Decisions decisions.....where to go????

Hi guys.

Help needed for a mate hoping to study architecture next year.

Looks like he will get an AAB at A2 in maths, product design and physics.

He's got confused with all the unis he's been to visit so he wondered if anyone on here could help him clarify the muddle he's in.

Visited so far:-

Sheffield - didn't like it :redface:

(sorry)

Manchester - thought it was ok but missed out on viewing the accommodation

Liverpool - didn't learn too much about the course during the open day talk though Liverpool looked a great campus and place to study

Bath - A*AA - not going to get that

Cardiff - liked it but concerned about the Welsh programme, it means you are tied into it for 7 years and can't change unis to do your masters

Still to go to

UWE Bristol - not a Russell group but quite high on the league tables

Kent - as above

Nottingham -

Northumbria - 100% student satisfaction

Any advice anyone? :smile:

cheers

Reply 1

SebastianMesser

Original post by Racoon

Hi guys.

Help needed for a mate hoping to study architecture next year.

Any advice anyone? :smile:

cheers

Why are you asking for a "mate"? It makes it sound like architecture is a guilty secret!

The best advice is go and visit as many schools as possible - speak to the staff and particularly the students (you/ your mates, not their parents), and decide if it is the right environment for you/ your mate to flourish.

It's not a prerequisite, but you/ they should try to get work experience in an Architects practice too; whether for a week, or shadowing someone one day a week. Studying Architecture is a total commitment, (and studying it is a very different experience from working as an architect) so you want to know you would actually enjoy the job. That said, architecture is a great general arts degree, so well worth studying even if you don't want to become an architect in the end.

Before you go to open days, do your research, but look at them critically. Look at NSS results over a few years (and also note the Unistats website is notorious for reporting the numbers wrongly!)

League tables are skewed by obscure weightings and plain bad maths (e.g. They compare the UCAS points for incoming students with the graduating students' degree classification in the SAME year, so they are not showing the progression of the graduating students). For undergraduates the Guardian tables are by far the best as they give greater weight to teaching than to research. The Times and Complete League tables include researchers outputs who won't have anything to do with the undergraduates.

Schools of Architecture tend to exist slightly apart from the rest of the University so you really need to look at the reputation of the School of Architecture, not whether or not it is in a Russell Group University (which may be hard for some parents to understand). For example, Copper Union in New York is a world famous School of Architecture, but is not Ivy League.

It's not without its own peculiarities (they are only produced every 5 yrs - thankfully - but a lot can change in 5 years), but you'd do worse than start with the RIBA Validation Board Reports: http://www.architecture.com/RIBA/Becomeanarchitect/Qualifications/Visitingboardreports.aspx

Decisions decisions.....where to go????

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