Clemson vs Auburn vs ASU

<p>I am considering these three schools for architecture and want to know what anyone thinks about each one's architecture program. Right now I'm leaning towards Auburn b/c I am being offered the Academic Presidential Scholarship (full tuition, room and board, etc, etc) for National Hispanic. I have applied for Gates Millennium, so just for the sake of the discussion, I'm going to say money isn't a factor. Which program would you guys choose?</p>

<p>Some of your decision might take into account if they are 4 year or 5 year programs. Auburn is a 5 year, Clemson is 4 year yet you do not get a pre-professional degree which in turn requires you to do a 3 years Masters program to sit for the exam.
That being said, Auburn does things differently which I am sure that you are aware of. You have been admitted to the school, but now have to wait until March to know if you are in the Architecture school.</p>

<p>Yes, Clemson is a 4 year program, but I am not sure it is going to require a 3 year MArch. I think most schools will accept you into a 2 year MArch program. My son looked at Auburn, and he was told you are automatically in the architecture program, but after your first year you go into a summer long ‘architecture survivor’ program, and the best students get to continue on into the program and the rest get to find a new major or a new school. At Clemson the architecture school admission is above and beyond the general admission, but once you are in there is no arbitrary selection cut-off. I did a Masters at Clemson, and it is definitely a fun place to go to school. I saw somewhere that they are ranked as having the second happiest students in the country (behind Brown, and ahead of Stanford).</p>

<p>rick</p>

<p>Our daughter is in the process right now - Auburn must have changed. She has been admitted to Auburn and will receive a seperate question/assignment for the Architecture school admissions. From those they will put 35 in the Freshman year design sequence in the Fall. We were told when we were there that those are the “top” and that they have earned their in to the department and will maintain the position unless they do poorly. Then an additional 100 do the Summer design sequence and 35 of those earn their way into the Sophmore design sequence. At that point they are joined together in what they hope to be a group of 70 students.<br>
Clemson is a little different than most 4 year programs. Most 4 year programs you graduate with a pre-professional degree which then requires a 2 year Masters program. At Clemson they do not have a pre-professional program and therefore you are required to do a 3 year Masters program. We were very surprised when we heard this and had found no indication of this before our tour. They are hoping to get approved as a pre-professional program in the coming year(s). In fact, they have a note on their site that the curriculm is in the process of being changed.<br>
Yes, Clemson is ranked as the happiest students in the country! Another odd thing we were told is that no alcohol is allowed on campus (that is not strange), but the Architecture building is allowed to have it if the person is 21!</p>

<p>I just looked again at the Clemson site. They do state it is pre-professional. I will say that we visited last April - hopefully it has changed since it is one on our daughters list. I also found what they classify the different programs at Auburn:
The First Year Program offers two trajectories of entry into The School: The Foundation Unit Studios and the Summer Option Studios. The Foundation Unit consists of two semesters of design studio coupled with a variety of support and university core courses. This track of study is tailored to the incoming freshman that meets the high academic standards required by the program. As an alternative, continuing and transfer students may enroll in the rigorously challenging Summer Option studio prior to seeking admission to the second year of architectural studios.</p>

<p>First off, Thank you both for your replies.
Now, I already knew a little, ie five year Auburn vs 4+2 Clemson, but did not know about the separate decision for Auburn, or the selection process, mostly because I haven’t been able to find much information on-line and have just recently started emailing admissions. Have you gotten this info from speaking with admissions and people from the School of Architecture or is there somewhere on the web where I can find out more?</p>

<p>Our daughter found out the information on tours at the Architecture department of both Clemson & Auburn. I agree that the information is not clear enough on some of the sites. She has handled the phone calls, etc. to the departments when she has questions and has gotten the information she needed. The key is to speak with the Architecture department and not the regular admissions.</p>

<p>My DS is an architecture applicant at several schools. Not Auburn, but Clemson, and each school has a slightly different process for admittance to their architectre program. We had to do extensive digging and his application process has varied greatly. Some require portfolios, others do not. Some require an interview; some allow you into the program for two years (UW) and then you submit your portfolio for a spot in the major. I urge anyone whose kid is interested in architecture to do due diligence on each program!</p>

<p>Interesting. The information we got about Auburn was from an admissions officer as well as a student from our high school who just completed the summer program. My son decided not to apply and so we had not followed up with the architecture school. As far as Clemson goes, I can’t believe it has changed that much in just 30 years! When I was there it was very professionaly focused, and after four years you had the option of going an extra year in order to get you BArch degree. No beer on campus? The architecture school has a nice courtyard and on Fridays at 3:00 they would bring out a keg and all the students would come down for an informal happy hour. I don’t remeber many ID’s being checked ;-)</p>

<p>rick</p>

<p>I got an email back from someone at Auburn’s CADC with a brochure describing the different programs offered there. It’s packed with information. I guess it’ll all come down to visits. I’m gonna be going to visit Auburn here in a couple of weeks. Thanks to all for the help.</p>