hey guys welcome back to my channel my name is Ashley i'm an intern architect in Ontario
and in today's video we're going to be talking about doing your master's degree in architecture
the things that you should be thinking about and taking into consideration
before you make your decision to do your master's degree so perhaps you've already
been accepted to a school but you're unsure if you should go forward with that offer
or maybe you're thinking about applying to do your master's degree
but you're unsure if you should or should not so stay tuned and we're going to go
through those factors that you should consider before applying or before making your decision
so the first thing that you should take into consideration before doing your masters is what
are your reasons for doing the degree are you doing the degree because a you want to
become a licensed architect and that is one of the requirements i wanted to find myself as a designer
and really build really build my skill sets as well and going to school
for me would be an opportunity to really focus in and dial in and find and discover different
things different topics and help me to grow as an individual and also as a designer as well
and so those were my reasonings and also for me becoming a licensed architect was something that
i was thinking about as well so and you may have additional reasonings as well so i think
it's important to take to take the time and really think about what are your reasonings to wanting to
take the degree don't just take the degree for taking the degree do have your reasonings and
really think out where you want to be after you finish the degree as well so that you're doing
it with a purpose and you're doing it mindfully as well so if you want to become a licensed architect
you have to make sure that the program that you do go is an accredited program so that you're able to
then become a licensed architect with that education so for me again i was thinking of it
i was starting to think about becoming a licensed architect i wasn't 100 sure i thought about it
i felt like after doing my undergrad that i felt a bit incomplete in a way and i felt like the next
step was to get my license so and i thought okay i at the same time could really grow as
an individual as well but i knew other people at the time when i was doing my master's that
just thought about it as get in and get out they were only thinking about it as a way to becoming
a licensed architect and it was just a checklist a requirement that they needed and that's all they
really wanted was to get in get the piece of paper and get out so for them it didn't really matter
in a way where you end up going as long as the program is accredited and of course for them what
was important was the program would be as short as possible so that would be something that you would
take in consideration if that was your thinking as well and there's nothing wrong with either one
everyone's different i think what's important is to know what you want out of it
and to think about it and to be mindful of those reasonings so that that helps you then to make
the decision of where you want to go so just be mindful and think about what are those reasonings
and that will help you moving forward if you have been already accepted to a program
then that will help you as well to make that decision or even in your process of applying
to schools as well the second thing that i would think about and for me it's a big one is finances
now this is my personal opinion and of course looking back from my experience now i'm glad
i made the decisions that i did and i want to share that with you guys but of course in the end
you know what's best for you you know your situation the best now of course if you have
questions feel free to comment down below or if you don't want it to be public you can email me as
well and there's a link to my email on the channel on the about page so feel free to email me if you
have any more questions because i might not be able to get into a lot of details as well so for
me a huge factor that you should think about when you're going to school and when you're applying
is finances this is huge because whatever happens will influence you after you graduate
of course all the factors are important they will influence but this is probably the one that will
influence you the most it may hold you back so if you're going into crazy amount of debt and when i
mean crazy i mean anything over fifty thousand dollars of let's say fifty over twenty thousand
dollars i believe that's way too much to spend on your education now if you have the cash at hand
and you're able to afford and fully fund your education without going into debt then so be it
you have that freedom to make that decision you should go for it go for the school that you really
want and do it but if you don't have that luxury to have a cash at hand or have scholarships to
fully fund that experience then think twice really think about it now the other thing
you have to think about is living expenses food clothing clothing you know you can kind of get
away but you need to survive and live you're going to need food you're going to need some resources
you're going to need some money to do printing and supplies you know you have to have a bit
of a reserve for those items if all your money is going into the tuition and you haven't considered
all the other factors you need to think about that because you're going to need some books
you're going to need some supplies printing is really expensive and that's something that
comes with an architecture degree is you have to do a lot of printing for your presentations
and it's not cheap it really isn't cheap and then you're going to need
modeling supplies because you're going to have to build some models and you're going to need
supplies to do that or even if you do 3d printing you have to pay for that
