Hi everyone. Recently I’ve received offers from both sci-arc and USC (I’m still waiting for Cooper Union). I’ve always wanted to study architecture (not only because both of my parents are architects but because I’ve been in this environment since i was a child, and despite my initial negative attitude towards architecture as a profession I’ve grown to like it over the past few years.) USC was kind of like my dream school, it has the whole college experience package, whereas sci-arc provides the ‘hands-on’ rigorous curriculum that im extremely interested in but its campus is …relatively less appealing (from what I’ve seen on its website. And i heard that its not as ‘social’ as universities). I’m torn between these two, but I’m still looking forward to an acceptance letter from Cooper Union (which would make it an even harder choice…)
Another thing is that despite my passion towards architecture, i still hope to take classes in subjects other than architecture , which is something that schools like Cooper Union and Sci-arc might not be able to provide.
So could someone please help me with my decision by listing the pros and cons of some of these schools? If possible it would be great to hear from alumni or current students! Thankssss 
Don’t waste your time. Go elsewhere, the school is heading towards disaster. Charging for more than 19.5 credits is coming next year.
which one?
Please ignore einsteinbaby. Cooper recently released the news that they were considering charging students for taking additional credits, which would specifically target the engineers who take on an extra heavy course load. They have since reversed that policy decision, but many of the engineers are quite angry and are taking to social media to vent. Yes the school is in a very strange situation, but it’s not as bad as some make it out to be.
@zipzoop are you a current student too?
Yeah, but I’m in architecture, not engineering.
@zipzoop wow really? i have so many things to askkkkk!!! I applied to arch but I haven’t received my decision yet. Whats it like in cooper union??
Very intense. High workload, small class sizes, and professors who expect a lot from you. Cooper has a very unique architecture pedagogy, and the work produced here has a very strong conceptual focus. Living in NYC is both fantastic and terrible at the same time. You get to experience city life in one of the most metropolitan areas in the world, but also know that you’re going to have to ignore it and put your work first. We’re a very tight knit school, and you quickly become friends with students from all classes, although contact with the engineers slowly starts to decrease after 2nd year.
@zipzoop being an arch student (unrelated to prev. discussion) is there any way to make living in nyc more affordable? Like do people take on several roommates/buy food from certain places/park time work/etc.
You can certainly budget your finances in NYC. Most people in my class cook all their meals at home, and are very frugal with going out. I know that some art and engineering students have part time jobs, but that is very difficult in architecture. Some people in my class found apartments that are further away from school, but cheaper than the dorms, and that helps them save money.
@zipzoop So I’ve been accepted at Cooper Union for architecture and as much as I love how rigorous the program sounds, I’m very dubious from what I’ve seen of the students online presence (i.e. “Free Cooper Union” Facebook account, student protests and the like). Has this financial crisis at Cooper Union effected you or last years’ students from what you’ve seen? From what I’ve gathered the engineering students are very upset, but I haven’t seen much of the art or architecture students–in fact it doesn’t seem like the art or architecture student really talk about their programs on CC like the engineering students do.
i will apply for B.arch at sci-arc this year.
@peggyc could you please send a link of your portfolio work u submitted. as it would be a great help for me as i will get to know that what kind of work a portfolio should contain and what the school wants.
@waitingforschool Short answer is that it has affected the school as whole to some degree, as new policies are being implemented and we may be looking at a new president and administration. However, it hasn’t really affected the architecture school all that much. We still have the same professors as the year before us, and none of the faculty, studio focuses, or policies have changed at all in the last few years. We aren’t happy about the tuition changes or the direction some of the administration want to take the school in, but I don’t think the financial situation is going to affect the quality of education in the architecture school.