Graduate Experience Essay (Foreword) The introductory reflective essay should be 1,500 words, minimum about my experience of my master degree of architecture. i’m international student . i start my master degree in architecture on fall 2012 in michigan. and attached is some of my project essay attached some of my project essay

  for now i need just 500 words 

here is some of the instructor Suggestion

(( I’ve had some questions about the graduate experience essay, and so I thought I’d send a few thoughts.

Some considerations which may serve as helpful jumping off points are below. The essay does not have to address everything I’ve listed here, rather you should take this as a few ideas I’m throwing out there to get the “wheels turning.” Ultimately, the essay should be about your personal graduate experience, and a reflection on your time at LTU CoAD. 

– Consider the graduate experience not just about the courses you took but the entire experience – the culture, the people, extracurricular activities, events, lectures, etc. How do feel all of that shaped you as a student? As a future professional? You might point to examples within certain classes or experiences, but resist the urge to make the essay a summary of the courses you took. 

– Remember the discussions that we’ve had about individual essays – focus on what was unique about the experience – both as a point in your life as a whole, as well as your place in LTU/CoAD. What was different than anything you’ve done before? Was there anything that was unique about your LTU experience compared to your fellow students?

– What do you think the most important things you learned? Stay away from hard skills (software, drawing) and focus on soft skills (communicating ideas, critical thinking, spatial reasoning, leadership, etc)

– Take a look back at what you’ve written about your courses for this portfolio. Is there a theme to the courses you chose, the learning objectives or outcomes, the lessons-learned or takeaways? Did you begin to develop certain interests or goals over the course of your experience? Again, you can point to specifics but stay away from making it about individual courses.

– Consider challenges you faced and how you overcame them. 

– Consider your achievements. What are you most proud of?

– Were there any turning-point or “aha” moments in your courses that changed your perspective, your path, your understanding? What did/does that mean in the long-term?

– Consider what your expectations or goals were at the onset of this experience, how you achieved them, how they changed or evolved, and where you are now. 

– Consider the future – the purpose of your time here is to set you up for the professional world. Do you feel that you’re prepared? What relevant (soft) skills do you think you have mastered? What are you looking forward to in terms of applying the things you’ve learned? 

– What are your thoughts about architecture education, about LTU, about CoAD, about your place in all of those things? 

– Finally – just as you would approach a design task – be creative, thoughtful, and compelling!

One thing to keep in mind that may help – don’t consider LTU CoAD as your audience for this essay. Rather, provide yourself a more compelling audience to inspire the writing. For example: think of the person who has been your biggest supporter – how would you describe your graduate design experience to them? Or maybe write it as a letter to your past self? Or your future self? Or a student considering starting graduate design at LTU? This might help make the essay more personal and also more interesting. 

Hope this is useful!