Columbia M.Arch · Seventeen years of one-on-one work.
Architecture and Design Admissions
Applying to architecture and design programs works somewhat differently than liberal arts or engineering applications. On top of grades, testing, and essays, most programs want a portfolio, and the portfolio is usually where the decision gets made.
Most admissions advisors can't evaluate design work and most portfolio instructors haven't spent much time thinking about how an admissions committee reads an application.
I have a Master of Architecture from Columbia GSAPP, and I worked in architecture and exhibition design at Thinc Design in New York. I've worked with students applying to undergraduate architecture and design programs, and with B.Arch and M.Arch applicants, on concepts, projects, drawings, models, sequencing, and presentation, while running the rest of the application at the same time.
Selected Acceptances
Graduate
Columbia GSAPP
Harvard GSD
Yale School of Architecture
University of Pennsylvania, Weitzman School of Design
UCLA Architecture and Urban Design
University of Washington
Undergraduate
Cornell AAP
Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture
RISD
Pratt
Parsons
How it works
Design-track students follow the same arc as my other students, with portfolio work built into it. The difference is timing--portfolios take much longer to build than essays do, so the work starts earlier and everything else gets planned around it.
For students applying to undergraduate programs, this is part of the full admissions engagement, so you get one advisor, plan, and timeline.
Who this is for
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High school students applying to undergraduate architecture, design, or art programs
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Students building a portfolio from scratch, or shaping work they already have into one
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B.Arch and M.Arch applicants
One Student’s Path
A junior applying to architecture programs, where the portfolio had to get built at the same time as everything else.
The student came to me at the start of junior year for help with their portfolio. That’s usually how design-track families find me, because the portfolio is the part of the application that nobody around them knows how to help with. But, because portfolios work best when they are integrated into the application on a detail and thematic level, and because they need to get done at the same time as every other component, working on everything together is a major advantage.
A portfolio takes months. The projects have to be thought through and made, and then usually remade, photographed, and put into some kind of order. So portfolio work ran through all of junior year, and SAT prep ran at the same time. The two got scheduled around each other deliberately. Testing finished before application season started. The portfolio stayed far enough along that there was nothing to scramble over in the fall.
In the late spring of junior year the work widened to include the whole application including school list, essays, and an "angle" that would resonate with interests and deep connections from the portfolio. The portfolio kept developing through all of that. By the fall the portfolio and the essays and the school list were all pointing at the same interests.
Most design-track families end up with a committee. There’s an admissions consultant who can’t read a drawing, a portfolio teacher who has never looked at the Common App, and usually a test tutor working off a separate calendar on top of that. Here one person ran the sequence, so there was nothing to coordinate between advisors and the application presented as a uniform package.
The student was admitted to top undergraduate architecture programs. The portfolio was finished early enough that senior fall was manageable.
"I had an absolutely fantastic experience working with Mike on the M. Arch application process. Mike guided me, a non-architecture background student with no idea how and where to begin, through every aspect the process, from choosing schools to planning and refining a portfolio to writing application essays.
Mike is extremely professional, smart, creative, and kind, with unfailing enthusiasm and attention to detail, even on tight deadlines. After our work together, I was accepted to seven out of the nine M.Arch programs to which I applied, including to my top choice.
I highly recommend working with Mike to anyone feeling daunted by the M. Arch application process (especially with no architecture background) or simply looking to grow as a writer, thinker, and designer." --EL
"Mike has been helping me with my applications for masters in architecture and I feel so lucky to have found him.
Mike is very knowledgable about all aspects of architecture including the general application process, portfolio development, layouts, creating concepts, and model making. He has helped me strategize and been so patient and encouraging during this stressful process.
Mike is one of the kindest people I've ever met and is always positive and encouraging. I could not recommend him more! I would go as far as to say he has changed my relationship with architecture -- most people I've met in the architecture academia are difficult and a bit patronizing, Mike, however, is open-minded, excited and extremely warm."
-Zoe
Portfolios read best when they resonate with the deeper connections and passions articulated in the rest of the application, and with the student's story as a whole.