Hey guys welcome back to the channel my name is Ashley i'm an architect in Ontario and in
this video we're going to be talking about the factors that you should be considering
when you're applying for your master's degree now i learned the hard way because the first time i
applied i applied to Carleton university and i thought that that was going to be the perfect
fit for me and it turned out that it wasn't so i ended up switching to UBC and so in that process i
learned a lot and i gained a lot of insight of the things that i should have taken into consideration
so i'm going to be sharing those with you guys so if you're interested let's get started
so when i applied for my masters i didn't get it right the first time i applied to go to Carlton
i got accepted and then it turned out that the program wasn't a right fit for me and there was
several reasons why it wasn't but once i did do the transition and i decided to go to UBC
i started to have a better idea of the things that i should have taken into consideration
when i was applying to other universities now if you do end up switching schools
that time is never wasted i'd like to mention that the time i spent at Carleton
wasn't a waste in that time i continued to develop my skills and also probably made my portfolio even
stronger going forward it also helped me with my gpa as well so it wasn't a complete waste of
time but it was a bit disappointing because it wasn't what i thought it would be so let's go
through the factors that you should consider when you're applying for your masters now again this is
based off of my experience and i had a different priority to these factors as well i'm gonna list
them in the priority that was important to me so depending on your situation you may have a
different priority to these key factors number one the most important factor for me was where i did
my undergrad i did not want to do my undergrad in the same school in which i plan to do my masters
that was out of the table i did not want to do it in the same place now there's nothing wrong about
doing your masters where you did your undergrad there could be some practical reasons to that
financially time-wise that might be the right choice for you but for me i knew i did not want
that i wanted to get a different perspective i wanted to learn from different faculty members
i didn't want to see the same faculty members from my undergrad in my graduate program so i
knew that was important for me to get a different perspective and to learn from different people and
so i knew right off the bat that that option was out of the table and i would not consider doing it
in the same place now for me that was probably the most important factor out of all the factors and
that was kind of the driver for my application process and for me changing my environment was
very important for my graduate school because i wanted to tap into different areas creatively
and that played an important role for me now the second factor that i took into consideration which
was just as important as where i did my undergrad is the cost of the tuition and the possible living
costs as well now for me if the tuition was going to cost a hundred thousand dollars a year
there's no way i would do it not even if it was the best school in the world i would not do it
without a scholarship or if it was all paid for i just wouldn't i don't think
it's worth going into that kind of debt if you're not able to pay for it up front
with your savings then i would not consider it as as well now i didn't have that kind of money
to go to school so i had to look at other options now when i applied i applied to several schools
and there were some schools that offered me scholarships and a full ride for the first year
but then the second year was a bit risky because i could possibly get a scholarship or i may not
and that to me was still risky especially with a hundred thousand dollars attached to it so for me
that was also out of the table so i knew from the offers that i got accepted from that i had to stay
local because the scholarships i was getting for going to school in the states just wasn't enough
and there was a bit of a risk of me possibly not getting a scholarship for the second year so
that helped me to make the decision of staying within Canada and keeping it local and i decided
to go with UBC because UBC has one of the lowest tuitions in the country and the program is amazing
i can't talk enough about how great it is and i'll be doing a future video on my experience at UBC
so the third factor that i took into consideration was the faculty now it was important that they
were that there was a variety of different faculty in terms of research where they went to school
and that was important to me because i knew that that also plays an important role in teaching of
all the different courses and even when i go into doing my thesis for my master's that the faculty
plays an important role in that as well so that was an important aspect for me and so i spent
some time researching the different research projects that each of the faculty members were
involved and i looked at they're also there their backgrounds the schools that they went to and
that played an important role for me the fourth factor that was important for me was the facility
what are the resources that you the university offers like do they have 3d printers laser cutters
printers as well for the students to print your projects because it does make it easier than
having to go to print shop do they have a model shop now these are pretty basic but believe it or
not some schools at least at the time when i was doing my master's didn't have it so there were
programs that did not have it now it's important to note that the school may have a 3d printer
but if it's not for the architecture students then the opportunity of you using a 3d printer
is limited to none because they give priority of the 3d printer for that particular program
so i would look into what are the resources that the architecture program has
so it is important that they do have 3d printers laser cutters and a model shop because you're
going to need those resources when you are doing a project and you also want to explore all these
different things so it's important to have those options at hand so the fifth factor that
i took into consideration is the program itself spend some time in getting to know the program
look into the courses that they offer and compare it with all the schools that you've
that you've been accepted and that's really important because i will give you an idea
of what the program is all about as well now in one of my videos i talked about how
the accreditation process works for all the schools and i even talked about how there are
some reports for the accreditation and you can look at those reports and that will give you that
will give you also a glimpse of what the program is about now i wouldn't take that as a factor and
when i was applying i didn't even know about those reports so i didn't take that into consideration
when i was applying but that's an added bonus that you could use to get to know the program
the facilities and so on the sixth factor that i took into consideration is the location
now just like i didn't want to do my masters where i did my undergrad the same thing goes with the
location i wanted to have a different environment and more impossibly if i could also change the
location so if i could be in a different city that will also inspire me to have new ideas a different
way of looking at things and so that was important when i was applying as well so when i got accepted
through the different schools i took that into consideration now it wasn't my top priority
but it was definitely on my list of factors now the seven factor that i took into consideration
is the student work i spent some time on the website for each program and i really got to
know the student work and i wanted to see really the variety of the student work that was coming
out the quality of the student work and that was important for me as well now of course this wasn't
the most important factor but definitely a factor that i took in consideration when i was looking
at all the acceptance offers now i have two more factors that i took into consideration and these
are added bonuses they weren't really at the time when i was looking at the different offers
something that i considered but it was something that i did have behind my mind and one of them was
what is the reputation of the school and of the program so for example are they you know ranked
number one or number two in the country for the best architecture program and how do they rank
with the other schools the other bonus factor that i took into consideration which honestly i did not
do this one but something that i wish i did do was i visited the program and the school now i
never have the opportunity because the timing never worked or if it was in a different city
or a different province or a different country i didn't have the time or the funds to really
fund a trip to go see that particular school and the program but that was something that probably
would have helped me to get a better idea of what the program would be all about and of course when
you're visiting the school perhaps you'll get the opportunity to also meet the faculty members
so that could be a great opportunity to really get to know the faculty and the program so if you have
the opportunity to do that i would take advantage of it now if you're not able to visit the school
it's not a deal breaker i went to UBC and i never actually got to see the school also when i went to
Carleton and i switched over i also didn't get to see the school so it's not a deal breaker but if
you're able to do it you'll get a lot of insight into the program the faculty and so on so do take
advantage of it so those are the key factors that i took into consideration when i was applying for
my master's and i hope those were useful for you guys so if you enjoyed the video and you
got value out of the video make sure to like the video and of course if you want to see
more content make sure to subscribe i hope to see you guys in future videos until then bye