University of New Mexico Reviews of Master's in Architecture

"Pros: Excellent education/experience for the low cost - great value! Faculty is right by the side of the students and is willing to support the student by any means. Active faculty and students around the studio spaces to help/critique when needed. The School of Architecture building is inspirational and an amazing place to be for pursuing my M.Arch degree. Cons: Not widely recognized by the rest of the nation - hidden "gem.""

"This is a very rigorous program that is very rewarding."

"Not nearly enough financial aid, especially given the additional program fees and course load makes working extremely difficult. Assistantships are few and don't pay much towards tuition. It's obvious many teachers don't care; I have been told and overheard myself of teachers proclaiming exactly that. An entire class was nothing but the professor giving links to youtube tutorials - I learned nothing and that class was on using architectural building software: something definitely important. This has hindered my advancement in other classes and is never addressed even after leaving negative course reviews. Why can't the teachers take the time to teach? Many studio professors expect you to read minds and never give straight answers even when asked straight questions. All the good teachers get pushed out by the dean. The college recently hired a teacher who has NEVER taught a single class and has never even taken the course he's teaching: he reads directly from his notes and rarely even looks at the class. this guy replaced a truly wonderful teacher. If you can find a helpful professor, good for you because they are few. They're only required to spend something like 20% of their time teaching, and they are not going above and beyond that. There are plenty of better schools for Architecture Masters: pick somewhere besides this one."

"UNM's M.Arch program is very intimate and expects a lot from the students. It provides real world challenges and problems for the students to engage and learn. the size of the program allows for a very close relationship with the professors and faculty and fellow students. the program has amazing facilities and provides a very value packed education."

"The architecture graduate program at UNM is essentially a full-time job for about 2.5 years. On top of this "job" you still need to find ways to afford a living. The thing about this program though is that if you enjoy what you're doing there, it doesn't feel like a job at all."

"I enjoy the small class sizes and close knit community of this school. The architecture building, designed by Antoine Predock, is a fairly new structure and is nice to work in. An internship program would be really helpful, as well as more help with career placement. Overall the professors and the advisers are easily accessible and helpful."

"With the graduate architecture program at UNM, they have licensed architects who teach us everything they know. They provide us with the information that we need to know in the field. They value our education as well. They are willing to stay late with you or set up private meetings as well. One of the drawbacks though is the workload. Going to architecture grad school is essentially 2 full-time jobs. You have to make time to be able to do anything else."