as well so there's all these other things that you need to consider when you're doing your degree
so it's a lot to think about i know but you really need to think about the finances how you're going
to fund it and the reason why i say this is i was presented with the same kind of challenge i had
the time when i applied to do my masters i applied i believe i can't remember exactly
but i think i applied to four to five schools or three to five i can't remember exactly um
i applied to a few because i wanted to have all my options available to me
and you don't really know what kind of financial aid you'll get until you apply because once you
get accepted you're presented with a package so it's hard to make a decision beforehand and i'm
going to talk about that a little bit later so i applied to a few schools and one of them which
was in southern California and of course schools in the states private schools are super expensive
but i thought okay i'll apply i'll see what kind of financial aid i can get but the one that i was
in really really indecisive was the southern California and i did get a scholarship and it
would fully fund my first year uh of tuition only i still had to of course pay for accommodation
and for food but the tuition would be considered would be fully funded which was good but it was
only for the first year of my education and it was a two-year program so the first year was funded
but i really didn't know what the second year would bring and that to me i was i felt like that
would be a bit of a risk because i don't know if the second year i can get the funding and if i did
not get that funding i would not be able to finish my degree and that's something i did not want to
do is start something and not be able to finish it because i didn't fully think about it and i didn't
think about the possibility of not getting a scholarship for the second year so after a lot of
thought and a lot of consideration and i went out looking at the possibility of even borrowing money
and i'm glad i didn't go down that route but um i looked at all the possibilities and considered
the fact that i would eventually if i do borrow that money i'm gonna have to pay it back
now if you did also an undergrad and you may have some debt out of that you have to think about
how that will accumulate with a master's degree as well now perhaps you don't have any debt from your
undergrad and you're at a clean slate you may want to think about getting even in more debt
is that something that you want to do at that high of a cost now you're talking about i can't
remember at the time how much it was the tuition was but i believe in total with accommodation
and food i was looking at a hundred thousand dollars to fund one year so the first year
i didn't have to worry about tuition i only needed to worry about food and accommodation
which in California living expenses is not cheap rent is not cheap in California so that was
another thing that i thought about so when you're thinking about your finances you got to think
about the location as well because that influences the prices as well so then that led me to
really look at my other options of the other schools that was that i was accepted
and that that helped me to make the decision as well now i would not recommend just applying
to one school uh because that it's good to have more than one school so that you can really make
the best decision and compare schools with schools and packages as well so that you're
able to make the best decision for yourself and at the time of applying i had a different mindset
and i'm glad that i just applied i went for it and i applied to a few schools and then just
made the decision later and evaluated everything based on the factors that were important to me
when i was making the decision so make sure you really spend the time to think about the finances
now of course you can apply for scholarships and those are options but if you're not able to get a
scholarship then and you're looking at fully doing this yourself you got to think twice about it
now the reason why again i'm making a big deal out of this is because this is a huge issue around the
world in north America especially the student loan debt is absolutely crazy in the united states it's
even worse than in Canada because the school and tuition prices are a lot higher in America
this is a trillion dollar issue with a t trillion dollar issue and in canada it's a billion dollar
issue about 15 billion with a b billion dollar issue so it's a big issue and one of the issues
with student loans is it's a bit of a prison your choices in life will be limited because you have
that overhanging debt over you what do i mean by that well you may want to buy a house for example
in a few let's say two to three years but you're not going to be able to do that because you're
going to have all that student loan debt over your head it's going to stop you from making
certain decisions so that debt is going to hold you back on opportunities that you may want to do
but then decide not to do so that's important to keep in mind and you need to visualize what
it's going to be after you finish your school and how you're going to pay back those loans
i really emphasize how the importance of really thinking about your finances and now of course
we're in a unique situation this year because we are in a global pandemic i often think about if i
were in the situation of having to start school in September would i want to go forward with my
acceptance and to be honest my personal opinion no i would not go and the reason for that is
you're investing a lot of money in your education and you're not going to get the full experience
and i really think doing things online isn't the same learning experience as being in a studio with
people and it's a different learning environment as well so i would think twice about it um if
it was me i wouldn't i would wait i would apply the following year when perhaps we have a better
