How to pay for arch grad school?

<p>Hello everyone,</p>

<p>If anyone could shed some light on this question, I'm sure many would be curious to know:</p>

<p>"Assuming one gets into a top Arch grad program (M.Arch I), how do you make ends meet?"</p>

<p>Are there scholarships, like in undergrad? Are they as common? Grants? Fellowships? Or do most people, from their experience, have to scrape by and end up with 100,000+ $ debt? And then what do you do, pay it off for the next 20 years?</p>

<p>Loans only go up to 20,000/year, so I imagine there must be some other forms of financial aid commonly offered. Can anyone confirm this, please?</p>

<p>Thanks,
-f</p>

<p>Very difficult question to answer because the money situation is fluid right now. Even at the top schools funds that were there two, three years ago have diminished.</p>

<p>A lot depends on how much they want you. Graduate schooladmissions, like undergrad, is in part driven by diversity, not just talent, but even moreso because the field is wider. The programs want a diverse class – by gender, by ethnicity, by geographic background, by undergraduate school and major, by economic status, by life/work experience, even by age. If you fulfill more than one of those criteria, you have more leverage on aid.</p>

<p>My son’s experierience was that grants provided between 1/4 to 1/3 of expenses. There are teaching fellowships, but these are few and very competitive.</p>

<p>Graduating with a mountain of debt is not ideal, especially in architecture where starting salaries are low (as compared to medicine or law where you can pay off large debts relatively quickly). The big dept, however, is pretty much a fact of life in architecture, and luckily architects as a group age well. :)</p>

<p>An option to look at seriously are co-op schools like Northeastern and Cincinnati which allow you to earn as you learn.</p>

<p>Hi momrath,</p>

<p>thanks for the suggestions. I appreciate them. If I may ask, where did your son apply? I’ve read about Northeastern and it looks interesting to me, as well as Boston Architectural College, which also offers the earn while you learn practical requirement. Only there they employ you full time.</p>

<p>Given how difficult it is to find jobs right now, though, does anyone know if these co-op programs are even feasible, aka students are still being hired?</p>

<p>For example, I heard that the BAC offers “volunteer work” as an option if paid work cannot be obtained. </p>

<p>~fangulina</p>

<p>My son applied to 8 or 9 programs of varying selectivity. He’s just finished his second year at Cornell. </p>

<p>Actually, I think the summer and parttime job market for architecture students is opening up. Last summer none of my son’s classmates could find jobs, even unpaid. This year they all have paid internships – all over the world.</p>