After you press submit: the road from your IAAC application to Barcelona

Everything starts on the Application Portal. After registering, choose your programme first: the portal then shows the checklist for that master. The documents are a letter of motivation, a portfolio or work sample, a CV, two letters of recommendation, a copy of your bachelor’s degree or a provisional transcript, and the information page of your passport. You submit the application and pay the €90 application fee, and the admissions team checks that you are eligible and that all mandatory documents are there. Incomplete applications are not reviewed.

Two practical points came up in the session. For the letters of recommendation, you can enter your referees’ email addresses in the portal, and they receive the request directly, or upload letters you already have; you can also combine the two. If you want to share a document that has no field in the portal, for example the certificate of a course you are taking alongside your degree, send it through the portal’s messages and the team adds it to your file. The portal dashboard shows where your application stands at any moment.

If your application is complete and eligible, you are invited to a virtual interview with the academic coordinator or the director of your programme. It lasts around 30 minutes and assesses your academic and technical qualifications, your suitability for the programme and your English. The admissions team describes it as a two-way conversation: it is also your chance to ask about the programme and to meet one of the people who will teach you.

To prepare, know your portfolio well and be ready to talk about the projects in it, the tools you use and why this programme fits your goals. Bring your own questions about the studios, the research and the way the programme works.

After the interview, the academic committee reviews your letter of motivation, certificates, transcripts, portfolio and references together with the interview notes. The criteria are academic background, professional experience, portfolio quality, technical skills, motivation and research aptitude. You receive the result by email within two to three weeks of the interview, so check your spam folder too. Applicants who still need to complete an academic requirement, such as their degree, can receive a conditional offer.

IAAC is a competitive school and does not publish an acceptance rate. The admissions team offers individual calls to help applicants present their strongest application, and recommends focusing on what is in your control: your work, your skills and your motivation.

IAAC scholarships are partial, merit-based tuition waivers, and IAAC does not currently offer full scholarships. You request a scholarship when you submit your application: having an application submitted, or in progress, is the first requirement for any IAAC funding, and late requests are not considered. There are three IAAC routes:

• the IAAC Scholarship Competition, with a specific prompt for each eligible programme;
• the IAAC Merit-Based Grant, for which every applicant is considered automatically;
• the IAAC Women in Tech Fund, for women-identifying candidates, which asks for an action plan on gender equality in architecture, robotics, design or technology.

You can apply to more than one route, and each student can receive one IAAC scholarship or grant. Eligible programmes, amounts and dates are announced each year on the Fees & Scholarships page.

To confirm your place, you pay a non-refundable enrolment deposit within the period stated in your acceptance letter. The deposit is deducted from your tuition fees.

For the application itself you can upload your documents with an unofficial English translation. Sworn translations and legalisation come later, before the programme starts and for your visa. Your master’s diploma is issued by the University of Lleida, IAAC’s accrediting institution, which requires your bachelor’s degree to be legalised: degrees from EU and EEA countries and Switzerland need no legalisation, degrees from Hague Convention countries need an Apostille, and degrees from other countries need diplomatic legalisation. Degrees in languages other than Spanish need a sworn translation into Spanish. This can take several weeks, so the team recommends starting soon after your acceptance.

Students from outside the European Union who come to Barcelona for an on-campus programme need an open, multiple-entry student visa, issued by the Spanish consulate or embassy in their country of residence. Students of the online Master in Advanced Computational Design for Architecture do not need a visa. IAAC issues the enrolment certificate and the documents you need from the school, and each consulate sets its own requirements, so contact yours early. The admissions team recommends starting the process three to four months before the programme starts, because appointments can fill up quickly. Non-EU students also need private health insurance that covers the whole study period, while EU students bring their European Health Insurance Card.

If the Academic Committee has assigned you pre-courses, you arrive three weeks before the academic year starts; otherwise you join at the start of the master in October. IAAC does not provide accommodation in the city, and most students live in shared apartments, rented rooms or student residences. Students of the Master in Ecological Architecture & Advanced Construction live at the Valldaura Campus in Collserola Natural Park, where places are limited. The Study in Barcelona page lists housing resources and an estimate of monthly living costs, and the team’s advice is to never pay for a room before visiting it or signing a legitimate contract.