Architectural Design @ Stanford

News from Jackie - Current senior at U. of PENN, Master of Architecture Program

Getting into architecture school is not always (in fact, rarely) about how good you are as an *architectural* designer. One of the things that my instructors and professors at Penn have told me about the admissions process is that it’s about the kinds of potential that they see in the portfolios of applicants. Just because an applicant has a large array of architecture projects doesn’t mean he/she will get in. I have seen a number of portfolios from my classmates, and most of them are non-architectural designs in majority - sculpture, drawings, graphic design, etc. are all welcome. It seems to be that they are looking for students to have an eye for space, composition, and of course, general visual aesthetics.
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News from Julia ‘06 – from the first graduating class of Architectural Design in CEE

Life after graduating from Architectural Design has been productive and practically driven. I am now a CEM coterm (Construction Engineering Management one year masters degree at Stanford) concentrating on sustainability and finance. This program allows you so much flexibility to sculpt your set of classes to prepare you for your goals. I hope to find that one great company that combines environmental consciousness, aesthetics, development, and social equity so that I can start out with an exciting job.
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News from Katie – Stanford grad currently in the MIT graduate architecture program

…..as far as applying to architecture schools, i would say that hands-down the most important elements of the application package are portfolios and essays. i don’t know about every school, but most of the ones i applied to were looking for evidence of creativity and critical thought. although architectural experience was probably not a bad thing, most of the people in my level 1 class didn’t have any architectural experience beforehand, and the school certainly wasn’t looking for proof of knowing AutoCAD in the application.
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