Wicked_Problem Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Please provide your concise story regrading your journey to the Ph.D. in Architecture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wicked_Problem Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 I applied to the University of Kansas and the University of Washington for programs in Architecture. I was accepted with full funding to KU and rejected by UofW. I applied to three other related, but non-Architecture programs. I was rejected by one, rejected by the second but offered entrance into their Masters program and I am waiting on the third. The decision is, barring Deus Ex Machina, made, and I am very happy about it. So, now, what's your story? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wicked_Problem Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 Deus Ex Machina The video game? I thought you were applying to CJ PhD programs? A deus ex machina Latin: "god from the machine" is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved, with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object. Depending on how it's done, it can be intended to move the story forward when the writer has "painted himself into a corner" and sees no other way out, to surprise the audience, or to bring a happy ending into the tale. (Source: Wikipedia) Yes I did: UCI Criminology, Law and Society. Also Drew University for Intellectual History and Stevens Institute of Technology for Enterprise Systems. My research is focused on incarceration, but I am a jail and prison designer, so Architecture is my field. Confusing to me, too! semperfi101 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wicked_Problem Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 Please provide your concise story regrading your journey to the Ph.D. in Architecture. Oops... "regarding" not "regrading" was intended... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzungu Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 I applied to four programs in architecture, Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard, and UPenn.Got an email on Jan. 25 from Berkeley that I had been accepted with funding. In the beginning of March I was notified that I had been awarded a university-wide doctoral fellowship which increased the amount of funding and provided summer funds.Was notified of rejection by Harvard on March 20 by postal service and UPenn via website on March 14 (from Penn I didn't get any notification, but found out because I happened to check my application status a week later). Both were expected due to less than ideal fit; felt like there were some programs/initiatives ("Center for Globalization", etc) that I could have worked well with, but had some trouble finding a really good POI at either place. Also had way more trouble contacting POIs at these schools than my other two.Columbia could be a good fit and I had a really great in-person meeting with my POI there before I submitted my application, but it's March 21 and I haven't heard anything yet or seen any change to my application status. I'm kind of surprised that it's so late with no response, but I assume by now that it must be an implicit rejection and that I am likely heading to Berkeley!Good luck everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wicked_Problem Posted March 22, 2013 Author Share Posted March 22, 2013 I applied to four programs in architecture, Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard, and UPenn.Got an email on Jan. 25 from Berkeley that I had been accepted with funding. In the beginning of March I was notified that I had been awarded a university-wide doctoral fellowship which increased the amount of funding and provided summer funds. I am likely heading to Berkeley! That is really interesting, and exceptionally good news in terms of funding from the department and then the university wide fellowship. How are you likely to use those summer research funds? (I only got 100% tuition remission and a modest 9 mo stipend, but it'll work.) I will have to be a "Graduate Assistant" which at KU means either RA (research assistant) or TA (teaching assistant). Don't know which yet. Do you have do anything like that as a condition of your funding? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzungu Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 I'm not entirely sure about the summer -- I imagine that you are supposed to produce measurable progress in your research but I don't yet know whether you are required to be on campus and/or assist with any professors' work during that time....Yes I'll be a TA which I look forward to. During my Master's program I was both a TA and an RA and I enjoyed them both. I think my TA position was "easier" in that it was easy to plan (you knew when papers or tests were coming up, for grading) and probably fewer hours per week, but the RA position was more rewarding in some ways because you can learn things in the process of doing the research and establish a good relationship with a professor.... And my RA experience led to a travel fellowship so that was great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wicked_Problem Posted March 22, 2013 Author Share Posted March 22, 2013 KU shuts down during the summer, from what I hear. Everyone works on their research. I haven't heard anything about funding. That being said, I went to a summer "accelerated" studio prior the official start of my MArch courses, so there was (is?) at least one studio being taught... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDA_88 Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wicked_Problem Posted March 25, 2013 Author Share Posted March 25, 2013 RDA ... What's your research area/interest? How did you arrive at the point of applying for PhD programs in Architecture? Good luck on your final three applications. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDA_88 Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 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!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wicked_Problem Posted March 26, 2013 Author Share Posted March 26, 2013 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!! The answer is an odd one. First, when I was applying for the MArch, I had two things to do prior to the interview, selections off a reading list and shadowing an architect for a day. My mom knew someone from a local firm, and I ended up accompanying a PM from that firm to a project that was being punched: the local jail (a real Taj Mahal, by the way.) The four or five professors, after learning this, peppered me with questions like "What should a prison look like?" That experience definitely planted some seeds... Also, I found studio critiques highly arbitrary, so as I was winding up my program, I gravitated to the "least arbitrary" of building types. Jails/Prisons are, along with hospitals and laboratories, the most complex building types. In the other two, the users' jobs are not primarily to defeat the physical and electronic security measures incorporated into the facilities. My portfolio is primarily jails, with a few prisons, juvenile facilities and courthouses. I find them endlessly fascinating because the real challenge is to design for the staff, who are serving a "life sentence" one shift at a time, and the innocent man (because we all know that our justice system is not perfect.) As odd as it might seem, the key to excellence in detention and corrections design is empathy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDA_88 Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wicked_Problem Posted March 26, 2013 Author Share Posted March 26, 2013 Too many prisons is a bad thing. For me, it is a question of as few as possible that accomplish the goals that are arrived at due to the necessity for their existence at all. Many existing facilities do a good job of warehousing (incapacitating) offenders, but that should not be enough. Many other existing facilities do a poor job of even that. What nobody needs are proposals like the one you described, which are counterproductive in almost every way. Deprivation of liberty is punishment enough. Not providing access to natural light or baseline human comfort (temperature) is simply unacceptable, even for short terms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDA_88 Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wicked_Problem Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 Bumping this thread. Any other (non-jail and prison designer) Ph.D. Architecture applicants out there? How about a roll-call of lurker acceptances? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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