p>
<p>-"Toward the Livable City" Emilie Buchwald
-"Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities" Timothy Beatley
-"City: Urbanism and its End" Douglas W. Rae
-"Sprawl Kills" Joel S. Hirschhorn
-"The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community" Peter Katz
-"Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination" Lance Berelowitz
-"Community by Design" Kenneth B. Hall</p>
<p>And then of course there's the bible of the New Urbanisit movement, Jane Jacobs' "the Death and Life of Great American Cities". But I'm sure you've already read that.</p>
<p>I'll be attending U. Nebraska next year, with my major in economics. If I was to dual major in econ and architecture, would it be cut throat, or would I be able to manage it despite the differences among the two?</p>
<p>I'm new here even though I have been reading this thread for a couple of times throughout last yr & this yr.. I'm a senior at high school, and I'm applying to undergrad arch schools, among them are: cooper union, rice, cornell, usc, and cal poly slo & pomona. </p>
<p>If anyone had applied / is applying to cooper u, can you share about the home-test? I have no idea what it's gonna look like/what they expect from you. </p>
<p>Also, Cornell requires an interview; Does anyone know what kind of questions they ask, and are there suggestions to prepare for it? </p>
<p>i have no idea about cooper's hometest; everyone on the web seems to be keeping nay info as a secret. for cornell, do you think you live in an area where there'll be a rep that will interview you? If not, you have the option to do the essays in place of the interview, and you really don't need to prepare for that. If you need to go to the interview, I can give you the essay topics I received, but I doubt that it's going to help a lot as it should be more personal and relevant to your application (i THINK).</p>
<p>but unfortunately, i believe DI is becoming unreliable. They actually changed it to "most innovative" (based on whatever? U cin has an innovative co-op program but it's been around since when?) instead of "best" (based on reputation in empoyers, i believe), so watch out!! 2005 "best" rankings are still available at kansas state U's website.</p>
<p>The interviewer would probably be an alumnus from cornell since I live in LA. I already called Cornell's arch department and they said the interviewer would call me to set a schedule...</p>
<p>Your essay questions to cornell would be really helpful, if you don't mind =D where do you go to college now?? </p>
<p>I'm so dissapointed at the new arch rankings...but i believe that they are not that accurate either.. oh well. how come they don't have rankings for undergrad arch? (there was only 'innovative arch program' or something like that).</p>
<p>ok, what i have at hand right now are the five general categories; they are: your interest in architecture and how it developed, creative experience, background, other things that interest you and ambitions (goals). They have some like sub-questions to help you write essays on each of the five topics; they are not really coherent (and i think these might be customed-made for you), but the main reason why i am not putting them here is because i have to look for them, sorry! if you want them I'll look for them. </p>
<p>I am not in college yet, and i do hope that changes soon. </p>
<p>yeah, the rankings are soosososososo disappointing; anyway, here are the most recent (2005) rankings on BEST and not MOST INNOVATIVE (whatever they mean by that; u cin's exceptional co-op program started in 1906 or something)</p>
<p>Bachelor of Architecture</p>
<ol>
<li>Cornell University</li>
<li>University of Cincinnati</li>
<li>Rice University</li>
<li>California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo</li>
<li>Syracuse University</li>
<li>Kansas State University</li>
<li>Rhode Island School of Design</li>
<li>University of Texas at Austin</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon University
<ol>
<li>Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University</li>
<li>University of Oregon</li>
<li>Iowa State University</li>
<li>Illinois Institute of Technology (tie)
Pennsylvania State University (tie)
University of Minnesota (tie)</li>
</ol></li>
</ol>
<p>you may be wondering why there aren't top schools like HYPMS; that's because they are in the top ten list for GRADUATE school and not undergraduate. I think it'll be nice to get an undergrad at one of the above and then a grad (post-professional for all but u cincinnati and CMU) at HYPMS. </p>
