hey everyone welcome back to the channel my name is ashley and i'm an architect
in Ontario and in this video i'm going to be talking about my UBC experience when i was
doing my master of architecture degree and a lot of you asked about what was my experience what
factors did i take into consideration why i chose UBC and also talking a little bit about my thesis
all the different studio courses i did and i want to get into the whole experience from the
beginning to the end and so if you're thinking about doing your masters in architecture at UBC
then you might find this video to be interesting and you might be
a little bit unsure if the program is for you well you may get some insight from
this video and of course if you're getting value out of the content make sure to like
the video and also make sure to subscribe and if you're interested let's get started
before we get started i just wanted to mention that i started my masters of architecture at UBC
in 2011 and i graduated in 2014 i also wanted to add that the programs do change over the years so
it's been a few years now the program shouldn't be too different from the time i graduated but i
would also make sure to do your research when you're looking into the program because there
might have been changes into the program and so on but i do believe that sharing my experience that
i had at UBC may bring some insight to you and it might help you make a decision if you are choosing
between schools or if you're indecisive about UBC now i know many of you have asked questions about
the program so i want to take a moment to just give you a bit of information about my experience
and i will start with why i applied to UBC now i applied to UBC because i was essentially looking
for a well-balanced program i didn't want the program to be a too technical because my
undergrad that i did at Ryerson university was very technical it was super technical you know
some courses were actually taught by engineers that worked you know for example in nasa for
acoustics and so it was a very technical and practical course which had its pros but i knew
moving forward that i wanted a program that also focused in on the theory and the conceptual side
of architecture because for me it was important that buildings are not just practical buildings
but that they also have you know a story behind them also provide an inspiring space and it has
a bit more than just the practical elements that you would need on a daily basis so i knew that i
wanted a well-balanced program that provided all those kind of elements so i didn't want something
too conceptual either because i do think that if you go too far off on the conceptual side that
when you do graduate from the program you're going to struggle in getting a job as well
so i wanted something in between that had both worlds together and so i found that UBC
on paper offered that and i also got a recommendation from an alumni that
actually recommended me and they were also my mentor at the time when i did my thesis in my
undergrad at Ryerson and they had recommended me to go to UBC now i didn't apply right away to UBC
i actually went to Carleton university and i was planning to do my master's at Carleton but then
i really got to know the program and i really felt like it was not for me because it was too
conceptual and it wasn't challenging enough for me and i wanted to be challenging for me
to grow because a i'm spending the time to study and then i'm also financially committing myself
because it's not cheap to do a master's and so i wanted to make sure that whatever program i do go
that it would be challenging and that i would actually grow as well as an individual and as
a designer and so on and i also applied to UBC because the tuition was actually quite
reasonable across all the other master programs in Canada and so i wanted to a stay within Canada
and do my master's degree locally because i knew that going to an international school would be a
lot more expensive and i also at the time when i did apply to UBC i also applied to southern
California Florida university and a few other programs that i can't remember all of them right
now but i did apply to a few American schools too and a lot of them were private so the tuition was
very expensive but i wanted to apply first to see what financial aid that i would be able to get
and so what i did is i applied to over five schools i believe and then what i tried to do is
once i got the acceptance letters for the various programs i started to narrow down my decision
and so in the end of that i ended up going to UBC and pickingUBC because it provided
both affordable tuition costs it also offered a well-balanced program that was both conceptual
and technical and it also had i did some research on the faculty and it looked like a well-balanced
faculty in terms of their overall research also just also listening into all the alumni that
graduated from the program everyone recommended the program so i didn't hear any alumni speaking
poorly about the program now i was at the time when i was looking at going to UBC i was having
a hard time deciding between UBC and Southern California because i did get a scholarship that
would have paid my whole tuition and i would have only had to pay the living costs but
even having to pay the living costs i was still indecisive because my scholarship that i received
for the entrance scholarship that would cover all my tuition costs was only for the first year
and i wasn't sure that i would be able to get it for the second year and so because of that
it led me because i thought it was a bit too risky it led me to go to UBC because UBC i did
get advanced standing and the program for event signing was two and a half years and so even
with the two and a half years it was still a lot cheaper than one year at southern California if
i didn't get a scholarship for the second year so that really made the decision for me to go to UBC
it just checked all those boxes it also checked all the boxes in terms of having all the essential
resources so they had plotters printers laser cutters CNC router 3D printer and so on
which some programs believe it or not when i was at Carleton at the time when i did
the program maybe it's changed since then they didn't have a lot of those essential resources
now they're important because when you are in the program and you need to build models it becomes
