<p>which ivies are the best to go to if i wanted to pursue a career in architecture??</p>
<p>thanks =)</p>
<p>Yale has the strongest architecture program in the country:</p>
<p>Keep in mind some offer B.A.s and other offer B.Arch degrees, but both degrees are very good. It depends what you want. With a B.A. you need to spend another couple years doing a master's in architecture, but a master's is usually considered preferable to a bachelor's, especially if you get it from a place like Yale or Harvard. Also, if you do a B.Arch, you will basically have five years of undergraduate study with no life. The B.A. gives you much more flexibility to take classes outside of architecture. </p>
<p>In addition to having the most famous and best-regarded architecture school in the world, Yale has a unique program because it offers the B.A., but allows undergraduate students into the architecture school at the same time. They have equal status with the master's students and frequently stay on to complete a master's there.</p>
<p>WHAT?!?!?! Hahaha, um...no. Yale does not have "the strongest architecture program in the country." I mean, I'm not even going to argue for Princeton's architecture program over Yale's. Neither of them are of the caliber of true B.Arch schools; the appeal for them is that undergrads can get solid liberal arts education while gaining a foundation in architectural studies and design. While that's great and all, going to a school like Yale (or Princeton or any other B.A. arch school) almost necessitates that you go to grad school for your M.Arch so that you can even get a job. Depends on which route you're looking for, honestly. I'd suggest looking at the (very extensive) architecture thread in the "Other College Majors" forum. Those guys offer a lot of helpful advice and know much more than the rest of us non-archies out here.</p>
<p>Look at the rankings - Yale is the most respected school for architecture, period. </p>
<p>If you just want to work for a small firm in your hometown and renovate trash facilities or houses, though, you're better off with a B.Arch from some other school.</p>
<p>1) That's one ranking, and you can see from the posts below it that many find its methodology questionable.
2) It--at least in the cases of Yale, Harvard, and Princeton--seems to be a M.Arch ranking, not a B.A. or B.Arch.
3) Regarding that last sentence...no. Enough said.</p>
<p>If you really want to go to work immediately out of college, go to a B.Arch school (though even then getting your M.Arch is advisable). If you want the liberal arts experience and a solid all-around education, go to a school that offers a B.A. in architectural studies.</p>
<p>It's actually a ranking of the school overall, not a specific ranking of M.Arch or B.Arch rankings.</p>
<p>Overall, it's up to you. Most important is probably that if you go for a B.Arch, you are normally limited in your ability to interact with the rest of the college in a normal way, because of the workload involved. With a B.A. you can get the exact same exposure and same professors as the students in the M.Arch program, but postpone the 100%-architecture experience until graduate school (or two years of undergrad instead of five, in the case of some overlapping programs such as Yale) when you're sure it is what you want to do.</p>
<p>Cornell's B.Arch., and undergraduate program, is widely considered strongest in country, despite the highly subjective "rankings" of one individual cited above which apply to both undergrad and grad architecture. Yale is terrific for grad school, and fine for undergrad, but it is not as strong as many other undergrad programs.</p>
<p>Yup, Cornell's is probably, according to DI ratings, the best in the country. Harvard's B.Arch is second, or first, according to '03 DI undergrad ratings. </p>
<p>For ivies, the DI ranking for '03::</p>
<p>Harvard
Cornell
Yale
Upenn
Columbia
Princeton.</p>
<p>But note:: This is just for ivies, there are many "normies" ( =P ) stuck in between. Like Cal Poly is 2nd.
It ain't recent.
It's subjective.
Architecture depends more on your quality of work and motivation then the degree, once you reach the top tier schools.
Ivy =/= good</p>
<p>In the most recent 2006 rankings, Cornell is #1, and Harvard is #2.</p>
<p>There are terribly huge variations in DI's rankings. Cornell fell from 1st to 4th in '03. Couldn't find anymore recent rankings on the website. =P</p>
<p>The DI rankings you cite are irrelevant, based on surveys. </p>
<p>The only quantitative-based rankings available are the ones I posted, which have Yale at #1 and Harvard at #2. They are rankings of architecture departments rather than "degrees".</p>
<p>"The DI rankings you cite are irrelevant, based on surveys"</p>
<p>surveys maybe, but they're based on the surveys of student work submitted to both professors and partners who have had years upon years of working in the arch. field. </p>
<p>For undergraduate, Cornell's B.Arch program is the best around. A few people seem to consider a B.Arch degree a "wattered down" degree when in reality it's the same thing as a M.Arch I. If you want another master's degree, there's the M.Arch II, but most students dont go on to get that unless they are also considering teaching someday. You wont be at any disadvantage if you were to get a BArch from cornell vs. a M.Arch I from another school. With a B.Arch, you can get a M.Arch II in only like a year (or it might be 3 semesters). I heard somebody from Cornell's undergrad. arch program say that 30% of their graduates go to Harvard for a M.Arch II.</p>