Rice vs. Berkeley vs. Washington in St. Louis (Masters of Architecture)

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi, </p>

<p>I am new to this website and this is my first post, so salutations to all.</p>

<p>I recently applied to several Masters of Architecture programs. Rice University, UC Berkeley, and Washington University in St. Louis returned my call. Because they are all good schools, I am now faced with a very difficult choice. What are the pros and cons of each school and its M. Arch program?</p>

<p>I have conducted online research on these schools, but all I know are the hard statistics (admission rates, faculty-student ratio, ranking, etc). I wish to hear about the experiences of people who have attended these schools (or maybe even the architecture programs) to get the information about each university that you can't substitute with a number out of ten. </p>

<p>Some specific questions I have are the following:
1) What are the specialties of each program (i.e. design vs. sustainability, etc; which school focuses more on sustainability)?
2) Does the chosen program focus on the theoretical or the practical (i.e. reinventing architecture vs. teach you the skills needed to get a job)?
3) Are there any particularly gifted/famous professors or opportunities that should steer me in their direction (i.e. project teams, concurrent degrees, study abroad, etc)?
4) Coming from each school, how are the work opportunities post-graduation? Does graduating from one school make finding a job in the immediate area easier (i.e. graduating from Berkeley may help me land a good job in California, but the state is financially broke so do they really need one more architect)?
5) What did you feel was the trend of the school right before graduation; did the quality of education, prestige, funding, number of opportunities offered by the school seem to be improving or deteriorating during your stay?
6) Describe the spirit of the schools. Being so small, Rice has somewhat been tagged as the mother-hen, while Berkeley has been labeled the liberal school. Are these descriptions accurate?
7) Describe the spirit of the programs. They say that Harvard architecture is more old fashioned and competitive than Yale's. What can be said about Rice, Berkeley, and Washington? Is one program more serious, laid-back, open-minded, adventurous, etc than the others?</p>

<p>Thank you so much for your time and response. I know this is a long question, but I think we all know that which school we select is an important decision. </p>

<p>Sincerely,
Mr. Turnip</p>

2

<p>You are unlikely to get such specialized answers to these questions here, I am afraid. There may be some academic architect who’s lurking in the fora waiting to answer these questions, but I doubt it.</p>

<p>However, some of these things are questions you can answer on your own by doing a little research. Certainly #1, #2, and #3 could likely be answered with a thorough look at the departmental websites.</p>