<p>Anonymous886- WOW! Only 60 accepted? How many are they looking for to make a grad class? When I was at Auburn they said they have about 60 in each graduating class, so they over accept students.</p>
<p>well only 60 to the arch school 
i’m not sure overall in one grad class</p>
<p>what does over accept mean?</p>
<p>When my daughter applied to arch at Penn State, they told her that they were accepting about 125, hoping to get a freshman class of about 90. They did start (in 2005) with about 90, but only about half made it through all 5 years of the program. Most who dropped the major did so in the first year–either realizing it wasn’t for them or weren’t ready for the HUGE amount of work and time commitment. I think that’s typical of many architecture programs.</p>
<p>Anonymous886, Thank you! Best luck for you!</p>
<p>Anonymous886: Colleges over accept because they know not everyone they accept will attend.</p>
<p>Anonymous 886----cagb is right. Many schools will typically take 100-150 incoming Freshman, knowing that half will drop out. The first year of Archi is a weeding out period. My only D is in her second semester of her 1st year of a 5 year M.Arch program. To say it is grueling is an understatement. In her fall studio class there were 15 kids. Fewer than half are still in the program. My D. had to “apply” to the specific architecture program she wanted to attend next year. Her choices were Architecture, Interior Architecture, Landscape Architecture. She chose architecture and was accepted conditionally as were all acceptances. If the students’ gpa remains high, the offer of acceptance stands. If it falls, the offer may be rescinded. She’s one of the lucky ones. Some kids were wait-listed for the programs of their choice; others were rejected outright. It’s brutal.</p>
<p>@bungalowdweller, Where does your daughter go to school? </p>
<p>Also for everyone who is waiting on decisions from Syracuse the first wave of decisions will start this Friday, and more decisions will be released every Friday for the rest of the month. So good luck all who is waiting, I’m waiting myself and super nervous because I really want to go to Syracuse!</p>
<p>K-State in Manhattan, Kansas.</p>
<p>@Mysticalkites Good luck!!! </p>
<p>@bungalowdweller Jeez, the all nighters sound terrible. I already pull all nighters from school work and papers and studying…I’d rather be up late drawing plans, so hopefully that will be the case haha</p>
<p>@anonymous886----My d feels the same way. She loves the studio—it’s the lack of sleep and the demands of other classes that are the challenge!</p>
<p>Got into Cornell’s BArch Program early, and when I visited Wash U and Syracuse and after my portfolio reviews, both heads of admissions said that they would definitely accept me if I applied. If I didn’t get into ED, I would apply to Syracuse, Rice, WashU, USC, RISD & CMU.</p>
<p>As for the UK, I got offers from Cambridge University, University of Edinburgh, University of Sheffield, Cardiff University, and I got summoned for interview for The Bartlett UCL, but I didn’t attend the interview because I already got into Cornell Early :)</p>
<p>D is debating between arch programs and we looked up the NCARB pass rates and are quite perplexed! Not sure about DI’s rankings!! Some of the well ranked Barch programs have terrible pass rates. This is really going to be a big part of D’s decision. Could the well regarded DI list be a bit of emperor’s clothes…or lack thereof? How could a great program have such dismal pass rates? Isn’t that the entire point of each program, to prepare the aspiring architects to pass their exam?</p>
<p>You are correct that is an issue. I agree I would definitely consider the pass rates in the college selection process. Just look at Cornell #1 according to DI but their pass rates for 7 different programs are 50%, 59%, 63%, 69%, 71%, 76% and 81%. That is not good. Here is the website too: [NCARB</a> - ARE Pass Rates by School - 2011 (4.0)](<a href=“http://www.ncarb.org/en/ARE/ARE-Pass-Rates/Pass-Rates-by-School/2011-v4.aspx]NCARB”>http://www.ncarb.org/en/ARE/ARE-Pass-Rates/Pass-Rates-by-School/2011-v4.aspx).</p>
<p>What is the NCARB?</p>
<p>Look at Kansas State in comparison: 63%, 72%, 72%, 76%. 79%, 80%, and 83% or an average of 75%. </p>
<p>Or North Carolina State: 74%, 75%, 77%, 78%, 78%, 80% and 83% or an average of 78%. </p>
<p>Yale 75%, 76%, 80%, 81%, 85%, 86%, and 86% or an average of 81%.</p>
<p>Vs. Cornell’s 67%. </p>
<p>Also, these state universities are so much cheaper than Cornell!</p>