<p>I am supposing that harvard, columbia, and MIT weren't pleased that they looked so bad (not even in top 15) that they urged DI to change the rankings to most innovative so at least they'll finally be seen in the top ten list. Hopefully everyone reads carefully and becomes aware of that. In fact, you can see that it's almost based on last years "best" rankings and then they just stuffed in the extra schools. Did they even conduct research on this new 2006 undergrad arch rankings??? that's for you to decide!</p>
<p>I saw this ranking before, and many people have said that rankings for architecture schools aren't that accurate & important; but still, it add some prestige to those schools, don't you think? (maybe I'll think of it differently once I study in arch school). </p>
<p>Many architects say that it doesn't really matter where you go to school... it's the portfolio that matters... is this really true? I personally think that better schools have more challenging faculty, students, and program, but of course these don't guarantee you to be a successful architect... but they might give better opportunities/prepare you better.</p>
<p>Why does it matter to go to a school in an area where you want to work at? </p>
<p>it does sort of matter where you went to school because there are three different kinds of programs. Also, even within good schools like HYPMS, though they all offer the same non-professional kind, they each have their own reputation, with Yale being at the top i think. I think, or like to think that good employers don't judge the student by overall prestige of the school, but by the prestige of the architecture program. Of course, a portfolio would demonstrate your talents and abilities most clearly, so they'll look at that; still if you need to be licensed there's no way to get around that with a good portfolo (sad thing tho). The DI rankings used to be the best (well, compared to the other two i saw) because it separated undergrad and grad, and although some say that it only ranks 5 year b.arch and therefore good schools lkike HYPMS are not ranked, that is NOT true because U cin does not offer a 5 year b.arch. (That puts HYPMS away from top 15) Some say that the rankings fluctuate, but i guess those that constantly stay in the list has to have some reputation. </p>
<p>i don't know why you have to study somewhere you have to work....I have this question too. I heard that an architect is registered by state~~ but what keeps an architect from registering at many states and being allowed to work in those states?</p>
<p>arabesque,
looks like most of your questions have been answered by the capable bneg! but i can take the one nobody will touch - the state thing...
although not everyone tries to go to school in the state they want to live in, it can be helpful because each state has its little quirks and special requirements, so the school might focus on those in the preparation.
but the biggest reason has to do with the reasons behind wanting to become an architect.
*there's the artist path, mostly designing gorgeous multi-million dollar homes and becoming locally famous --- this type of people tend to choose their school based on the style it focuses on, and is best at... for example, notre dame has an awesome hard-core classical style and you learn a rich history of design, thus buildings you create later will have a flair from a specific period of time from romanesque to victorian... and then there's USC which is a program almost completely based on the modern, californian style and you might go on to design in the rich neighborhoods of suburban LA. (a lot of schools fall in between and strike a balance between styles)
*there's the huge structures career (ever seen megastructures on discovery channel?) - designers who enjoy working in groups go from say, high rise to high rise in a city, ski resort to ski resort in the mountains, or other special big-project, big-budget buildings like new schools, government buildings, places of worship, etc --- companies like these LOVE recruiting kids out of college first as interns and then once they're certified they can keep moving up in the ranks, and thats why those people end up in the places they go to school
*and last theres the "humanitarian architects"... community planning and design to better the environment and quality of life for people living there (see aforementioned new urbanism comments) the sign of a good architecture program is the hands-on aspect to learn by doing, and you end up working closely and/or volunteering in the nearest city... people sometimes develop attachments to the projects they worked on in college and want to keep working on those same ones until they are finished.</p>
<p>now of course all this is good and well, but like I said - not everyone would live in the city they go to college in. personally I would get much too bored after 5 or 6 years of the same place!
