Beginning my fifth semester of my dual degree at Taubman College I have balloted several times for professors for different classes throughout my time here and one would think I would be used to this process. Yet, each time I ballot I get nervous that I would end up not getting one of my top picks, especially when it comes to a six credit course like studio. You desperately want one of your top choices since you don't want to feel as though you are wasting 20 plus hours a week and six digit tuition dollars on a studio, or professor, that you did not desire.
These emotions and thoughts compounded that much more when you know there a certain faculty members on the ballot that you've been told one to many horror stories about by other students. My head is processing these factors as I listen to each potential studio give their run-down of it's goals and objectives. I am relieved that most of the studio options are really incredible. From travel to Barcelona for food markets, studying border conditions and watersheds in El Paso/Juarez, contemplating the future of autonomous driving and the built environment, and envisioning large scale urbanism in interstellar space, it became difficult to decide what NOT to chose. I consider how each studio will benefit and impact my academic career and future as an architect and urban designer since many of the studios are tackling real world issues and possible futures.
Eventually I listed my first to last choices, submitted my ballot, and waited for my result. Luckily I got one of my top picks and I am happy to say I will get to spend some of frigid February doing field studies along the Rio Grande River and the U.S. - Mexico border in El Paso and Juarez! More to follow on this Grande adventure that is graduate school!
The reflections, recollections, and insights from the viewpoint of a dual-masters student here at the University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture. My three year journey to obtain a Masters of Architecture and a Master of Urban Design has brought me, and will continue to take me, through some of the most incredible, toughest, happiest, and satisfying moments and experiences of my life. Please join me through the wanderlust that is my design and academic expedition.
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