Young designer looking for MASTERS DEGREE ADVICE!

[Laura Butera]

Hello all, 

I am going to make this as to the point as possible. I would greatly appreciate your advice.

WHO I AM: Young designer with a Bachelor of Arts (major in Architectural Studies and Studio Art with Sociology concentration). My specific areas of interest include urban design, wayfinding branding and signage, architectural sketching, rendering, space planning, place making, and planning of communal spaces. I love understanding how and why people use space. 

PEOPLE / WORKS THAT INSPIRE ME: James Corner and projects like the Highline, Michael Van Vaulkenburgh, Fred Kent and Place Making, Jan Gehl

MY GOAL: Get a masters degree (MUD, MLA, MARCH, MCP, MCRP…?!)

I NEED YOU: I would like advise about the various ways to go about getting a degree (dual degree, concentrations, etc). What worked for you or what do you wish you knew?

SHOOLS ON MY LIST: UMaryland’s mater of community planning, WashU’s MLA/MUD, UMinnesota, UMichigan, Ball State, and UPenn.

Please share any and all insight you have on this topic! Thank you!!!!

[Tosh K]

I had a list of skills I knew I was good at, ones that I knew I needed to work on.  Having prepared that list, I compared it to the relative strengths/weaknesses of various programs then visited a dozen or so schools to get an understanding of each program’s pedagogy as well as the institution’s core mission.  It helped to have seen many program’s alumni’s work (through ASLA awards, and highlighted students’ works on their websites).

Given your interests I’m surprised not to see Berkeley and UVA on the list, their faculty have a more social slant than most.  WashU will have a new MLA chair, this may affect the direction they go in.

In the end a graduate degree is a piece of paper, no matter the degree.  Most programs allow you to select a range of elective coursework (often including those outside the school) to create your own concentration.  MArch will require coursework in structure/materials/building systems, MLA in ecology/water management/plants/soils, etc, but overall ‘design studios’ will range quite bit by year depending on the program.

Only thing I wish I had considered more sternly is debt – most financial planners will tell you total student loan debt should equal or be less than projected first year salary. Make sure you can afford it – loan payments may deter you from some jobs after school if you have too much.

I would strongly encourage you to take some time and think about what pedagogical model you fit in and who you want as peers.  While schools do change (some more frequently than others), they often have a core methodology and attract certain personalities – not being a ‘good fit’ is really tough.

good luck

[J. Robert (Bob) Wainner]

Laura;

May I recommend……MLA @ Harvard or University of Virginia.  I realize that Harvard is most likely the more expensive of the two.   My two cents.

Good Luck!

J. Robert (Bob) Wainner

[Benjamin Loh]

need to be a genius to get into the MLA @ Harvard? I was just thinking about it few days ago.

[landplanner]

Laura:

You have probably chosen AGAIN, one of the most popular and redundant forum topics to appear on Land8Lounge in the last few years. My suggestion is just do a topical search and you will find all the commentary and guidance you seek here with your inquiry. Within all that feedback, you will find a couple of prevailing polarities of opinion. I have been and still remain in the camp of :

DON’T DO IT ….at least for right now…..

No matter what regal, over-praised and over-rated MLA program you are enamored with, they all will cost you a small fortune and the yield at-the-end, will be measured in milligrams. I’m sure you have been paying attention, but in case you are in la-la land, the national economy is creeping, inching it’s way back and job creation in our field or the related design professions is just not happening at a rate, that even two years from now, will be able to absorb all fresh graduates. That trend, is almost indisputable.

You may want the cheery advice of just “follow your passion” or some other feel-good pablum, but here is a bitter but better form of nutritional advice.

Finish your present degree. Take it with you to an urban area that offers graduate or even  legitimate and approved (not LAAB – as of yet I believe certificate programs in Landscape Architecture (think UC Berkeley or UCLA) . Get a job, any job, related to this profession that you can make a living wage off of. Get as much diversified experience and real-world exposure and training as you can muster. At least two years maybe three. While your accumulating that, test the academic waters and take some related advance courses that will help supplement and strengthen what you are learning with your OJT (on-the-job training).

