<p>What were your grades that you got a full ride?</p>
<p>Valedictorian
Nation Merit Finalist
Involved in a ton of clubs</p>
<p>Now, should I take it??? Or wait for another school like Cincy? Thanks!</p>
<p>With your resume why not wait, youll get in.</p>
<p>Ok, today I was notified that I received the Medalist scholarship at Ohio State, meaning full in-state tuition for four years. This means that, along with the other scholarships they had given me, I would still have to pay about 10,000 a year for an education at Ohio State.</p>
<p>This is the same as IIT’s price tag. Does anyone know about Ohio’s architecture program? I looked up the faculty profiles and the majority seem to have a strong education (i.e. Harvard, Columbia, Yale, UPenn), something I did not see as much at IIT (mainly more regional degrees). </p>
<p>Any knowledge vastly appreciated!</p>
<p>Ohio State has a very diverse faculty group–an inordinate number of Ohio State grads but nothing like Rice. Most have stellar credentials and there isn’t one feeder grad school. That’s nice. One Cooper grad–(cheers likes to see Cooper grads. They can be counted on to spark the design debates). After what AlanArch said, I think there is no comparison. Of your current offers, Ohio State is the better choice–for your goals.</p>
<p>Tell Ohio State that you have another offer and you are consdiering both. Ask Ohio State if they can give you a fourth or fifth year FEMALE student cyber pen pal–preferably one that has a good design reputation. If they give you one, ask her for a bit on "insider’ scoop-- about the atmosphere, the best faculty, best courses, the reality for female students, the post-grad choices of her peers etc. Be sure to ask the Dean’s office to send you a list of post-grad degrees of the past six or seven years grads. You want to go to the East Coast–and you want to know if they send a bunch. That’s a fair question and I don’t doubt that they are tracking it.</p>
<p>Your pen pal could turn out to be the next Zaha Hadid, ya never know. If you do go there, you will have an instant big sister to watch in upper level critiques.</p>
<p>Congrats, btw.</p>
<p>Cheers,</p>
<p>I have followed your advice and emailed Ohio State telling them about my other offer and requesting a pen pal. That was a great idea!</p>
<p>Cheers, </p>
<p>In a previous forum you voiced that the best path for someone who wants to be a designer is the BArch + MArchII. Well, Ohio State does not offer a BArch, but IIT does. So even though IIT’s program may not be of the quality of Ohio’s aren’t the extra semesters of studio worth it?</p>
<p>Sorry for the loaded language. I want to see this neutrally.</p>
<p>Well, Cornell accepted me for architecture, so I guess that’s where I’m headed next fall. Thanks, everyone!</p>
<p>OMG! What fantastic news! </p>
<p>You lucky lucky girl. </p>
<p>Now, here are some suggestions:</p>
<p>1) Sit in on 3rd and 4th year design critiques. Learn what designs and presentation styles are judged as successful. Make sure you teach yourself how to do those presentation techniques. Practice, practice, practice.</p>
<p>2) Befriend the ‘stars’ of the upper years. Yes, these will most likely be guys so yes, that will involve some delicate manuevering–which you will have to learn to do anyway as you navigate all-male engineering firms and construction sites.</p>
<p>3) The ‘star’ students (mostly guys) will flock to the ‘hot’ young gun professors (will be mostly guys). Put yourself into that very competitive mix. Friction polishes the stone. Don’t be afraid to get in there and compete against the ‘stars’. Find out who the ‘hot’ design professors are and wrangle your way into their classes. </p>
<p>4). Don’t fall into the ‘star’ system trap. It’s too hard to be tagged as a star as a female anyway and the school ‘star’ system isn’t that relevant in the job market. Don’t fret if you are not tagged as a ‘star’. Neither of the two male ‘stars’ of my class managed to match my professional success. Neither are even close. Don’t doubt yourself. There is room for female architects at the very top–owning their own firms, designing large projects–just not through the ‘star’ system. Usually.</p>
<p>5). By hook or crook, get yourself into the top design offices in Manhattan and/or LA or London or Tokyo. Cornell grads have GREAT design positions in those firms. USE the Cornell connections and get yourself into those firms as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>6). Open your own practice before the age of 30. What will you need to open your own business? Clients. Successful friends in other industries. Don’t isolate yourself by hanging out with architects all the time. Meet the rest of Cornell too. Meet the rest of Manhattan. </p>
<p>7). Don’t take offense at criticism. Don’t let emotion override your dedication to architecture. Develop a ‘high-conflict’ personality, one that can go toe to toe in a heated argument or debate–and ten minutes later go to the pub with the adversary.</p>
<p>8). Marry a feminist, a true egalitarian.</p>
<p>I am thrilled to bits for you, babuska. Thrilled.</p>
<p>Cheers, what a grim view of the profession. My D is thinking about going into architecture and has been accepted at Cornell, Rice and UVA. However she has also been accepted at Stanford, and I think she is leaning towards going there in product design. As much as I love architecture, I think the broad based education at Stanford will serve her well. I worry that the BArch programs are too focused, too soon. </p>
<p>I would not have encouraged her into the profession if I did not think she would get a fair shake. Her mom, also a UVA and Rice grad is an architect and has been one of my partners for the last 13 years, and the president of one of the 10 largest chapters of the AIA this year. </p>
