Architectural Association 2012

I was pleased with the interview. Mostly we talked about my portfolio. Everyone was very nice. It is my absolute first choice.

I am applying for First Year. EU applicant. (But that doesn't matter to AA.)

I received an offer a week ago. For the Foundation Course. I am 17 and preparing for IB exams now. I know most AA First Year students are older than me, some significantly so. I guess this offer means they see potential in me.

I received an offer a week ago. For the Foundation Course. I am 17 and preparing for IB exams now. I know most AA First Year students are older than me, some significantly so. I guess this offer means they see potential in me. I have some offers in the US, but I have always wanted to study at the AA.

Good luck to you. Let us know what you decide.

Congratulations. However, as has been frequently pointed out on TSR in these fora, we have yet to hear of anyone not being offered a place on the AA's Foundation Course. Cynic that I am, I think your offer means they see potential to relieve £££ from you.

. In fact, outside of the UK no one knows what the hell a Cardiff is or a Bartlett for that matter.

good times await you, you will be around inspiring and intelligent people that are not interested in your money. It's place that does not subscribe to the mass indoctrination happening in many UK schools, where the cheap collective becomes more important than personal development.

In fact, outside of the UK no one knows what the hell a Cardiff is or a Bartlett for that matter.

congrats, I dont normally post on here.... Im an AA grad, I'm not rich, I was on scholarship.
I work at a great firm where we do meaningful work that is both challenging, at times unconventional, meaningful and progressive.

Dont worry about "JRHARTLEY" he's in Cardiff-land, there are no Cardiff teachers at Ivy League schools, no Cardiff pritzker winners and Cardiff typically produces the kind of architect that fixes leaky roofs or does generic layouts for offices. In fact, outside of the UK no one knows what the hell a Cardiff is or a Bartlett for that matter.

good times await you, you will be around inspiring and intelligent people that are not interested in your money. It's place that does not subscribe to the mass indoctrination happening in many UK schools, where the cheap collective becomes more important than personal development.

Funny! Keep believing the AA mantra. All I know is during the three weeks I was there, I have never experienced such generic, trite, repetitive, left-of-mainstream thinking masquerading under the delusion that it was actually radical.

Define 'meaningful'. I bet you don't.

That's probably because the AA spends a considerable amount of its privately funded budget on international marketing to allow for gullible tools from other countries to think that it's actually worth going to such a crap institution. Other schools don't advertise anywhere near the extent that the AA does because they are mostly state funded so it's little wonder overseas people haven't heard of Cardiff or the Bartlett.

Work that takes risk. Are you going to go on a diatribe of conventionalism now?

Most of the money goes into publications, lectures, even work that is freely accessible.

It's simply different, some think the state-funded mentality is a handicap.

And it's not "international marketing" its sharing knowledge and resources at a nonlocal level.
Regardless of your opinion the work at the AA speaks for itself locally and internationally.

I bet that's what they tell you and you bought it. Other schools do the whole 'work that takes risk' better eg. the Bartlett. Just because the AA loves to indulge itself in issues far removed from reality doesn't mean that other schools deal with conventionalism as you put it. Other school's work is far more interesting than that of the AA as they actually deal with REAL issues. The Bartlett does the whole pie-in-the-sky approach better than the AA. Schools like Cardiff, the Bartlett, Sheffield, Bath, Nottingham, Glasgow etc. are much better than the AA.

Actually most of the money lines up in the pockets of those at the top of the AA, like all private institutions.

Yes of course. It must be a handicap to offer higher education to those less well off. How dare education be funded by the state - only the rich deserve the privilege of higher education! It's this snobby, pretentious attitude which proliferates the AA and it (clearly) rubs off the students.

More BS.

You must be an insecure British student. You bought your education with a hefty chunk of tax dollars because the AA wouldn't give you a scholarship. We had the chance to be part of Imperial, we turned it down, not because of money, but because of independence. How are the tuition spikes going by the way? I think many international students don't know about this UK forum.... Thats a good thing because then they don't have to come across your resentful anti-culturalism.

3 Pritzker winners, great small, medium, large firms in the UK and abroad, composed of Brits and non-Brits.

Everyone at the top lines their pockets, what are you a communist? You've got your head buried in the sand, I'm not going to indulge your degenerative world view any further.