2011

4th

2010

9th

2009

11th

A recent ranking of architecture schools placed Washington University’s Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, fourth in the nation.

The ranking of “America’s Best Architecture and Design Schools” was published by Greenway Communications last week. It appeared in the most recent issue of DesignIntelligence, a design trade journal published bimonthly.

The Graduate School of Architecture was ranked ninth last year and 11th in 2009.

The ranking is determined by surveys sent across architecture and design firms, said Bruce Lindsey, dean of the College of Architecture.

He attributes the school’s recent success to its faculty and graduates.

“[It] reflects the good work of our alumni—our alums work in firms all across the world,” Lindsey said. “Our school is known for educating architects that are effective right after college. They are known for their knowledge in design, technology, history theory and sustainability.”

According to DesignIntellegence’s website, the study targets employers in architecture and design firms who hire graduates directly out of school. Firms then answer, in their experience, which schools from the past five years have best prepared their students for success in the industry.

The survey then asks employers to evaluate students’ knowledge of design, sustainability, analysis and planning, construction methods and materials, research and theory, communication skills and computer ability.

Kathryn Dean, director of the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, said the ranking reflects the quality of the school’s faculty and program.

“I’ve worked in academia for over 17 years before coming here and Wash. U. has the most dedicated faculty I have ever worked with,” she said. “We raise our standards every day.”

Dean has worked at the University for three-and-a-half years. Before coming to Sam Fox, she served on the faculty at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

She added that the school has progressed significantly during her short tenure at the University.

“We’ve completely revised the curriculum. The faculty is very creative [and] we work together in small-working groups to tackle different issues,” Dean said.

She also noted pride in the students who live up to the high standards their teachers set for them.

“The students here are absolutely wonderful to work with,” Dean said.

Usually about 30-40 percent of graduating students enroll in graduate or professional school for the year following their graduation, according to Mark Smith, director of the Career Center. Another third of the students enroll in graduate school within five years of graduation. In the average year, slightly more than 50 percent of seniors plan to enter into the workforce immediately upon graduating from Washington University.

Some students are worried about finding jobs given the current tumultuous economic environment, but according to Smith, students are not having a more difficult time finding jobs.

“Even though the market is going down, we are bringing in more employers,” Smith said.

Senior Danielle Porter will be working for L’Oreal next year in Little Rock, Ark. Porter found her job through a Career Center career fair. Porter is a student worker at the Career Center.

“I wouldn’t say there’s a larger number of students who don’t have jobs this year versus any other year. Most of my friends have jobs,” Porter said.

Many students work for Wash. U., Teach for America or other employers whose employment policies have not been especially affected by the economy.

According to Smith, employers tend to hold Wash. U. students in high regard.

“If they have hired a Wash. U. student in the past, they will continue to because they know how good the students are,” Smith said.

There are no geographic or industry-related employment trends among Wash. U. students. Graduates find jobs all over the country and in a diverse range of industries.

“We have never been vested in one particular geographic area or industry,” Smith said.

Regardless, Smith acknowledges that many students are attracted to specific geographic regions when searching for jobs. Factors including family and industry draw students to particular regions.

According to Smith, a new employment trend has been emerging. Employers are hiring more students who participated in their summer internship programs. Companies will hire students as interns the summer before their senior year. If the students are successful, the company will extend a job offer in many cases.

“More and more employers are looking into internships as a way to do their hiring. We are really stressing to students the importance of internships,” Smith said.

Smith encourages students to explore career opportunities through summer internships. There are three main benefits to summer internships: They can lead to students being hired, they provide work experience and they help students to discover their true career interests.

After interning for Scottrade for nine months, senior Jeff Ye was offered a full-time position for next year.

”Just through the internship they were able to see that culturally I was a fit and that they were satisfied with my quality of work ethic,” Ye said.

“The internships are important because they are a way of turning something into a job,” Smith said.

The Career Center offers students career counseling even after graduation, and encourages students to keep in contact over the summer while continuing their job searches.

Still, many students find the process daunting.

“I was a little bit worried… but it ended up working out in the end,” Porter said.

Junior Jumpstart is a one-day conference for third-year students to explore their career interests after final exams in May.

Through this program, students can meet with deans and advisers, interact with recent alumni and professionals in different fields, and attend informational sessions on a broad range of topics from creating a résumé to applying to medical school.

Back when dean Sarah Johnson founded this program more than 20 years ago, Junior Jumpstart was exclusively for pre-health students. For the last couple of years, however, this program has expanded to offer sessions and resources for those in engineering and art.

On the new engineering track, sessions will be given by deans, professionals, teachers and current graduate students to provide a full perspective on attending graduate school and getting a job after receiving a B.S. degree.

On the art track, students can attend presentations given by artists and designers; learn about strategies in evaluating and applying to Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs, residencies and fellowships; participate in a discussion with “creative community” professionals; and review portfolios with a professional.

While the additional engineering and art sessions mostly benefit students from those respective schools, they will also enable students interested in multiple disciplines to seek advice in one setting.

“In our day and age, students don’t like to be put in boxes,” said program coordinator Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo, a dean in the College of Arts & Sciences.

“You might be a student in the School of Engineering, but you might want to go and get a Ph.D. in physics. You might be a mathematics student who wants to go to graduate school in engineering,” Diallo said. “Having all the schools there and helping us offer very diverse programs is best for all the students.”

