<p>Help! I'm so torn right now between Cooper Union Architecture and Rice Architecture.
I was leaning towards going to Rice for architecture until I got my acceptance today from Cooper Union- Cooper union has been my dream school for years! But I started to really like the campus at Rice and how it is small, but diverse and there seems to be a really strong vibe of everyone working together and I would be able to get the college experience. I am afraid at Cooper Union I would be missing out on the college experience and I have heard it is cutthroat competitive? Does anyone have knowledge on each of the programs and can help me out here? I know Rice has an amazing preceptorship program that partners with the top firms to give you a year-long internship with one of them, but Cooper Union is in New York City which I feel like would provide great internship experiences already. </p>
<p>I am very familiar with Rice, and knew of Cooper from my time spent living in NY, though I have little recent knowledge. You know about Rice; college system, small class, supportive environment, great preceptorship program, and a lovely campus. Cooper seemed to me like a very intense experience located in the Village, the densest most active part of Manhattan. Columbia always seemed like the burbs compared to Cooper. So if you want to full-on immersive urban experience then Cooper would be a great place. At 18 I was not ready for that, but it may be perfect for you.</p>
<p>rick</p>
<p>@rick12 I was born in Brooklyn and I am very comfortable with the city so the urban environment is not an issue but I don’t really have a preference per say about Houston vs Rice in general but I am more concerned with the education and the architecture program and the reputation in terms of getting a job, etc. </p>
<p>All I can say is that there are Rice graduates in partnership positions in almost every firm that I have been associated with; KPF, Renzo Piano, HKS, Corgan, Etc. Most of the graduates end up getting permanent job offers from the firms in which they serve their apprenticeship. So from an employment point of view the school has been very successful. I haven’t run across many Cooper graduates. When I was at KPF in NY we had more Rice graduates than Cooper graduates.</p>
<p>rick</p>
<p>@rick12 Okay thanks! I’m leaning towards Rice because the preceptorship sounds great </p>