To those that are following my mission here, sorry about my absence. It was prom weekend, which was a blast, and I decided to take a break from list slashing.
Standby, I should have another elimination later this evening.
flalaw-
Since you asked, a spreadsheet is in my head and has been there all winter/spring.
Some breakdown;
Tuitions plus rm&brd, travel, arch supplies etc. vary from 23K to 56K, but merit aid reduced that, at least in my case. All of my choices are now 16-28K per yr COA after merit scholarships, mostly 21-23K making cost difference somewhat less a consideration. By the way, the most expensive choice would have been U of Oregon- I got accepted to the university, but forgot to mail my portfolio to the arch dept
My COA there is $32K! So it's not being considered for two reasons, cost and no BArch.
Distance from home is not a real issue as much as ease of travel is. Public transport directly from school to a major airport is the ideal, a longer flight just means a longer nap, more complex transportation is a pain. The closest two schools to my home have no flights and would require a car, gas, insurance, maintenance, parking permit, and the "hey, you have a car, can you give us a ride?" & the "why don't you drive home next weekend for a visit?" syndromes, probably exceeding the cost of two r/t air tickets from the most distant school.
The combined "feel" of the town/city, campus, department, program, classes, studios, professors and students is way, way more important, and the most difficult for me to rank. Over the winter I constantly compared what I felt each school could offer to what I felt my needs are, rather than to each other. I think this may be what lots of people here call their gut choice. I'm glad I visited the schools and would really like a second look at some of them, but that's out of the budget. I'll have to decide on what I know. Although it may appear that the decisions I've revealed on this thread are glib, rest assured they have all come after substantial and deliberate consideration.
To me, most important of all is the arch program and what I can do during my tenure. I've looked at them all hard. I realize rep, rank and prestige can carry significant weight in the real world, however I'm way more interested in what I feel I can personally get out of each program. Perhaps I'm a bit naive when I say I'll deal with the real world later. Plenty of time to eat crow then.
-sara
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