That could help a lot. Depending on how long he spent at the other school, he might be able to shave off one or two years from the time he needs to spend at UMich and enter their architecture program without having to redo some of the general education or liberal arts courses that he probably already took at his current school.
This seems… off. Michigan has a credit transfer system right on their website and the admissions office and FA offices are two separate entities. Why would the Admissions office tell you to wait for the FA package to figure out what credits transfer?
We got the run around when we visited UMich. My son asked Admissions whether he would be getting any merit scholarships. Admissions sent us to Financial Aid who said they dondeal with merit scholarships and to ask the Architectural dept. So we went to the Arch dept who said Financial Aid deals with merit scholarships. Everyone said to wait fir the official package in the mail. We still haven’t rec’d it. May 1 is the deposit deadline.
You should still be able to look up how his credits transfer online…xyz class at his school is equivalent to abc at UMich.
Admissions said they would be working on the transfer credits over the summer.
Michigan transfer credit is listed at http://www.ugadmiss.umich.edu/TCE/Public/CT_TCESearch.aspx .
This thread isn’t making sense! This student supposedly has some college credits already, but it is still going to take him five years to complete this degree? Why?
What has he been doing for the last four years…or since HS graduation for that matter?
I would suggest he apply to Canadian universities for fall 2016. U of Michigan is not affordable for your family.
Or as suggested upstream…stay put where he is…and get a bachelors degree. Then figure out what to do regarding the architecture advanced degree.
The parents seem desperate to get their full-grown (24 years old) son into a career-related degree…and they’re so desperate that they’re willing to go into huge debt to do it.
Don’t.
Can’t the first two years of pre-architecture be done at a CC? Does Canada have CCs? If so, it may not be too later to enroll in one.
As I wrote on the OP’s other thread, if the OP’s son intends to practice architecture in most US states, including Michigan, he’ll need either to get a Bachelor OF Architecture (BArch) or Master of Architecture (MArch). I believe the same is true of Canada, but I’m not that familiar with their licensing rules.
None of the colleges that he applied to offers the BArch. Instead they offer the Bachelor of Science IN Architecture, which is 4.0 year degree. It is a 4.0 year degree at UMich, not a 5.0 year degree.
With a BS in architecture or anything else, the OP’s son could then get an MArch, which can take from 1.0 to 3.5 years depending on his undergraduate degree. If he were to get a BS + MArch at UMich it would take him a total of 6.0 years: BS 4.0 + MArch 2.0. He also has the option of going to another school for his MArch.
So when considering the cost, the OP needs to look at the cost of the end game, which is the MArch.
If $80,000 to $90,000 buys him a UMich MArch then I’d say it’s worth considering. This is a significant debt that would take many years to pay off, but it’s not THAT unusual in architecture. MArchs are expensive and funding is scare.
If it’s only for a UMich BS then it’s not worth it because he’d still have to finance an MArch.
There are multiple ways to get to a professional degree in architecture:
Perhaps he could finish up at his current school and apply to an MArch program, either in the US or Canada
To repeat: He does not need an undergraduate BA or BS in architecture to get accepted to an MArch program! As long as he fulfills certain prerequisites his undergraduate degree can be in just about anything.
Perhaps some of his credits will transfer and he won’t need the full 4.0 years to complete his BS.
Perhaps he could reapply next year to BArch or undergraduate MArch programs. There are 40+ in the US.
Perhaps he could consider Canadian schools for undergraduate and/or graduate
Michigan isn’t that big a place. Now that’s he has his acceptance in hand, I’d drive down to Ann Arbor and meet with the architecture department to straighten out the financial offer and credit transfer.
For an aspiring architect, an MArch from UMich is a valuable and prestigious degree, but that’s the MArch, not the BS.
Thank you to everyone who responded to my questions. I’ll update when we make the ginal decision.