hold on the current situation so the third factor that i would take into consideration is the school
itself what does a school have to offer to help you with your goals and dreams in your journey in
architecture so what are the facilities that the school offer do they have 3d printers lasers or
cutters are they versatile do they what research topics do they have what is the program known
for so make sure to do a bit of research of each school which will then help you later on on the
application process but that will also help you to find what's best for you and what suits you for in
terms of a program now it's important when you're doing research on the school to also research the
faculty member when i applied i did some research on the faculty member i looked into what are their
research topics do my interests align with their interests and is there enough variety and if you
don't know what are your research interests or what you're interested in architecture in terms
of the different topics then is there enough of a variety that you can pick and choose from and
learn from as well so that's something important to take into consideration when you are applying
so i would also when you're researching the school look into the facilities that they offer as well
now architecture buildings are notorious to always being the worst buildings on campus but
one of the schools that has one of the nicest facilities i have to say is uft they just got
a new architecture building and it looks awesome so i look at that i'm like wow if
i was a student that would be a dream to study in that building but of course you can just look at
the facilities you know you got to take all these other things into consideration but the facilities
might be something that you want to look into as well so the fourth factor that i would take
into consideration is apply and decide later so i talked a little bit about this in the first factor
but apply and when i mean apply don't apply to one or two schools apply to a few schools i remember
when i was trying to make this decision i was overwhelmed where should i go oh where to apply
and what made me feel better about the decision is i really can't make a decision if i haven't
applied there's nothing to really decide about you need to apply lay your cards out
and then decide later so apply and decide later so you can't really make a full decision if you don't
have all the facts in front of you and that's why it's important to apply to more than one school
so that you could evaluate the packages that you receive of acceptance so for example one
school may offer you a full ride they may pay for your expenses your tuition and everything versus
another school so it's important in order to make that decision to have options and the more options
the better you can make that decision as well and don't worry about it i wouldn't worry about it
the only thing i would worry about is applying and then you'll make that decision when that
decision comes and you don't know if you're going to get in or not so what's the point of
stressing out about it before applying so just apply and then decide so the fifth factor that
i would consider is you need to plan and prepare so once you've decided that you are going to apply
you need to plan and prepare your course of action so figure out which schools you're going to apply
and don't think about too much about it i would apply to a variety of them as much as you can
because i do understand there is a fee associated to each application so list down the schools and
if you're able to afford to apply to five then go for it so figure out those schools figure out
the requirements for each one so for sure you're going to need a portfolio and some schools have
you know different requirements and others are very similar then do your research for each one
because you should do a bit of research because that will also influence your portfolio as well
and then of course write down the deadlines for each school because each school is going
to have a different submission deadline for your application so do that and list the requirements
requirements for each one and then begin to plan your course of action and really carve out the
time and you should be doing that almost every day working on that portfolio i spent close to a year
preparing my portfolio for my master's degree so i would really recommend spending that time
on your portfolio and spending each time so when i would get off of work i would go to the library
or go to a computer lab and work on my portfolio each day i would chip away at it so take the time
to spend on your portfolio and i would recommend doing it each and every day a little bit and
then spending even more time on the weekend so that i found for myself by working on it
each and every day and dedicating a project let's say per month or a few projects within that month
that i wouldn't lose focus and sight of my goal to apply to the schools so that was important for
me to build that momentum so depending on where you're at as well with your portfolio of course
each one is different but i do recommend spending that time it really shows when you spend that time
on your portfolio so do do that so there you have it guys those are the five factors that i
would take into consideration when you're deciding to do your master's degree or
when you're deciding to accept that offer to the school think about it be mindful but of
course remember these are my personal opinions and perspectives and of course they vary from
individual to individual so remember that but hopefully this gave you some insight and some
perspective on the things that you should take into consideration when you're applying for school
and i hope this was helpful for you if it was helpful make sure to like subscribe and hit
the notification bell for future videos i hope to see you guys next time and thank you so much bye