100 seats only? Gosh. I wonder is it difficult to get this course? My CGPA is 3.75 and my KK is about 6.8. I put Senibina (UTM) as my first choice in the UPU list. Hmmm....do you think I has a high chance of getting the course?

By the way, could someone please enlighten me on how the interview is being carried out? Some of my seniors said there will be drawing session, as well as Q&A session. Gosh. That really freak me out. FYI, I was a Bio student. I don't even have any sketching/drawing background...

with 3.75, i'd say, quite good, unless u screw up the interview.

i've written on some tips for the interview in previous pages. try and check pages 9-13.

in brief, there'll be 3 sessions of the interview process:

i. the aptitude test - where they will test ur IQ and general knowledge
ii. the drawing test - to test ur sketching/drawing skills
iii. the verbal interview - to test ur communciation skills, attitude and generally to look at what we're getting ourselves into

and no, u dont really need to be good at sketching or drawing for the interview. it would help if u have 3.00 and below, but at 3.75, u might (and i say MIGHT) be overlooked on that shortcoming.

Thanks for your reply Azarimy. I really appreciate it. Hmm....I also put Senibina (USM) as my second choice, hopefully it will increase my chance of getting this course.

Speaking of interview, that really freak me out. I had the experience of been interviewed for JPA scholarship before. I would say, it was disastrous. Perhaps that was contributed by my lack of confidence and also not-so-fluent English, I stammered a lot and needless to say, I couldn't express my idea well during the interview. And yes, I didn't get the scholarship (that's why I opt for STPM)~

So, is the interview in English or BM? After 1.5 years in Form 6, my BM is even worse now.

well , i need to know something .
is it based on CGPA of a student or based on the credits of the subjects taken ?
lets say a person physics math and chemisty are good , but the PA is bad, which lowered all the CGPA .
compared to a person with physics math chemistry and PA are average ...

the UTM interview is usually conducted in the student's preference of language (BM or BI, non other). but even if it's conducted in BM, half of it will be in english to test ur language proficiency. since UTM's architecture is about 90% english, there isnt much weight given to BM proficiency. i'm not saying we're not for "membudayakan bahasa melayu", but typically graduates can survive with english without BM, but wont survive with only BM without english.

so u'd be better off brushing up ur language skills.

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Added on March 27, 2007, 1:45 ami'm pretty sure it's CGPA first, subjects second.

This post has been edited by azarimy: Mar 27 2007, 01:45 AM

UM is 30 students per year? I wonder why the students intake is so few compared to others...

I heard from my fren whose fren is pursuing architecture course in UM, she said that UM's archi course is more on theoretical studies than practical works. Is this true? Cos I dont think an archi will survive the harsh working environment if he's lack of practical skills.

And do you know what's the USM student intake for archi?

a lot of people have been asking me about the number of intakes. tell u what, let me call some people up, and try and get an exact number for each school. i dont suppose private schools are relevant, coz they have the tendency to just take as many they want hahaha.

anyways, if u think UM is theoretical, u havent seen UTM's. i'd say UTM is full of whackjobs who've already established themselves as prominent designers, but now want to design theoretical stuffs that are way too visionary for the lecturers themselves. this is due to UTM being very student driven in its heading of the school.

bottom line is, UM is far more practical than UTM, but UTM has more emphasis on technical studies than UM.

What is dubbed practical, and what is dubbed technical? These terms are driving me nuts. So which one is better?

And btw, when speaking about architecture and architects, lotsa people out there would only/normally mention USM and UTM. UM is almost non-existent in their selections. But since you've said that UM's quality is comparable to USM and UTM, why is it that they didn't mention it?

This post has been edited by europology: Mar 27 2007, 02:49 AM

and there's no one bothers UPM too. i mean does the accreditation matter to the extent that it's not worth mentioning at all?

With your 4.00 pointer, I guess you can easily be awarded the best student in your course if you enroll in UPM. And that's how you're gonna catch the attention of those hungry employers out there!

cassie , wit ur result i think u can apply for NUS ...

