2010 America’s Best Architecture Schools
Posted: November 9th, 2009 | Author: ianreves | Filed under: respond, student voice | 1 Comment »Surely by now you’ve all seen the newest “2010 America’s Best Architecture Schools” rankings published by Architectural Record (as compiled by Atlanta’s own Greenway Group on behalf of the Design Futures Council) and perhaps then have noticed Georgia Tech (nor Auburn nor any school East of Texas or South of Virginia) made it into the mix of supposedly “top” schools…
http://archrecord.construction.com/features/0911BestArchSchools/0911BestArchSchools-1.asp
As a student of GT, how does it make you feel to know your alma matter puts you at a disadvantage to ranked schools – if, in fact, recruiters seeking the most competitive hires do check these rankings? Why is GT NOT on this list? Is there any single characteristic of the profession GT is superlative at and can be “known” for?
Ian, I feel that the College of Architecture tries too hard to distance itself from the fact that it is part of an engineering school rather than embrace it. Because our Civil Engineering program (particularly structural engineering) is so good, I think that we could take advantage of that and be “known” for crossing boundaries and integrating engineering with architecture. I found it ridiculous that when I took structures as an undergrad, I never really understood what the hell was going on as the professor said I didn’t need to know all that much as that was the engineer’s job. I think such attitudes just proves we’re shooting ourselves in the foot rather than taking advantage of the university’s resources. UC Berkeley offers a dual M. Arch and M.S. Structural Eng.; why can’t we do something similar? It’s a possibility…