<p>Penn State - I visited and toured the Arch Dept last fall. Maybe you've been there, if not I can tell you the new building is fantastic with these huge platform steps for classes and great studio space, very unique. There are dorms and dining very close that lots of arch students use, so everything you need is withing a couple hundred yards, yet you are also on a HUGE, beautiful campus with all that gives you. Kind of a tiny campus inside a giant campus. Plus the town just across the street is cute. Also I attended a crit class and really enjoyed the process. Spoke with two arch profs and about a dozen arch students. Walked half the campus and everyone seemed happy. --Of course this was on a really, really nice October day!</p>
<p>I know next to nothing about your other choices.</p>
<p>My other choices (provided I get accepted) are;
Syracuse U
Rensselaer
Roger Williams
Carnegie Mellon
Wentworth
University of Oregon
Cal Poly SLO</p>
<p>from what i know about syracuse architecture,
one thing is that the architecture is located
in "the warehouse" which is in downtown syracuse.
which could be an annoyance. lol</p>
<p>I toured the warehouse, ok building for studio but the 10 minute bus ride would be a daily grind. Yet the students there all said it was no problem as long as you didn't forget stuff and have to make several trips a day. However I was told Slocum Hall was to be finished this spring. Very nice old building completely gutted and remodeled with big bucks, right in the middle of everything. I haven't called to check about it yet. I figured I would only if I'm accepted. The other negative I felt at Syracuse was they kept talking about how integrated the arch school was with the revitalization of downtown Syracuse yet the class field trip/project was a bus ride to a vacant lot in Boston where they drew the surrounding buildings then rode back to design a new building for the lot. Seemed odd to me.</p>
<p>I think they deal with the revitalization of the downtown area more within the class itself through design problems and through the professors' work. If they needed a class trip to downtown Syracuse as the highlight of their year, that would be rather silly.</p>