You might even discover along the way that you might be more interested in an allied profession, be it environmental/urban planning or even, dare I say it, engineering or business related. A very attractive design professional, particularly in the landscape architecture or architecture professions, are those with graduate training in the environmental sciences, sustainable engineering and construction and design management concentrations. 

Or you can be tens of thousands of dollars in the hole (or someone else who funded your academic quest will be) and have very little to show for it when you get the sheepskin and you toss your mortarboard into the air. You will be able to pick that article off the ground, but getting on your feet with a job related to this field will be a far more difficult achievement without solid work experience. 

[Calico]

I have to second landplanner’s main point: there are many lengthy, bitter, and redundant discussions on this exact topic in this very forum. Read them. All of them. Advice ranges from “get out while you still can” to “follow your heart.” If you must follow your heart: (1) do so with sound financial planning and backing so that you are not saddled with a huge debt; and, (2) sneak out to Manhattan, KS to take Mike Lin’s course before you get started, even if you think you know how to draw and design. I don’t think anybody actually teaches either in schools – especially graduate programs – from what I can tell. The volume of unsolicited resumes I receive listing “sketching” as a hobby from people who can’t communicate graphically or design their way out of a paper bag is laughable. Good luck.

[Tanya Olson]

Though I am admittedly of the ‘follow your heart’ camp it is not without a very firm grasp on reality and my own experience. You CAN actually make a decent living doing a number of the things you mentioned being interested in above including landscape architecture and its variants. What worked for me is a straight MLA from the University of MN. A friend got a double masters from that U in planning and LA and was the only one of the MLA class to get a job (this was 2 years ago).

Landplanner’s construction and design management idea is a great one – someone who is really good at managing projects under construction is an invaluable member of the design team and many designers don’t know how to do it well. 

Lots and lots of people can sketch and draw very very well. If you want to do architectural rendering professionally, go to art school not design school. 

Wayfinding / signage / branding seems to look particularly good in my experience – I think Penn State has a good environmental design program that includes the above. OR maybe you should just skirt the whole issue and be a researcher – write your own grants. Maybe you’re the next William Whyte.

All that being said – my education was a LOT LOT LOT less expensive than yours will be. We’re talking 6-9k per year for GRAD SCHOOL (I think around 3k for undergrad) compared to nearly 50k now at my alma mater. $100,000 for a master’s degree? This is certainly something I’d want to crunch the numbers about if I were in your situation.

So overall my advice is to do something you are passionate about, something that when it gets tiresome (and it ALWAYS does) still has something to sustain your spirit, but go into it with your eyes wide open as far a career financial expectations and debt repayment. The bottom line for me was that I could still pay off my student loans waiting tables or working in a accounting department. I couldn’t do that if my debt was 100k or more. Best of luck!

[J. Robert (Bob) Wainner]

Really Benjamin?!………….I know of a few well known U.S. politicians who graduated from Harvard…….and they definitely are NOT……”geniuses”!!!

[Goustan BODIN]

Bob, politicians didnt graduate as LAs 😉

I know 2  Harvard LA graduates here in Bangkok, and they both kick butts !

[Goustan BODIN]

I also agree to Landplanners down to earth approach : economy is just not going to rise again to what it was, ever.

Work, learn while working, get new skills, deepen the knowledge you already have.

True, I did get a much deeper understanding of the issues at stake with our profession by getting a degree.

But what saved my bacon more often than not is the practical knowledge I gained while being an apprentice, tools in hand, under every kind of weather. Most designers around me really lack practical sense of what is feasible, how, and with how much effort (=time/budget). Practical sense of what consequences your design will have (ever picked up tons of fallen leaves in autumn, dripping wet on a steep gradient road ? If you have less than 50 cm wide grass, you need another tool to cut it, slower. Where are the faucets located, for watering/cleaning ?). None of them possess advanced knowledge of plants you get while working in a nursery, or as I did, with the firm’s tree doctor.

I now sell these skills, and more often than not, clients will love someone who has a practical sense (like : no sharp stone corners in a house with children).

There are things you learn in school, and plenty more you learn while practicing. Since the beginning of this year, I put aside 2 working days a month for self improvement, and am beginning to be very happy with the results.

[Author]

Posts