Architecture?

<p>Does anyone have any info to share on the Archtecture program at PSU? Daughter is jr and probably going to apply in fall after talking to an admissions staffer at a college fair. We will visit the school soon too.</p>

<p>I know no portfolio is required and that they have a new gorgeous building and the program is highly ranked. Don't have much else to go on.</p>

<p>What kind of stats does someone need to be admitted? Is admissions all about your GPA/SATs? or are other things considered such as leadership, community service etc.</p>

<p>I don’t know what happened to the accepted students thread that was on the PSU forum. That showed three or four students that got accepted into Architecture along with their stats. Anyway, D2 was accepted into Architecture for 2010 at PUS (as well as Virgina Tech, Univ of Cincinnati, and Kent State.) She was also accepted into Schreyer Honors College at PSU.</p>

<p>Three quick comments:

  1. We are in-state for PSU. PSU does seem to favor in-state students for the architecture program.
  2. My daughters’ high school has a great track record at getting kids into PSU.
  3. D2 was in an architecture apprenticeship program in high school. I do not know if that had any influence on her admission into the Arch program at PSU. PSU is notorious for having a stats-driven admissions process. </p>

<p>For what it’s worth, here are D2’s stats as they were listed on the accepted students thread:</p>

<p>Decision: Accepted
Architecture</p>

<p>Stats:
SAT: 670CR 640M 710W
SAT IIs: N/A
GPA: 4.33W/3.97UW
Rank:Top 20 in class (Class size ~ 450 - so approximately top 5%)
Other stats:
6 AP Classes (Calc AB & BC- Physics-English Lit-English Comp-Spanish)
11 Honors Classes</p>

<p>Subjective:
Essays:Pretty good
Teacher Recs:Outstanding
Counselor Rec: Did not get to see - assume very good
Hook (if any):Legacy? Grandmother </p>

<p>Location/Person:
State or Country:PA
School Type:Public
Gender:Female </p>

<p>Other Factors:
Architecture apprenticeship
2 years of studio art classes
President - local chapter of national youth oriented community service organization
VP - local school-based service organization
Secretary - Habitat for Humanity
250+ Hours of community service
NHS
Five varsity letters
Guitar and violin</p>

<p>My daughter is graduating from the BArch program in May. She had a 4.0 UW and 1270 SAT (math and verbal) and had well-rounded extra-curriculars. I think the GPA weighs highly, followed by SAT, but I don’t think extracurriculars count for much. I read somewhere (wish I could remember where!) that the avg SAT (2 parts) for architecture @ psu was a 1280 and the avg GPA was a 4.0 or 4.1. That’s probably from a few years ago. We spoke with a faculty member when we visited her senior year in hs and he told us that the year before they received 1000 applications for architecture, accepted 125 hoping for a class of 90 to enroll.</p>

<p>Quiet Type and cagb - thank you both very much for your responses. I am not surprised by those stats. It seems just about every architecture program is tough to get into and more so the highly rated ones like VT and PSU. For every school that we’ve researched the stats for the architecture students tend to be much higher than the averages advertised by the school.</p>

<p>Quiet Type - I remember you responded to my question regarding math/science oriented programs. It sounds like our daughters are similar. Has your daughter made a decision as to which school she is going to? It must be very exciting for her to have such great choices.</p>

<p>Bennnie - After much weeping and gnashing of teeth, D2 has chosen to go with PSU. I think the major factor was being admitted into the honors college as well as into architecture. She’s still torn by her decision and hasn’t quite gotten rid of all her VT hokie apparel yet, although the blue and white PSU stuff is starting to pile up. I remember her saying (way back when this whole application thing started) that she’d love to have the problem of having to choose from all the schools she applied to. Be careful what you wish for! I see VT and PSU as being very similar schools in a lot of ways and I’ve noticed several other posters on CC discussing making a decision between the two. I don’t think you would go wrong with either school.</p>

<p>Good Luck! It is an exciting, but also nerve-wracking year.</p>

<p>Quiet Type - you are fortunate to live in a state with an excellent program. Wished UMass offered the BArch. Good luck to your daughter. I am sure she will enjoy PSU.</p>