daap and campus life

taxguy
Tue, 07 Nov 2006 13:08:39 +0000

EVA,my daughter attends DAAP. I can answer some of your questions.


I can’t tell you what the archtecture program is like. I do know that it is very tough to get into and has an amazingly high rating. If you ask any major architectural firm, they will usually speak highly about Cincinnati. Cincinnati also has a very strong paid coop program in both Architecture and Design,which gives kids a “leg up” on their resumes.


2.You don’t need a car-period! You can easily walk or bike to class. However, it does take about 10 minutes to walk from the freshmen dorms to the DAAP building. My daughter likes the walk since she gets exercise and sometimes calls us while she is walking. I really don’t think you need a bike since there are steps and hills; however, it is doable to use a bike if you want.

3.Social life is what you make of it. My daughter is in marching band and has met a lot of kids. She also is very friendly with kids on her honor’s dorm. HOWEVER, first year DAAP foundation classes are VERY demanding. You won’t have a lot of time for a social life if you want good grades.Don’t forget, DAAP admission is very academically oriented. These kids have had good GPAs and SAT and have among the highest GPAs and SATs in the university. Consequently, they have a strong work ethic for the most part. If you spend a lot of time socializing, you won’t do well because of the damands of the foundation year.

I should note that as to overall culture and events, Cincinnati has an amazingly high number of events going on. If you check out their calendars, you will see 10 calendars of events. True, some of these won’t interest you such as the admission calendar. However, there are a number of calendars such as main street calendar and CCM calendar that shows a large number of activities each month. If you combine these activities with the strong sprots program that Cincinnati has, you won’t ever be bored!

As for your Asian representation question, my daughter attended a high school that was 40% Asian. There are very few Asians in Ohio comparatively; thus, there are relatively few Asians attending Cincinnati. They do have a presence, however, since my daughter is friendly with some. However, don’t expect a large Asian population. I would guess that the Asian population at DAAP would be about 2%- 5% of DAAP, if that. I should note that this may change since Cincinnati will be marketing to other states.

4.We met a guy who was in architecture and did one coop. He told us that he had a number of good choices of firms and locations. It may surprise you that Cincinnati was the forerunner of the whole coop experience before that of any other school. Thus, they have a very entrenched program that provides opportunities in just about every state and even in a number of foreign countries. For example, since you mentioned Asian students, they have coops in Japan, although I don’t know if these were architectually related. You need to call the school about this.

Bottom line: Coop opportunities are very strong at Cincinnati for DAAP students and probably better than found elsewhere.

Finally, most DAAP kids qualify for the Cincinnatus Scholarship, which is a merit based scholarship that guarantees a miniumum amount of $5,000 per year.

Hope this helps.