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RDA_88

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  • Gender
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  • Interests
    Research at the cross-section of architecture, urban planning, urban sociology and politics.
  • Application Season
    2014 Fall
  • Program
    PhD

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  1. Retaking the GRE (159V,157Q,4.5AW) early November, aiming for 90th percentiles. Here's what I use: Quizlet - the 500 Kaplan new GRE words. I split the list into 16 chunks of about 30-35 words for easier study. Completing one set each week, so I should be done in 3 months. http://quizlet.com/24390312/kaplan-gre-set-a-1-flash-cards/ Magoosh - just bought the $99 dollar plan, will start in a few weeks. ETS - Official guide to the revised GRE test. I used this last year and found it very boring. Cat prep - GRE simulator. I used this the first time and found it very helpful. The estimated scores were a few points below what I actually scored. Allen GRE Prep - an iphone/ ipod app with all 1,473 GRE questions. Free to download, $0.99 to buy the questions. Ridiculously cheap, but the question seem legit... anyone has any experience with this? I'm curious to learn what others are doing to get their score as good as possible! Any people out there that made great improvements on their score after retaking it and willing to share tactics?
  2. Getting ready to reapply as well! Even though I'm technically still wait-listed at one school, I have no time to apply for a visa anyway. What I learned: 1) As of the passing of the deadline I will not stare at my email client/ phone/ the results board obsessively. Most of all, I will kill the red blinking light on my blackberry (or just my blackberry altogether). Yes, getting rejected so many times this year was hard, but waiting and obsessing was so much harder. 2) Retaking the GRE. As an international student I was quite pleased with my 159/157/4.5 score, but one school said it was "a bit low" and I'm sure I can do better with more practice. I heard about a trick to get a 6 on AW, anyone know what this is? How about studying for words? Is it useful at all? > start roaming the GRE threat. 3) I will apply to two schools. I don't want to go to any other, so why bother. 4) Ironically, I did raise quite a bit of money in grants this year even though I can't really use any of them. My research proposal was not the problem, but I think I applied to the wrong departments (architecture, whereas it should've been urban planning/ urban sociology: sounds stupid, but my research proposal is at the cross-section of many disciplines). 5) Contacting the schools!! It is so important. One of the schools I applied to last year told me they had 2 spots for 60 qualified candidates. They filter till they have about 10 left, but after that it's quit random. If they know who you are, you are different. Though I had a lot of email contact with the schools, I will now visit and talk to possible teachers to find out what they would like to see in my proposal as well and to just show my face. 6) Be done with the process at the end of November, letting all the documents rest for a week or so and then check them again. That's it. Let the games begin!
  3. there's a whole line of "whatshouldwecall"s they're all awesome! For example: whatshouldwecallarchitectureschool. All true. And then there is PhD comics of course...
  4. They are actually closing many prisons now due to low occupancy rates. They even turned some of them into hotels and such! Luckily, the politician I mentioned (and the party she's associated with) is not taken seriously by most other politicians and the prison/ torture device she proposed will never get built. Her plan caused quite an uproar, many people were offended, so I guess most people rightfully identified it as morally and ethically wrong.
  5. It sounds absolutely fascinating! Especially the ethical aspects, both with regard to staff and inmates, add a whole new layer to the design process. I guess the research I propose is not that much different in the sense that most people who live in social housing projects did not exactly choose to be there and the environment is often poorly designed thus influencing the quality of life negatively. That said, there are some good examples and I intend to fully explore why they are good. Note: over here we have a pretty radical right wing party and one of the members designed a prison that deliberately withholds daylight from inmates and lowers the temperature to "less comfortable". Sounds almost like modern day torture! Information is unfortunately not in English, but this image gives an impression. Fortunately there are too many prisons already so it will never get built. Unfortunately for me a career in prison building is pretty much out of the question in my home country.
  6. In a very general description: Architecture and Politics. Bit more specific: taking Lefebvre's principles of centrality and the right to the city as a start. I intend to apply that to social housing. During my master of Arch I realised I was drawn to the theoretical aspects of architecture more than to the design parts. I also love to teach and while I interned for several architecture firms I felt that the research part before the design part was the most interesting. The idea took about two years to develop (the idea to pursue a phd that is) and after revising my SOP about 300 times I kinda realised I had always been more of an academic than a designer anyway. I guess this last realisation made the whole process worth it anyway, no matter the outcome. How did you get to designing prisons exclusively? I think I would find it both a fascinating and somewhat frightening task at the same time!!
  7. Ah cool, an architecture PhD topic! I'm a first time international applicant and I applied to 9 schools, 8 of which were architecture and 1 was urban planning. Thus far I have been rejected by 6 schools and I'm still waiting on three, one of them being Columbia as well. I'm starting to get really anxious as it is so late in the application season. Weird thing is I did already receive a grant (Fulbright) and am likely to get a few others, none of which will matter without a PhD position! Any other people out there waiting to hear from Columbia, or other programs?
  8. Has anyone heard from Columbia GSAS yet??
  9. I received a pretty competitive scholarship last week and the office there urged me to contact all schools I hadn't heard from yet, so I did. My overly happy smile quickly faded when one school replied to my email with a rejection . The others were fairly positive. What to make of this?! Is it too late in the application process to make a difference? Does it make a difference at all? Is it likely to get a scholarship but NO acceptances at all? How often does that happen?
  10. Waiting for Columbia GSAS as well (PhD, Arch). I called last week and the very friendly woman informed me that the committee had to hand in the decisions last Friday, not sure if this is for arch only. I haven't heard anything yet, but I guess they need time to process. Also, this week (18-22) is spring break and I heard universities don't do much during that period (cannot remember where I read that). Checking the results from last years shows that PhD Arch was out between March 4 - 8 in past years, but I haven't seen anyone being accepted or rejected this year... Let's hope they don't leave us hanging for too much longer!
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