essential to have those resources and a lot of times the architecture building is a bit remote
from the city so it's hard to find a 3d printer to outsource to do printing and laser cutting and so
on so that becomes an important aspect so having those tools is really important so that became an
important consideration when i was looking into the program so now i'm just going to talk about
the admission so i accepted the offer because it was out of all the choices i had at the time
the one that checked out the most boxes and so i received the van standing and at the time when i
got event standing it was for two and a half years and i had to transfer a lot of the credits from
my undergrad because it was a pre-professional and i did a bachelor of architectural science
at Ryerson university so i transferred a lot of those credits so i didn't have to do
the full three years which is what you would have had to do if you had no background in architecture
and now the advanced standing you can actually get it for two years so that's something to take
into consideration but the time i got for two and a half years and because i enjoyed my time at UBC
so much i ended up going for three years because i ended up extending my thesis a little bit more
and then ended up really enjoying the program and doing other elements within the program so i took
advantage of doing some teaching assistant jobs also some graduate assistant jobs so working with
other faculty members with their research and so i wanted to also balance my courses so that i can
really focus my time on the studios and then all my thesis as well and so that led me to pushing
everything out for three years and i don't regret it i had so much fun when i was at UBC
and for me to extend it a little bit further was honestly a great experience because i knew that
doing your masters is a once in a lifetime thing and i know for some people that were
in the program they just wanted to get it done and they just wanted to get the piece
of paper and move on because they had other things and they weren't really interested
in the educational aspect they just needed the accreditation so that they can get their license
and they didn't really enjoy the whole process of learning and being in school but for me i really
enjoyed it and i really wanted to really take the moment to really learn as much as possible and
take that moment because once you start working you don't have that luxury of time of really
exploring and learning things to the maximum potential that you're in school you have that time
and that luxury to really explore things without worrying about budgets and fees and so on so let's
talk about the courses at UBC now i can't remember all the courses but i'm going to go through the
ones that i vividly remember since i graduated and so basically every semester you have one studio
with core courses that would surround it and electives as well now i did the first studio i
remember vividly it was in phil housing and it was in Vancouver chinatown now that was a great little
project i really enjoyed it and we had to actually work in a group but then individually kind of
have your own site and own infill and then as a group kind of have a master plan that would work
together and so that was a really neat project and i actually really enjoyed working in a group
project now of course some group projects can go wrong but that one was actually a lot of fun
and what i appreciated was that we got to work in a group because reality is when you do work
in the real world you got to work in teams you're not going to work individually on your own on a
project that's just not very realistic you're going to have to work with consultants you're
going to have to work with clients and you're going to work you have to work with other
teammates within your architectural practice so you're not ever working alone it's a team effort
so i really appreciated that you know one of the first studios was actually very similar to working
in the real world in that you gotta work with a team and along with that we had to do other core
courses like theory history contemporary practice and so on and other electives too i did also green
building which was actually really interesting course because i actually got to take one of the
studio projects and build it with green building practices so thinking about storm water and how
that would work energy and so on so i thought that was a nice way of blending some of the studio work
which actually helped you to develop the project a bit further and to think of other elements as
well and especially with sustainability since it's becoming such an important aspect that as
architects we should be looking into even further and so that was a great thing to start to build in
all of those strategies with your design so i did four studios in total so i started again Vancouver
chinatown infill project and then i also did and don't quote me on the order because i'm probably
not saying it quite an order based on my memory but i also did a biomimicry studio which was
also a lot of fun and i also did a comprehensive studio and this is something that i think was new
at the year i did my master's was a comprehensive studio where you would really also develop details
about the project and really flesh out some of the technical side of the project and so you would go
from all the way concept into let's say if you're in the practical world working drawings as well
so you would work out some of those details and so it's more of a comprehensive studio where you
would get into those elements and the key theme was density and housing so that was a lot of fun
as well i enjoyed that studio as well the other studio that i did was the happiest studio and i
or happiness studio and it was also a lot of fun if you're curious about the studio work that i did
let me know down in the comments if that's something that you would be interested
to see and walk through the whole process of how i designed some of those projects and some of the
concepts behind it and how i developed it and also use my time really efficiently in order to
really deliver the content and deliver the concept the third year the last year i got to
do my thesis so the first semester of the thesis is where you actually spend the time to explore
and develop a topic that you want to fully commit to for your thesis so that's where you start to do