<p>I’d like to point out that schools sometimes don’t teach a lot of the material on the ARE simply because it’s an exhaustive exam and they may choose to focus on theory and design; that’s the school’s choice to make . Architects have a required three year internship following their education during which they should be learning and practicing the skills and knowledge needed for the registration exam. It is natural that the more technically-focused colleges will have better pass rates, simply because a design-focused program like Cornell is going to rely on the internship to teach things like building systems and construction documentation. However, seeing as DI is an employer survey, it is still a fairly good indicator of which schools are turning out good professional architects (although it is northeast biased).</p>
<p>The architectural registration exam, the ARE, has become a bit of a beast. Nine sections all taken on a computer. The material covered is not only something you would not typically learn in school, but is something you don’t even typically learn in practice. You study very specific materials in a series of ARE courses to prepare you for each section. Other than an indication of studying and test taking abilities, it has little to do with the quality of an education that a student receives. </p>
<p>Some outstanding schools like Rice have very high passing rates, while others such as Columbia’s MArch program have low passing rates. After looking at the passing rates I can see very little correlation with the quality of candidates and their portfolios that we see in our recruiting.</p>
<p>“Isn’t that the entire point of each program, to prepare the aspiring architects to pass their exam?”</p>
<p>Actually, other than to create a broadly educated individual, I would suggest the purpose of a school is to allow a student to find a challenging and rewarding position with a good firm (the folks who do much of the voting on the DI rankings).</p>
<p>Thanks for linking to the test results, it made for interesting reading.</p>
<p>rick</p>
<p>Does anyone know about how Northeastern’s architecture program is viewed among professionals? It seems to have a lot going for it–located in Boston so many classes are taught by working professionals, director is a Harvard grad, head of college is an architect from Spain, and good international and co op experience. Yet I can’t seem to find much on the program from external sources such as DI. I don’t know if it is because it is so new (accredited 10 years ago) or because of the quality. I think they used to have about 36 students per year but have been growing and had over 100 last year. </p>
<p>Any input is appreciated. As a reference point, S is accepted into many top DI programs but does have full tuition at Northeastern so wondering if the top programs are worth the additional $160k for a middle class family that would need to take out loans for some of it.</p>
<p>donot, the prestigious architectural firm that my son worked for in Boston hired many Northeastern grads. In New England Northeastern has a good reputation, not cutting edge, but solid and reliable. The co-op system provides excellent industry exposure and connections and as you note the program attracts talented professors and visiting architects. I suspect that Northeastern students get a lot more nuts and bolts hands on training and less theory and abstraction than the colleges at the top of the DI list. </p>
<p>Whether it would be worth it to your family to take out loans to send your son to a big name architecture program is an intensely personal decision. I think a lot depends on where he intends to practice – which part of the country and what kind of firm – and whether he sees himself completing his M.Arch at Northeastern or at another college.</p>
<p>Thanks momrath for the feedback. Those are some of the discussions we are having so it is good to know that the kids are getting hired. If after undergrad he likes the education at Northeastern he could finish his masters there in one year and graduate in the same time as a 5 year BArch program. If he feels it is lacking the design element hopefully get into another schools graduate program and use the $160k towards that. I know graduate schools are very competitive as well but hopefully that would still be an option. At least we will know all the options in the next two weeks. Good luck everyone and any additional feedback is appreciated. Any current NU students or grads out there?</p>