NUS needs interviews for architecture... and that's the thing she's afraid of.

well, i'd measure a school based on the products. this can range from the graduating students, papers written or research published by the school. since UPM is relatively very new, there isnt much to measure it with.

but this doesnt mean UPM is a bad school. it just lacks the measurement units i can play with. but rest assured, once UPM gets its accreditation (which they're currently working very hard on), they'd come under the spotlight for sure. until that time, i'd recommend all would be architects to always put accreditation first.

why?

bcoz accreditation means the government secures the quality of education by lembaga akitek malaysia, pertubuhan akitek malaysia and lembaga akreditasi negara by law. that awards u with a full license to practice, as well as international recognition. dont get caught under the usual "jobless graduates are incompetent, uncapable and unrecognized" by the industry. architecture is a protected profession, so there's no other way around it.

so?

accredited schools have the obligation to serve the public, society and country, not the students per se. this would mean, if the school determines the student is unfit to practice in society, they wont let the student graduate, as easy as that. compare this to schools who serve the students bcoz they pay the lecturers' salary?

I'm sorry... I'm wondering, I put UTM's diploma as my 2nd option in UPU.. My first option is Um's foundation.

Does that mean IF I get UM's, I will not be called for an interview for UTM's diploma?

it's about specialization. u have to understand that tertiery education differs from one school to the other. practicality is something very much related to the real-world practice, meaning the school emphasized on training of the students to gear towards the industry. what the industry needs, the industry gets. that's one of the reasons why UM has more practicing architects teaching than any other schools in msia. i think they have more than 60% of the teaching staffs consisting of practicing architects.

technicality is the skills of building technology and construction, as well as most skills that relates to it. it has been one of the niche of UTM since its days as a technical college pre-1970. being technically competent means the graduates are very capable at functioning independently in the office. this also leads to the tendency of them to perform on an entire project alone without aid of architect's or technical assistants.

so i wouldnt say one is better than the other. it's about what u want to specialize in.

u will be called for the interview if u qualify, regardless of what choice u've put in the UPU form. please read my previous posts.

Normally, when is the interview for UTM's arch?When will we know if we have been chosen for interview.? Just want to get ready for the interview.

the interview is typically conducted in may. sometimes early may, sometimes late. u be called for the interview by letters of invitation about 2 weeks before the interview, which would mean as soon as early april. if u're selected, u will get the offer letter by the end of june, just about a week or two before the course starts.

take note of where ur interview centre will be. usually we have 1 interview centre per each state. but usually melaka is joined with johor, negeri sembilan with KL, due to the small number of applicants. if that's the case, be prepared to travel. this is also the same with sabah and sarawak. if the numbers from sabah is too small (say only 4 candidates, compared to 40 in sarawak), they might conduct the interview in sarawak only, and those in sabah might have to travel.

but if u have any problem travelling, for example, recent injury or other unavoidable problems, inform UTM as soon as possible. u can change the interview centre, or request a special case interview.

I need to know what are the lappie recommended specs (processor speed (for Intel Core 2 Duo), graphics card, system memory, hard disk space etc) for an archi student? It must be able to handle (intensive?) 3D modelling works using autocad and related softwares smoothly and brilliantly, which are necessary in studio projects during the archi course.

This post has been edited by europology: Mar 30 2007, 05:10 AM

well, i'm not quite well versed interms of computing requirements compared to 2-3 years ago... but i'll take a shot.

dual core is a good bet, as i've seen it in action (compared to amd's despite whatever they claim). basically, u'll need a setup that could play a decent FPS with high-quality settings (anti-aliasing x4, shadows, volumetric lightings etc). if u can play halflife 2 at full settings, that should be good enough for atleast a year or two.

harddisk space isnt much demand unless u have low RAM. the lowest i'd recommend last year is 1GB. i suppose u might go higher this year, but simply put, the more RAM u have, the less u'd wait for something to appear on screen on ur action (means it uses less virtual memory).

software wise, u'll use alot of 3d modelling. autocad? not so much anymore, but it's still being taught at most schools as it will involve working/construction drawings. most of the students nowadays use sketchup instead of 3dsmax bcoz of the ease of modelling, design oriented (rather than rendering oriented) and it's a freeware.

also, u'll be using lotsa coreldraw, photoshop and other DTP softwares to produce A1-sized drawings.

im running a P4 2.4GHZ desktop wif 1.5GB RAM. 200GB harddisk and 6600GT GFC.

it copes well wif the abuses I've thrown at it. Well, it should, if it can run NFS Most Wanted at full setting! not a software that an architecture student use that it cant handle. (autocad, coreldraw, sketchup photoshop and the likes)

but i think its due to be outdated in another year or 2.