My daughter has been accepted at both programs / both are comparable - how to break the tie
- Cost
- Does your daughter have any geographic preference as to where she will practice after graduation? In general, local firms often have ties with their local arch school to hire from - but this is by no means universal.
- What options would she have if she chooses to switch majors?
- School environment - school spirit - culture - etc.
- Did I mention cost?
- Can she find out where the graduates go after graduation? Grad school, arch employment, etc.
Thank you!we have been working on all those
The difference we have come aross is that cal poly is ranked higher then UT and from what I understand cal poly does more hands on then UT - environment friendly arch will be big when she graduates in 5 years and cal - poly does that very well. Cost is not the biggest issue but of course it is an imp point too.
Thanks again
@abi2015, congratulations to your daughter on two good choices! My thoughts pretty much align with @QuietType’s
Money is always an issue for architects, especially since many summer internships are unpaid or poorly paid and entry level salaries are low relative to the cost of education.
is this for the BArch? It’s a rigorous and demanding program and it’s good to have a Plan B just in case she changes her mind about architecture.
Internship opportunities and visiting professors are often tied to local firms, so she should think about where she would be most likely to end up after graduation. This isn’t to say that UT and CalPoly graduates can’t work anywhere in the world – they can and they do – but a local base for networking and recommendations is always helpful.
I wouldn’t worry too much about ranking. Both are highly regarded with high name recognition. Same with focus on sustainability. This is widely taught at all architecture programs these days.
To me, the biggest difference is the overall college experience. CalPoly is basically a tech and science school – one of the best, but narrower in scope. UT offers a “full service” college environment with 50K students and a wide range of majors, sports, arts, etc. One isn’t better than another, but they are quite different.
Congrats as well, Cal Poly has a rather low acceptance rate and getting into UT OOS is not the easiest either.
Now for the hard part. Cal Poly is a technical school, as indicated above, and you can see that from the curriculum. Yet they still have time to squeeze in 4 history and theory classes. Our friends at UT Austin, not to be underdone, did pretty much the same thing. The two curriculums are fairly similar, down to the physics and math classes and litany of structures / construction courses.
If you have time go thru the two requirement sheets and see for yourself. http://content-calpoly-edu.s3.amazonaws.com/architecture/1/documents/Flowcharts/BARCH%20BOTH%20Flowchart%20and%20Curriculum%20sheet%2015-17%207-15-15.pdf vs http://catalog.utexas.edu/undergraduate/architecture/degrees-and-programs/bachelor-of-architecture/suggested-arrangement-of-courses/
My only practical suggestion here is to think hard about trimester based architecture education. Cal Poly seems to have 5 courses in a trimester/quarter/whatever while UT Austin has them in semester-length segments. The implication here is that at UT you may be able to take one or two courses in the summer and have 4 courses per semester to great advantage (not cost effective of course). For SLO, this may be possible to do in the ‘dead’ trimester if they have one (if it’s quarter based).
Both programs are very intense and seem to be fairly well matched, so it’s down to intangibles, like where to work afterwards, distance from home, money, and the like. Also things like alumni networks and the such. All in all, a great achievement regardless of which way you choose.
Thank you Quiet, momrath and turbo93 - it is very helpful, appreciate taking time to write back.