Similarly, Junior Jumpstart’s diverse tracks enables students to combine their interests in one area with those in other fields.

“Because of the diversity of the sessions, art students can structure their own day, which may include a portfolio review, but also, say, a workshop on writing a personal statement or a session on applying to law school,” said Jennifer Meyer, a career adviser to art students at the Career Center.

In addition to adding new tracks, the program coordinators have also expanded the scopes of current tracks. For example, the pre-health track now emphasizes options beyond attending medical school and becoming a doctor for those interested in health care.

To inform students of the various careers in health care, the pre-health track will host a new session in which professionals such as doctors, social workers and genetic counselors collaborate together to interact with patients.

The program coordinators strongly endorse this more flexible and comprehensive philosophy on health care because students should be able to find careers that best suit their interests.

“Our students’ happiness once they get into their desired field and build a career is what we are really reaching for. We are hoping to connect students to their individual passions,” said Liz Drury, a public service coordinator involved in the planning of the pre-health track.

Overall, the program coordinators are very excited about the opportunities that Junior Jumpstart will offer to students.

“I’m really excited to help put on a program that can lift people out of those mid-college blues and get them ready for senior year and whatever comes beyond,” said John Menze, a junior representative from the engineering school who helps to plan Junior Jumpstart.

“It [takes place] the day after finals, so people are usually a bit tired, but people find that they get all the information they need in one day,” Toliver-Diallo said. “It is really a way to jump-start the summer.”

While some students have a clear vision of what career they want to pursue, others still are uncertain about their future directions. In either case, coordinators of Junior Jumpstart strongly encourage all students to attend the program.

“Expand your mind.  Come to Junior Jumpstart to see what else is out there,” Osborn said. “If you are decided on a job after graduation, great; join in to see what info you can get to help make that option a reality. If you are unsure what your path will be, come and get ideas to make your senior year a productive one.”’

Students can register for Junior Jumpstart online. Early registration (before March 31) costs $45, regular registration (April 1 – April 30) costs $65 and walk-in/late registration (on May 13 only) costs $85.

Still have unanswered questions? Contact Dean Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo at juniorjumpstart@wustl.edu.

It is not a test for applicants to take, but rather a tool for recommenders meant to complement traditional letters of recommendation. Up to five recommenders rank the student in a series of 24 statements about soft, or non-cognitive, skills on a scale from 1 (below average) to 5 (truly exceptional). Statements include “produces novel ideas,” “meets deadlines,” “works well under stress,” and “is worthy of trust from others.”

The results are distilled into a report on six traits, including knowledge and creativity, communication skills, teamwork, resilience, planning and organization, and ethics and integrity. The report also displays recommenders’ comments on each category.

Very few graduate programs have adopted the tool this year. The tool, called the “Personality Potential Index (PPI),” was introduced only this summer, and most schools did not hear of it until September, although Virginia Tech is one school that is using it during this application cycle.

Dean Richard Smith of Washington University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences said that the University is not adopting it until it is clear that the index is a good indicator of success in graduate school. He agreed with the intended goals of the test but is waiting for empirical results before adding to the difficulty and expense of graduate admissions.

“They are attempting to deal with a real problem, and that problem is that success…as an undergraduate is a rather poor predictor of success in Ph.D. programs that, like ours, which are deeply research focused, [are] designed to train people to do independent, creative scholarship,” he said.

Another goal of the test is to systematize the recommendation process, he said, since recommendation letters have suffered from inflation recently.

“So if you say in the letter, this is a very good student, you’re damning by faint praise,” Smith said. “The percentage that are in the top 1 to 5 percent greatly exceed 1 to 5 percent.”

But the PPI would mean more work for students, recommenders and admissions committees, so Smith noted it is important to do a cost-benefit analysis if evidence that the tool works does emerge.

The test has met with more skepticism from some. Erik Herzog, associate professor of biology, who has served on graduate admissions committees, questioned the utility of the PPI. He said individual schools’ recommendation forms often ask for similar rankings, but he strongly prioritizes GRE scores and letters of recommendation over them.

Washington University personality psychologist Robert Krueger said the test had the potential to be useful based on his experience, though he has not encountered it yet as a recommender. But like Smith, he is reserving judgment until its predictive power is better known.

Krueger studies the links between individual personality and risk for mental health problems. For instance, people with a more stress-reactive personality, or those who react poorly to stress, are at greater risk of developing depression and anxiety disorders.

In his work, he develops his own measures of personality in addition to using standard tests in the discipline. These include self-report inventories and reports from others, not unlike the basic idea underlying the PPI. Questions are often written in anticipation of the expected responses—he may write statements that he expects anxious people to endorse, for example—in an attempt to figure out if he’s measuring what he thinks he’s measuring, and getting it reliably.

The validity of a given personality test is its success at predicting an outcome, Krueger said. And the more systematic it is, the more predictive it will be.

“It seems like they’re trying to accomplish some kind of organized way of extracting the kind of information you would get from a recommendation…It forces people to consider all of the domains systematically…and my guess is that that’s going to be helpful,” Krueger said.

Students had mixed opinions. David Rheinstrom, a senior planning to apply for M.F.A. programs in a year, said he thought it sounded comparable to other types of application materials and had the potential to be useful or useless.

“I would be inclined to think that somebody’s personality would influence how well you do in grad school,” he said. “It’s probably just another thing to do, but who knows.”