a bit of the research side and you start to put in a proposal of a topic that would get approved
you start to get your advisor as well for your thesis and you start to build that research and
you start to kind of plan out what your thesis here is going to be and you start to kind of
build a vision of how that thesis is going to flow for the next semester and so the second semester
is when you really get into the thesis and you start testing some of those concepts and really
building out and designing let me know down below if you'd be interested to see my thesis that i did
for UBC working while i was studying so while i was at UBC i actually got the opportunity and this
also made me expand the time i was at UBC a bit further because i wanted to take advantage of all
the opportunities to work with faculty members and so on and this also helped me to fund my education
as well and to even fund some of the resources and even my food and personal expenses while i was at
school now the wonderful thing was i was able to work in the program so it blended in well with my
studies and with the topics that i was interested in my thesis as well so for example i had i held
two design media teaching assistant job and so i did two semesters so giving out tutorials on
programs such as rhino grasshopper illustrator photoshop indesign and so on so i helped out
with tutorials that were specific so graphics and drawing and modeling and so on and i also had two
academic graduate assistant jobs where i was helping two faculty members with their research
and those two faculty members their research actually blended well with the interest topics
that i was interested in especially for my thesis so i was really interested in material
research biomimicry and so on and so that blended really well and so that actually really helped me
both financially and also with my research topics as well so i really encourage you if you are
struggling financially and of course even perhaps with your topic of your research for your thesis
then helping out professors in the program or even gaining some experience with research within
the university that can help you financially but also with your academics as well opportunities for
scholarships and awards now the wonderful thing about the program is there's so many opportunities
to financially fund your education so working for faculty members and becoming a teaching assistant
was one of them but also if you're able to keep up your grades and also produce good
studio work then you're able to be eligible for scholarships and awards so while i was at UBC
i received seven awards and scholarships and those were really helpful for me to again pay personal
expenses tuition and so on so make sure and i encourage you that when you are in the program
make sure to bring the best quality work in your work so especially for your studio projects try to
do the best possible work so that you are eligible for a lot of scholarships and awards and of course
you can also do competitions as well and that's another way to also help fund your education
while you are a student so for example you can take your studio work one of the projects and
see how that aligns closely with a competition and then submit that and perhaps you can win a prize
and that could be financially or publications and so on what i loved about the program now i
really loved UBC and my experience for my masters of architecture i have really fond memories and i
recommend the program to everyone and anyone anyone that's looking into a master's degree
program that has both that balance of technical and conceptual and is looking for an affordable
option to do your master's degree well i would really recommend UBC and the other thing i want
to mention that this is the one of the things i realize now is really unique at UBC is that the
faculty really get to know you and you really work closely with them they know who you are
and i know that this is something that now i look back is actually unique and so having
that one-on-one relationship really helps you to grow as a designer and as an individual
it helps you with your studio work as well the other thing i enjoyed about UBC was that faculty
members don't push you on a particular topic and because you get faculty members that have
wide diversity of research interests that allows you to really pick which faculty member works best
for your thesis so that was something that was really helpful and i would encourage you to pay
attention to that because you have to do a thesis and you're gonna have to work with an advisor and
so you're gonna have to work with that faculty member and so if their research aligns with your
interests it becomes a lot easier and of course you're gonna learn a lot more so make sure to keep
that in mind when you are looking into the program and that's definitely one thing that i really
appreciated about UBC what i didn't like about the program now i don't have much to really talk about
but one thing that that would maybe elevate the program a bit further would be a new facility one
that would include all the architecture students in one meeting also the undergrad students with
the master's students because right now the master of architecture building only contains
the master of architecture students and they all get to know each other really well but it would
be nice to incorporate also the undergrad students so you can learn from each other
and also see their studio work and you have that exposure which really helps you creatively
as well and then i would also be great to have even the masa students included in the program
the landscape architecture students so that you can learn from each other and so i think that
could be done with a new architecture building similar to what UofT did as well and of course
that could even possibly bring up a phd program which would be really great as well i think that
would really elevate the program even further now if you also want to get more information about
the top three architecture programs that i would recommend i would check out this video here and
of course if you're getting a lot of value out of the content make sure to subscribe to the channel
here it helps me out and it lets me know that you're enjoying the content on the channel and
of course thank you so much for watching and i'll see you on the next video until then bye