and for example, my aunt grew up in the northeast, studied at u. colorado at boulder, got recruited into the ski business and did a lot of resort designing in steamboat springs, colorado, then some more in northern california, then went back to the northeast for some high rise projects, went off on her own in boston and did tons of independent projects including some houses in the carribean she had to fly back and forth for, and now she's into "green" architecture, environmentally-friendly projects in the boston area. she got all her bases covered...</p>
<p>in any case, to anyone who's reading this - high school seniors are already under enough pressure trying to predict what they want to do with the next 4 or 5 years of their life, especially since you change most psychologically from 18-25 so dont even bother trying to figure in where you'll want to live! who knows - maybe if you always knew you wanted to live in chicago, you'd suddenly have a life-changing urge to go live in guadelajara!</p>
<p>good luck arabesque, sounds like you have a tough list!! but maybe if we both win the crapshoot I'll send up seeing you around at rice or 'slo...</p>
<p>oh good, if it's just little quirks and requirements then I don't think we'll have to worry too much about predicting where we would find employment as a senior~ </p>
<p>Jcro, you aunt is interested in green architecture!!!! That is exactly what I want to do...do you have any cool info that you might share?? Also, what's the difference between new urbanism and green architecture (green architecture deals with some community planning as well), so as one who know about both what would you say about their differences? Thanks!</p>
<p>crazyschtick!!! have you tried applying to UBC's B.end program yet?? Are you still considering it? I just found out that THEY ARE NOT OFFERING IT FOR THE 2006~2007 SCHOOL YEAR! I don't know why and i think it's totally weird...</p>
<p>beng, (and everyone else who I encourage to check this out..!)
as far as i understand it, they share many of the same goals... new urbanism is more about the buildings in relationship to each other while green focuses on each building meeting specific requirements, which most commonly is LEED certification in the US. ummm im still doing a lot of research on both so I dont want to make some comment I'll regret later in case its a bit off or something but do check out these two websites:</p>
<p>Thanks for the sites!!! However, i think the green arch site is so focused on legal formal stuff that it misses out a lot of the inspiration. for anyone who's interested with green arch you can check out The Green Skyscraper by Ken Yeang, which is the best book I could find in two local libraries in architecture (but then again, they cannot compare to crazyschtik's library!)</p>
<p>new Urbanism is quite interesting!!! too bad i don't think i'l fnd anything from the libraries here~~</p>
<p>Are you serious? How can they simply suspend the program? I spoke with the Dean in May of 2005 and told her I was a prospective applicant. She would have mentioned something if the program were not going to be around much longer, wouldn't she? But you're right about one thing. Even if the school still has an Environmental Design program, it's structure keeps changing. First it was housed in an independent School of Architecture, then in the School of Land and Food Systems (ag. sci.) and then in the Applied Sciences School (engineering). all these changes have taken place within about the past year. I applied to both the Faculty of Applied Sciences and the Faculty of Land and Food Systems on my application just to be safe. What was your source of information??? That would really suck if they eliminated the program.</p>
<p>Crap! The website for Environmental Design school is offline! Perhaps you're right - they can't be offering the program if there's no way for students to read about it. This is very bad...</p>
<p>If you go to this website, it says that the B.Ends. program is now offered from an independent School of Architecture, which as of July 2005 is housed in the Faculty of Applied Sciences. </p>
<p>"The School of Architecture is currently undergoing a name change as the administration of the Landscape Architecture program is moved from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences (newly named the "Faculty of Land and Food Systems) to the Faculty of Applied Science effective July 2005. The new name is the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and will now offer an undergraduate Bachelor of Environmental Design (ENDS) and graduate professional programs of study leading to a Master of Architecture (MArch), a Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) and post-professional graduate programs leading to a Master of Advanced Studies in Architecture (MASA) and a Master of Advanced Studies in Landscape Architecture (MASLA).</p>
<p>The school is related administratively to the Faculty of Applied Science but functions relatively autonomously in academic matters. "</p>
<p>Bneg, you really gave me a scare. As far as I can tell the program still exists, thank God.</p>
<p>didn't mean to scare you, sorry....i still cannot find the program on the application (where you have to select), but i guess we'll just put applied sciences then.</p>