<p>I have the impression that the grading in studio is very arbitrary and subjective. It seems to be impacted more by how well your professor likes you rather than the effort you put forth. Is this true?</p>
<p>I don’t know since my grad school was pass/fail. Ultimately it doesn’t really matter - when you go to job interviews they will be looking at your portfolios and deciding for themselves whether they like your work or not.</p>
<p>I think some professors try very hard to be objective, but it is difficult in any design class. I agree w/ Mathmom that ultimately it does not matter, but it could be very important in the short term if any merit scholarship money is tied to a minimum gpa requirement. I’m not sure about grad school acceptances. I know portfolio is important, but does anyone have experience about the importance of gpa for choices in archi. grad. programs? The other time it can be important, is if the student ultimately changes their mind, and decides to switch majors. Then the gpa can make a significant difference in their new program. So, I’m hesitant to say it doesn’t matter, except after graduation.</p>
<p>studio grades are important if you want to go to grad school and they are pretty good indicators of how well you’re doing, despite architecture’s subjective nature. There are several key factors that gives a good depiction of what level the student at. usually studio grading is based on design process, all the reviews throughout the semester, work ethic, work product, and work quality.</p>
<p>So, what grade(s) in studio design classes would people consider to be good/worthy of grad school competitiveness? Only A’s, B+'s, B’s? Would the upper level design grades be emphasized more? From talking to a few young adults who have recently earned arch degrees, the subjectivity of grading was frustrating at times.</p>
<p>I agree, but unfortunately, design is subjective, so you’ll have to live with it.</p>
<p>Also, some people are just born designers and those geniuses can produce something in an hour that you will never be able to come up with in your life time. This is a hard lesson I had to learn.</p>
<p>I find that in order to bump up your grade as a hard working but modestly talented designer, everything counts… the way you speak, the way you dress, the way you kiss up to your instructors, the way you carry yourself, and the way you treat your peers.</p>
<p>The studios at University of Oregon are pass/fail. We benefit in the long term from the hard work we put into our projects, not stressing out over a short term studio grade (studio is stressful as it is!) Also, the studio environment allows collaboration on some ideas making it less competitive than a lot of programs. Studio culture here is really fun, and many of the professors, some from schools like Cornell, prefer it because their isn’t extra stress and competition…</p>
<p>i think in an architecture education, your work shouldn’t be dictated too much by the fear of what you’ll get in studio. One should learn as much from his/her professor, critics and the studio brief and be willingly be able to accept criticism and learn from it (otherwise why go to school), but another REALLY valuable lesson in an architectural education is the willingness to experiment, to FAIL, and to do things that you would be afraid of doing. If you’re too concerned about getting a good grade, it might limit your experimental and entrepreneurial mindset which is so critical to finding new ideas. </p>
<p>the best students that i know in my school care far more about the quality of their idea and work above listening to every demand that their professors give. if the work is good and the idea is well developed, then oftentimes a good grade and a good review will follow. And for graduate schools, it’s not so much the grade that you get in building tech or structures that matters, but the work that you put in your portfolio that really matters.</p>
<p>there is a common saying that those who get perfect grades in everything in architecture school is probably doing something wrong…</p>
<p>have fun in school! experiment, test new ideas, be challenged, and discover. that’s what school’s all about</p>
<p>great advice sashimi, thanks for sharing your perspective. I think you summed up some of the best lessons that these young design kids of today (or any undergrad really) can learn. Many of them (my son included) go through high school so concerned with having a perfect GPA, a perfect SAT, a perfect school rank, etc., that they have a hard time being criticized or failing at something. I am definitely going to show my s your post and hope he takes your comments to heart. Thanks again!</p>
<p>scholarship money and housing are at risk if my gpa drops below a 3.5… makes it difficult to be so “experimental and entrepreneurial”.</p>