<p>I'm a rising senior from SC, and I am interested in learning about the Arch. program at VT. I know it's a five year and is ranked very highly, so is it really hard to get into? I have a 4.6 weighted GPA, 1270 SAT (math and reading), shooting for a 30 ACT, and will graduate with 12 APs. I thought this would be good enough for VT but I've seen some surprising posts on here from people who didn't get in. Also is the program too stressful? I want a good, challenging education , but I don't want to be studying ALL the time. Other schools I am looking at are Clemson and Auburn which would both be more affordable.</p>
<p>mavs2011, To answer your first question, yes, the College of Architecture and Urban Sciences (CAUS) at VT is one of the harder schools to gain admittance to, actually it may be the hardest because of its limited size. But, your scores are competitive and you are OOS, which from accounts posted here this year, seemed to be a positive factor. If you can get that SAT up to closer to 1300 (the average incoming freshman SAT for ARCH last year was 1299) it would help. VT is very numbers driven; GPA, SATs, strength of curriculum, etc. count a lot, ECs not so much. </p>
<p>Based on what we have seen with our son (he’s a LA student there), it is a stressful program, but any arch program is. You won’t be studying all the time, but you will be in studio almost all of the time if you want to put out good work. You will not have the free time that your non- arch friends have, but if you like what you are doing, it is acceptable. Without a doubt, it is a very hard major, but I don’t think that because of VT’s high arch ranking it is any more strenous than Clemson and Auburn. If you manage your time well you can still find time to go to ball games and have fun. One thing you need to consider about Clemson that you may already know is that it offers the 4 yr Bachelor of Arts in Arch vs. VT and Auburn’s 5 yr. B. Arch. I just read that Clemson hired a new Dean from Iowa State, Katherine L. Schwennsen, and they just broke ground on a new building for their arch programs. That is a welcomed sign of commitment to that program. When we visited Clemson, the facilities were not up to VT’s, but when they complete their new digs, it should be really great there. </p>
<p>They are all great schools. Wherever you go be sure you are fully committed to wanting to do architecture. It is not for the faint of heart. You also may want to post over on the Architecture board of CC. There are quite a few knowledgeable folks who frequent that forum and that can help you. Good luck!</p>
<p>Your stats are pretty similar to mine, and I made it into engineering. Get your standardized tests up a bit; that should move you from borderline (if you even are) to a ‘lock’</p>
<p><em>edit</em> that GPA…is that just this year or is it cumulative? And is it ‘out of’ 4.0? My school was out of 4.0 with AP being a 5.0 and honors 4.5.</p>
<p>And a general remark about studio: from several kids I know who do well in Arch, studio is largely what you make of it. A lot of people that “spend all day in the studio” can be found wasting time doing any number of things. Talent aside, the fact that some people do very well without being there all day should tell you that it’s a matter of what you put into the work rather than how much ‘work’ you put in.</p>
<p>The above basically applies to everything, but you’ll come to realize how important it is in college even more.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses! That GPA was cumulative and based on a 6.0 scale, but it’s kind of ridiculous because I think the highest GPA in school history is a 5.5. So I guess when you see what scale it’s on it is not as impressive, but that is because I have taken extremely difficult classes instead of opting for easier schedules that would be better for my GPA (I took five APs junior year alone). I’m hoping that colleges will see that even though I’m only moderatly smart I am willing to challange myself. I also just got my ACT back and it was a 28 so maybe the second time will be a little better. I’m shadowing at a firm next week to give me some more into the profession, and two of the architects are from VT and two are from Clemson which should be interesting.</p>