razor165

So i got my decisions a few days ago and now I have a pretty big decision. On one hand I have USC, with a trustee scholarship (full tuition) and on the other Princeton (with financial aid about the same as the trustee). USC has a strong arch program, while Princeton's is pretty unknown and I can only elect to move into it after my sophmore year.

Also, I live in Australia and have only visited USC and have never been to Princeton so I dont really know what its like. So I was wondering what do you guys think? Any advice would be great!

thanks

noopsgnitaenam

So once again, this is a decision that partly comes to the difference between a 4 and 5 year program. But putting that aside, I personally don't know much about USC, but it is a good school. Princeton's undergrad is pretty unknown, but Princeton is kind of neat in, at least in my impression, that you have a lot of freedom in what you study. Meaning if you're really interested in one area you could possible research into that area at an earlier time than a 5th year thesis. Also, Princeton is neat, because they do require to take classes from a lot of different areas of architecture, but with a bunch of different class choices. I've been told that Princeton is more of a school that you go to if you're interested in teaching, since their ideas are far from concrete and tangible. Not sure if that is true completely, but I do get that feeling from looking at some of the projects on their site. Princeton has a nice campus and atmosphere, but then again it is pretty conservative, so it has to be your thing.

Fallinwater0328

Are you kidding me? Princeton is currently ranked as No.1 for undergrad in the U.S.! Tell me that is unknown!
USC Architecture, on the other hand, is a good (semi-elite at its best) architecture school. Let me tell you something, a smart fella such as you will regret for your decision of not attending Princeton. There's one guy named Daniel on architect who has already feel sorry for himself for not studying literature at Harvard or Yale despite the fact that he has a 3.96 GPA at USC. Curriculum at USC is well-structured and it leads to a professional degree. Whereas the undergrad at Princeton is a typical liberal arts education with stellar professors and equally brilliant students. Again, if you are not sure you can handle the presssure of learning from the finest, please choose USC then. Otherwise, Princeton is better than USC in all aspects except its snowny winter.
Again, congratulations on getting into Princeton! It is an impressive achievement!

noopsgnitaenam

Tell me where Princeton is ranked number 1 for undergrad. The last ranking I've seen on Princeton is that the graduate school is ranked at 13 tied with a bunch of other schools. I've never seen rankings of non B.Arch programs, and I'd actually be very interested in seeing them if there are some in existance.

RyanMac

He's talking about undergraduate education in all fields in the USNWR.

I'd have to agree - Princeton's undergrad education is pretty world class, and there is always grad school for architecture.

noopsgnitaenam

Oh opps, my bad on interpreting on what fallinwater said. I figured since razor165 was saying that Princeton's undergrad architecture is unknown that that was what the response was to.

Fallinwater0328

RyanMac, I am a she, not a he!
My belief is that there's no need to rush to a 5-yr program unless your goal is to become a practitioner. Because an Ivy undergrad education is so much better than the one at a huge national university, say, USC.
I think razor165 doesn't understand the importance of prestige in the U.S. A diploma from Princeton will open more doors than the one from USC.It's brutal, but it is reality.
Personally, I know a Fulbright Scholar who got her BA in Architecture and Chinese from Princeton and then she went to Harvard GSD for an advanced degree. So, my point is, keep your options open and you will explore who you are and what you love in college.

noopsgnitaenam

I totally have to agree with that. That's why I'm most likely going to go to MIT, then off.. well.. I'll see when I get there. I think if money is going to be a huge issue in college, the 5 year program would be a better route. But those that I know that went in a route that didn't go through a B.Arch, say that it made them so much more knowledgeable in the end and they wouldn't have known what they would have done without their education outside of architecture.

sashimi46

be careful about prestige. just because you go to an ivy league doesn't mean that harvard will give you higher chances than anyone else. you still have to work super hard to create a portfolio good enough for GSD. a good college will give you the resources only if you take advantage of them. employers like cornellians or other ivy league students because they in general tend to work very hard and are talented but there are also plenty of talented students from public schools. one student that i know who transferred from usc to my school is one of the smartest and hardest working students that i know in my school.

Fallinwater0328

Sashimi, you just proved my point. That very talented and hardworking friend of yours is indeed taking advantages of Cornell. Two weeks ago, there were some architecture students who submitted their transfer applications to Cornell, Notre Dame and Rice, because they don't like what the have learned at USC. Kids from public schools tend not to have the access to the best and the brightest,which also hinders heir development. For architecture, exposure and crystalization of information are two important factors to determine whether a person can be lived to his best.
Trust me, Harvard gives you higher chances than anyone else(or almost anyone else) in many ways. However the lady who went to both Princeton and Harvard told me that if you could not make sure you belong to the top half of your class, you'd better go to somewhere else. I hope the OP will take her advice into consideration.

sunsetsam

You wont get paid more depending of what school you go to, especially for undergrad in arch. What the difference is between those two schools is the amount of "connections" you will get. USC, you will have very strong connection in the SO-CAL area, due to a large number of alumni. Princeton, your connections will be wide spread due to the fact that, that school is more worldly renowned, so it attracts a large number of people from different areas, USC does too, but not as much as Princeton.

I am not sure about Princeton's program for architecture, but I am quite sure that many Ivy leagues allow you to chose your own curriculum, so you have more freedom in that area.

Career wise, no one cares what school you went at after a couple of projects you handled, architecture is a career that really rests on your experience, and almost nothing else.

Fallinwater0328

Academically speaking, USC is not at the same caliber as Princeton. To add a few bonuses for attending Princeton, the job offers and academic resources rival that of Harvard.
I might be biased here, social darwinism teaches us to get rid of competitions and be ahead of everybody else. Princeton is a place which fits that notion perfectly whereas USC is not.
Plus, I am a student at USC, my first hand experience is that my classmates have a wide range of intellectual capacities, ranging from the future Rhodes Scholar candidate to the intellectually impaired. I think this situation will least likely to happen at Princeton.

Tzar

I think you should go to Princeton, but don't underestimate USC-- Gehry and Mayne both went there--- Princeton isn't going to be as design intensive but everything is what you make of it.

sashimi46

the experience you'll get attending either usc or princeton will be very different, largely because usc will be much more studio intensive and princeton will give you a much more well rounded education.

rick12

I won't disagree with much of what has been posted already, but I would just ask; how professionally focused are you? If you want to get out of undergrad and begin working in the field with the option of heading off to graduate school in a few years, then USC is the way to go. Princeton's program is really a general education degree with an emphasis on architecture, and will require three years for a masters degree. You may be able to work in an office, but you will be limited by just two years of studio.

However there is more to a Princeton degree than just professional advancement. It is one of the great universities in the world, and it is hard to underestimate what four years at Princeton could provide you with. My daughter wants to be an architect, got accepted to the arch schools she wanted, but when Stanford accepted her she decided she could put off architecture school. She is studying product design, and seeing the opportunities she is being given I think she made the right choice.

It would be hard to say no to Princeton.

rick