<p>Which school were you (happily) surprised to get into and which ones were you (not so happily) surprised to get rejected from? </p>
<p>I can say right now that my DS was surprised not to get into UMD. They accepted him for Spring 2010 and not into architecture. Given other acceptances, that was an oddity.</p>
<p>Accept: USC - I had sent them the same portfolio that I sent Cornell, who rejected me… I expected to be rejected from there too, but it seems they were looking for different things 
Reject: Cornell - Everyone thought my stuff was really good… but I lacked enough freehand in my portfolio (i called to find out why). Oh well. :)</p>
<p>Arctic92, that is a useful piece of info re: your Cornell portfolio. Thanks for sharing.</p>
<p>No problem. Cornell AAP said they require a lot of excellent freehand drawing in portfolios to be accepted.</p>
<p>Artic, I think it is really on a case by case basis. My daughter was accepted into Cornell with a portfolio that included no freehand drawing, only painting and collage. At her interview the interviewee indicated that this is what they like to see, but it did not affect her acceptance.</p>
<p>rickdm</p>
<p>Rick, how long ago was this? Cornell stopped giving interviews for architecture and asked for interview essays instead, perhaps the Admissions Committee has changed. I called to talk to the admissions director and she stated that they wanted to see a lot of strong freehand drawings. I’m not sure how long she’s been in that position, though.</p>
<p>Or, it could have just been that my digital art focus in my portfolio wasn’t a good thing in the adcom’s eyes. Who knows?</p>
<p>Artic, this was three years ago. They did tell her they preferred sketches, but I wonder if it is the digital nature of your work that hurt you? There is still a pretty strong bias against the computer by many faculty members.</p>
<p>The Cornell interview was an odd deal. It was a former local architecture professor, and he really didn’t ask many questions, just gave her a one hour lecture on architecture.</p>
<p>rick</p>
<p>After my unsurprising cornell rejection(whats up arctic? :P), I wasn’t expecting to get into syracuse since i’ve heard that they have similar programs.</p>
<p>But i got in, and not only did I get in but they’re offering me full tuition to go 
(still don’t really know why i got that scholarship… not URM, nor a spectacular student.)</p>
<p>akmeecheen, that is a huge Wow!, and congrats.</p>
<p>Thanks! :D</p>