<p>This notion about women not getting a fair shake is simply self-defeating. I did grad school at Columbia, and spent nine years as an Associate Partner at KPF in New York. Make no mistake, design positions in top NYC design firms are incredibly competitive. For every Senior designer on a big project there are 8 to 12 others who are not. During the first 4-5 years at KPF I worked between 600 to 900 hours of overtime a year. It almost ruined my marriage, but that is what it took to get to that position. I don’t really think the partners really cared much about my sex, race, or national origin. They just wanted to see the results. Once you get in the door, your degree does not really matter.</p>
<p>Almost everybody there had a Yale/Harvard/Columbia/Princeton graduate degree. Cornell is seen as a top undergrad year program, but their grad school is not in the same category as the others. I think these programs are getting easier to get into, because fewer people are willing to shell out the $100,000 to $150,000 it takes to get a degree.</p>
<p>Enjoy your time at Cornell, it is one of the great undergrad programs. However you really need to excel, because the competition does not get any easier for design positions. Even in a top school like Cornell I would guess that perhaps 20% of the students will end up being ‘clean sheet’ designers. Those that start with a clean sheet of paper and a program. However you should also realize that there are many rewarding positions in this profession, you will not be a failure if conceptual design is not what you end up doing. I think it is a great profession, and I wish you the best. You are off to a great start.</p>
<p>rick</p>
<p>I too worked in famous offices in New York–including one Pritzker prize winner–but only for a few years. I jumped into my own practice in NYC when I was 28. My office colleagues stayed in those firms and produced some of the country’s most exciting work. They are all partners now. The lead designers were all male–and there were very few of them. I didn’t find the working environments as oppressive as you describe. There were a few charettes every year but other than that, it was all balanced. I loved working for those firms and could not have had success without that experience. Many but not all of my colleagues were Ivy grads. Most had BArchs. Every designer had a BArch–just as most of the leading architects in the US have BArchs.</p>
<p>However, my advice to young designers is to get into your own firm as quickly as possible–for the money and the design opportunities and the lifestyle. My advice is geared to students who know they want to build architecture. If your daughter is thinking about product design, then I agree that she would not be interested in my advice.</p>
<p>I’m not a fan of the 4 + 2 MArch I due to the resulting careers I have seen–amongst colleagues and employees. Now, at 50, with 21 years of running my own practice under my belt in three cities on two continents, my beliefs are firm. Students need as many semesters of conceptual design studios as they can get–if they want to build their designs at a larger scale at some point in their lives. So says me. If they want to teach, they don’t need 10 to 13 semesters of design studios. I’m not sure about product design. That’s a whole different career pursuit.</p>
<p>Just curious–is your wife the lead designer in your firm? If not, what is her role?</p>
<p>Cheers, we are about the same age, and worked in NY at the same time, I would not be surprised if we knew each other. The only Pritzker prize winner in NY that I know of that worked reasonable hours was Philip Johnson. Did you work at Johnson Burgee? My wife was an Associate there. Is that you Ronnette? Your posts remind me a lot of her.</p>
<p>My wife is focused on marketing and sustainability, though she was in design while at Johnson Burgee. In sustainability she has found her real passion.</p>
<p>Regards,
rick</p>
<p>Great news, babuskagirl. Congrats!</p>
<p>Thanks a lot, everyone! You will hear about me someday. :)</p>
<p>I bet we will, babuska, I bet will will. PLEASE come back and PM. Don’t post though. I want to hear your --and everyone’s–analysis of the design studios and the school set-up and of course, the gender state of play.</p>
<p>rick, I am not ‘Ronette’, LOL. I interviewed with Johnson but did not work in the office where his employees face one direction so that the bosses can stand above and spy down on them. Johnson did tell me that if I couldn’t do it in eight hours, I probably couldn’t do it. I’ve lived by that mantra. He was so right about that fact. We will leave the identity guessing game at that. I don’t want to play.</p>
<p>btw, it’s great your wife loves sustainability and the AIA, but did you ever wonder why so few women get a chance to design large scale buildings–even though the schools have been at 50% for a couple of decades? Did you ever wonder why 50% of the profession gets nudged into project management, residential architecture, teaching, interiors and everything BUT large scale building design? Can you name a few top female architect designers in Houston? At KPF? How about Pritzker Prize winners besides Zaha?</p>
<p>For me, it’s not good enough to take those whopping tuitions off of girls (MArch I’s especially) and give them a false sense that they will be living a life of high design. Let’s be brave and tell girls how hard a yard it is. Let’s give them a few tips on how to live the life of Gehry because, for an architect who loves art and design, that is a really fun life.</p>
<p>Cheers, my wife designed several major high rise projects while at Philip’s office. When we moved to Dallas she changed her focus a bit, three children will do that to you. At some point when I have a little more time to type I will share my observations as to why there are not more women in these positions. It will probably be no more or less valid than anybody else’s. However I can tell you that conspiracies at the major firms is not part of what I have seen. YMMV.</p>
<p>rick</p>
<p>Rick, I would love to hear your take on it, too, if you can send me the message please. :)</p>