zindi

Cao Natalija I'll try to answer your questions as well as I can. For school searching, Internet is your best friend. If you already know a topic or an area of interest you would like to pursue further, than it only makes it easier. But, I'm had only a vague idea of the area of my further studies, but still managed to chose 6 schools that I felt would be good for me. There are all kinds of criteria to take into consideration: academics, fundung opportunities, locations, prestige, school's professional network... Also you can ask people advice, and I am here to give you some when you get deeper into school searching... I prepared at IAC, for GRE 3 months, and after that TOEFL is a breeze My average grade was 8.71 - not perfect, but it got me here you should know that you GPA is not the only admission criteria, and of course you are aware of the importance of the portfolio in our profession Scholarships in USA are usually given by the school, and at the graduate level most or all student get some financial aid. However, the amount can differ. My advice is to make this criteria high-up on your list when searching for schools. Also, PhD students get more funding more easily than Master students. To obtain a Bachelor in Architecture in the USA usually takes 5 years, so our Master, or old 5-year degree is here considered to be a professional Bachelor. However, there are no limitations regarding the programs you can apply to: you can choose a professional Master, a post-professional Master (which is what I'm doing) or a PhD... Hope this helps. All the best!

Hi everyone! My name is Milena Zindovic and I will be starting post-professional master in architecture (MArch 2) at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY this fall. I didn't get a full scholarship, but the school is covering the tuition and some living expenses, and me and my family are supplying the rest. I'm still in Belgrade, but I'm leaving for USA in 2 months to start the program, so I can't give you any advice on college life yet. However, I did go through the whole application process, GRE and TOEFL exams, with a big help from Elizabeth and the people from IAC , so if you have any questions on that part, ask away!

pa napisi sta studiras, na kom si fakultetu, da li imas stipendiju...

Thanx everybody

Sasa, imam jos jedno pitanje za tebe, vezano za Yale. Ne znam da li je i u tvom slucaju bilo ovako, ali Yale School of Architecture trazi da se nadoknada za aplikaciju plati cekom. Evo i citata sa njihovog sajta: Kako se ovo resava? Da li je neophodan cek iz banke ili postoji neki drugi nacin da se pare posalju u Ameriku? Hvala i pozdrav, Milena

Sasa, stvarno si mi puno pomogao da resim ovu dilemu... evo vec su mi odgovorili na mejl i kazu da je ok da posaljem sve zajedno posto su se profesori potpisali preko koverte Jos jednom hvala.

Hvala puno! probacu prvo na mejl...

Cao Sasa, jedno pitanje vezano za Yale. ja sad apliciram na njihov post-professional master of architecture i trebalo bi uskoro da im posaljem paket, a imam jednu dilemu. nazalost, oni nemaju nikakav e-mail kontakt na koji bih mogla da postavim to pitanje, pa evo da pitam tebe za tvoje iskukstvo. naime, radi se o pismima preporuke. na sajtu pise da bi pisma trebalo pa posalju profesori licno, ali i sam znas kakvi su nasi profesori, a i kakva je nasa posta, pa sam ja mislila da pisma posaljem zajedno sa paketom, naravno, zatvorena u koverte, potpisana, zapecacena i sve sto treba... nekako mi je tako sigurnije da ce stici. Pitanje je samo da li ce skola praviti problem sto nisam ispostovala njihovu odrednicu? Hvala i pozdrav Milena

I have another question, this time it's about the letters of recommendation. If it is stated that the recommender should send the letters himself, which you understand they probably won't do, can I send them instead? I understand that this means they want the letters mailed separetly, so I'll mail them for my professors. what do you recommend: that I use regular mail or a delivery service such as FedEx?

On the TOEFL Writing section I had a maximum result : 30 points! Besides, I was rather satisfied with how I did my essays on the GRE and Christopher always had nice things to say about my writing. I'm sure you can find some of my essays in my folder at the Center. That's why I'm so suprised. I will be sure to mention that in my personal statements. Have you had the time the read the ones I sent you? I hope that the Score Report will have more details..

I called ETS phone service today and got following results: Verbal 600 85% Quantitative 710 74% Analytical 3.5 18% I guess it means I did pretty good on Verbal and Quantitative, but I am a bit dissapointed about my Analytical Section Score- I really thought I did better! Any comments?

Thanx Elizabeth I will be sure to follow your instructions next time I write you. And thank you for your encouraging words, it's just what I need right now. Let me just see if I got it right. Since my school lasted 5 years, just like an American architecture school, I will not need a WES evaluation. That's great! Next, the form, which is much more complicated. Well, acctualy, it seems that the on-line form and the paper, dowloadable form are a bit different. I will do the following, I will try to extract that one page from the on-line form somehow and send it to you by e-mail. If it doesn't work, I will wait for our meeting to show it to you. If it still remains a mistery, I will send them a paper application. I supose it won't make a big difference... Thank you very much.

Yes, Elizabeth, I've been to advising, I've been to your personal statement seminar and the GRE course... I have received my TOEFL results and they're good: 118/120 and I'm still waiting for my GRE results. I've written to your e-mail a few days ago, but you haven't replied... I am not applying to only one school, but I have tried to fill in that one on-line application and encountered problems. I don't think I can send you the link for the on-line application form because it requires a log-in. However, here's a link to download the application http://www.pratt.edu/newsite/backgroundOpt..._GR_266_276.pdf I hope you can give me some explanations on how to fill it in. i have written to the school's admission office, but they also haven't replied Thanx

oh, and another thing... they say it may be necessary to have my diploma evaluated by the WES www.wes.org should I enter that procedure too? In the instructions for applying to the Pratt Institute it is writen that international students can not receive financial aid, but are eligable for merit-based scholarships. What does this mean - do they give money or not? thanx

Today I tried to fill in an on-line application form for graduate studies at the Pratt Institute in New York and I have come up with something I don't quite understand: apparently they want me to list chronologicaly all the schools I have ever attended in my life. If I have correctly understood it, they mean even kindergarten. And not only to they want the schools entered in their form, but they want each grade separetly. Now I do not really understand when does my education begin? I have first gone to "jaslice" when I was three years old, then moved on to "obdaniste" when I was four, "predskolsko" when I was five, and started elementary school at the age of six. Now, elementary school has 8 grades, high school has four and my Faculty lasted 5 years + "apsolventski rok". Alltogether, it makes 21 years of schooling... Their form has only 16 places... Even if I start with elementary school it makes a total of 18 years! In the instruction for filling the form they say we should type the names of grades and level of schools in their original and they give examples in German and French. But those that apply for Serbian? Those enyone have any experience with such requirement? Thank you.