I have thus far been supremely critical of the GSD. I want to share this now to express that I have missed the school very much this summer and I'm looking forward to being back. It started off as a capricious reply to an email but ended with quite a nice note, I think.
I'd love to hear about your experience at the GSD so far (though I know you're on a different track): do you think you picked the right program? Are you happy at the GSD? If you did, why did you choose the GSD over [the Princeton] SoA?
The Harvard Design School has been phenomenal. I think that in the quality of academic discourse with regard to the discipline of Architecture as well as the focus on thorough and comprehensive professional education that allows one to enter the profession, Harvard is by far the best school to study Architecture at graduate level. I did not attend Princeton because I went there for undergraduate and wanted to go somewhere different. Also I was not admitted because, according to rumors (and I always take rumors as seriously as facts), Princeton doesn't accept it's own undergrads unless they go out and get other experience first. I was applying in my senior year of college.
Am I happy? I don't believe that happiness is the ultimate goal in life; perhaps a feeling of fulfillment or the knowledge that something has been worth it is more important. Would we ever be able to appreciate the brilliance of the light in a Caravaggio painting without the equally dark shadows that accompany it? I have seen the strongest of people break down and cry at the GSD. I have also experienced some of the best parties and met some of the most genuinely kind, talented, and quirky people. It has been worth it.
