Hey all..

 

I am applying for the in-state urban planning programs, and I was curious if Urban Ohio would have any good perspective on that. I went down to Columbus to tour the Knowlton School of Architecture's program. The facility was breathtaking and I met with the interim dean who I really liked, and he connected me to a couple of students who are actually involved with some of the highly-specialized niches that I'm interested in like bikeshare projects and post-Soviet CEE development.

 

My understanding of the state's programs are as follows: OSU, most comprehensive, but highly policy-oriented; Cincy, very-design oriented; CSU, very econ-oriented, probably the least comprehensive, but best-connected to professional development.

 

I have many friends and colleagues who I love dearly who are pulling me toward CSU, and I had a great 1-semester exchange program experience at CSU that obviously led to me becoming a Clevelander. I am feeling less and less certain about needing to "go back home" (to OKC), but still, I feel like the Ohio State brand would give me the highest ROI wherever I go, even if that is back to Cleveland.

 

Right now I have no desire to work anywhere other than Cleveland, and I get how much sense that CSU makes for that, but I just really, really liked the OSU program.

 

Any advice/input/hoorahs are greatly appreciated as always.

OSU and UC are both top-20 programs, very close in ranking (they switch up or down from year-to-year). If you want to stay in Cleveland, go to CSU, because it would be better to study in the city you are going to work in. If you aren't sure about staying in Cleveland, go to one of the others. Both are almost identical in national reputation, like I said, so choose based on 1) which city you would rather live in (while you do your degree), and 2) whether you are more interested in policy or design.

 

Edit: BTW - Columbus currently has a bikeshare and Cincinnati is planning on introducing one soon (there's already a lot of planning work done, and it seems like a sure thing).

Yeah, Cleveland is also in advanced stages of planning a bikeshare for downtown. I think bikeshare has a huge future, not to mention also symbolic of the kind of planning that everyone likes, in my experience in leading a bikeshare project in Stillwater, OK (home of the "other OSU"). For some reason a recreational amenity is easier to build consensus around than an urban lifestyle amenity. That is really awesome for Cincinnati as I am sure it will have great synergy with the streetcar system.

 

Since you reiterated the logic of going to CSU to stay in Cleveland: Is that to say that a graduate from OSU who also has 2 years of prior experience working in Cleveland's community development network, wouldn't be more attractive? I will say there is definitely an unexplainable lack of OSU people working in Cleveland.

It's not a matter of the degree being more or less attractive; it's a matter of networking and interning in Cleveland while you're attending school, which is far more important than the prestige of your degree. If you don't know where you'll want to work, then the prestige of the degree takes on greater importance. For a job in Cleveland, it's better to spend your time in school making contacts in the Cleveland area. For a job in Portland (or anywhere besides Cleveland), it's better to have a more prestigious degree from OSU or UC. That's my take, anyhow.

 

Here's some info about Cincy's proposed bike share:

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2013/09/12/cincinnati-wants-bike-share-program.html

 

IMO what really needs to happen for it to work as well as it can is for the NKY river cities to get on board. There's more flat ground close to Downtown in NKY than on the Ohio side. It will be nice to have either way, but NKY would add a ton of value.

Euorkie,

 

I didn't know CLE was planning a bikeshare! I know it's a little off topic for this thread, but when will it be up and running? Do they have coverage area yet?

Euorkie,

 

I didn't know CLE was planning a bikeshare! I know it's a little off topic for this thread, but when will it be up and running? Do they have coverage area yet?

 

Here:

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,9873.0.html

eurokie,

I chose OSU's program for love of Columbus--I wanted to work and live there. In the end, the program gave me a degree and all of the connections into Cbus that I needed. If you love cleveland and want to stay there, I would also suggest doing the cleveland route.

 

That said, I did not think intently about what I wanted to learn from my degree. I was seeking more design-oriented information and as you mentioned, OSU is more policy oriented. Consider this immensely. Make sure you are getting what you want out of your degree. Now a few years out, I am thinking about returning for a masters of urban design somewhere because I didn't get that type of experience from my degree. If you are looking for a specific outcome, you may want to pick that school (you seem to have an understanding of the type of training you will receive at each). Remember also, of course, that you can rely on the many other programs at these big schools to take some classes as well (like taking an architecture or public policy class).

 

Good luck! And if you want the inside scoop on anything at OSU, PM me. :P

As with most of CSU's schools, and as touched on above, if you want to work/live in Cleveland, CSU is a great choice.... perhaps even a better choice than the other two.  If you want to leave the City or State when done, go with the more nationally renowned programs assuming cost is all the same.  You might also want to look at trends.  It wasn't that long ago when I was applying for colleges and OSU and UC were generally thought of as "safe schools" for in-state students.  Now, at least in OSU's case, you needn't even apply if you are not towards the top of your class.  I've heard that UC has also raised its admissions standards.  Give it another 10-15 years and CSU might be on the same trajectory.  Point being, while an OSU degree was not considered all that prestigious when I was looking at colleges, it would look nice hanging on my wall right now.

Eurokie, I graduated from UC in Urban Planning in 89'. Then and probably now it was not design oriented. I lucked out in that my advisor inside the

college instructed me to take strong electives also, so I took a year of Accounting, Economics, and Business Law. If you are interested in UC schedule a

visit with the appropriate person at UC- Urban Planning.

I'd echo what people are saying about grad school getting you networked in the city where you'd like to work. While the skills you'll pick up are definitely transferable, with urban planning's clear focus on local decision-making, I think these types of programs tend to use their respective locations as the main case study across almost all classes. At CSU, you would definitely be getting a lot more deeply engaged in real-life Cleveland development. So in addition to the hard skills you pick up, you just learn a lot about what's going on in the city, its priorities, how it functions, etc. That level of awareness of local context definitely becomes marketable in and of itself in community development. And FWIW, I think that deep exploration of the city where you're living and studying increases your passion for that city ... I moved to Cleveland specifically to attend Levin (MPA, in my case), with no intent on staying after grad school. I absolutely credit my exposure to the city through Levin with falling in love with the Cleve and deciding to stay.

 

That being said, while the community development sector does tend to draw a lot from local talent, people do of course relocate to other cities and enter the field there. I think the important thing in terms of marketability if you want to go to OSU or UC but think you'll work in Cleveland is to keep up-to-date on what's happening in Cleveland and, where you're given the freedom to do so, to do project work and research on sites in Cleveland. Good luck with your decision!

 

 

For whatever it's worth... I saw this little tiny graphic preview of the proprietary Planetizen grad school guide:

 

 

If you zoom in on it, you can see it has UC ranked #4 and OSU ranked #5 in the Midwest region. Probably puts them both around #20 nationally.