Rutgers vs. Michigan for Urban Design

[myh5015]

I have attended both open houses and have come away with very different strengths of each of the programs that has made my decision even more challenging.

UMich has a Physical Planning and Design concentration and the Real Estate certificate in their program that gives me the urban design skills that I seek. However, it comes at a very significant cost. I came away from the open house pretty inspired. They put on a great open house and I see myself succeeding at UMich, especially with the work they are doing in Detroit.

Rutgers has an Environmental and Physical planning concentration that seems to be similar in some ways to the PP and D concentration at UMich. But the program is housed under a policy school and has a very heavy policy influence. It seems that I can get urban design but would have to customize my course selection and depend on directed studies and internships to get more advanced UD skills. A huge plus is their placement rate, 86% within 90 days of graduation. By far, the best I have heard of any other program. The career services for students are top notch. The lady that handles the career services for the program seems like she will move mountains to help students find the internships/jobs they desire. The program overall is highly reputable and ranked. My issue is that urban design still seems a bit limited but would that matter if the school can connect me with the right jobs? Dr. Nelessen seems to be the person who is pushing for more UD within the school but it also seems like for now, it is a one man show for students who seek UD. There is a transition within the school to be more inclusive of UD but a weakness I see is that they do not have a strong connection to the architecture program. UMich has both schools housed under one building.

Rutgers has a significant amount of funding as well and it can be seen in their facilities. The school building was nice and illustrated the support the school has from the University. UMich's facilities left much to be desired.

I could go on and on. I would love input from others to hear other perspectives.

[nrschmid]

Don't rely on an academic to place you in your desired job. Do informational interviews with firms where you would like to work after school. I work as a designer but am extremely skeptical about the technical quality of most urban design degrees. It depends on what type of design you want to do after school. Do you want to do more conceptual/big picture design (which might work with an MUD) or the nuts and bolts of physical site design (in which case I would stress an MLA or possibly an MArch).

[mcse]

OK, UMich perspective for you here. Yeah, our facilities are kind of meh, but you sort of get used to it after a while. If you're interested in urban design, I don't think there is any replacement for a program with a good focus in it. In addition to the strength of the faculty, the other students in the physical planning concentration really collaborate and push each other to produce better work. Critiques and reviews are a huge part of physical planning/architecture/urban design. We never have a problem getting architecture professors and other design professionals to come and critique our work. Additionally, being connected to the architecture school has its perks. You have a lot more courses to choose from and some neat gadgets to play with. In a school with less of a design focus, I doubt you'll have that same kind of experience.

On the job front, we actually used to share a career coordinator with architecture. And because we're part of architecture, we really have a strong network of design alum to utilize when it's time to search for a job. Nevertheless, my impression of urban design jobs is that it's really based on merit and what you can produce. You need to put together a good portfolio to show off your work and the only way you can do that is if you develop the skills and abilities in the field. No career coordinator can help you get a job in the design field if you don't have a good portfolio. I would add that in most cases, just taking the courses in physical planning is not enough. You have to spend a lot of time and many sleepless nights on your work, all of which could be scrapped once you get critiqued and someone pokes a million holes into your proposal. A lot of students interested in design end up adding MLA/MArch, or continue on to the urban design program to get additional refinement.

Lastly, I'm not sure I would put much weight into placement rates. It all depends on how the program does the survey, who's responding and if respondents are actually answering honestly. Hope that helps...