<p>Anybody know much about this major? Junior High School D got interested during her visit to Texas A& M this weekend.</p>
<p>I'm thinking about studying it at University at Buffalo next year (I got almost a full ride there).. if I did so I would go to grad school for landscape architecture or urban planning I'm pretty sure (anything design/art/geography related really)
from what I can tell its like landscape architecture but at UB you take a lot of general classes with about 50 credits of EnvDesign classes
from the website:
"Environmental design promotes the best use of a community’s land and resources for residential,
commercial, institutional, and recreational purposes. Before preparing plans for community
development, planners and designers report on the current use of land for residential, business, and
community purposes. Their reports include information on the location and capacity of streets,
highways, airports, schools, libraries, and cultural and recreational sites. They also provide data on the
types of industries in the community, the characteristics of the population, land-use issues created by
population movements, and employment and economic trends. Using this information, plans and
designs are developed for the layout of land uses for buildings, public transportation, developing
resources, and protecting ecologically sensitive regions. They may formulate plans relating to the
construction of new school buildings, college campuses, public housing, or other kinds of
infrastructure. Some are involved in environmental planning issues ranging from pollution control to
wetland preservation and forest conservation. Others are involved in landscape planning through the
development of urban park systems and greenways."</p>
<p>"Students in the environmental design program have an avid interest in the urban and built environment. The interdisciplinary, preprofessional B.A. degree provides students with the knowledge, skills, and preparation for employment in the public, private, or nonprofit sectors, or graduate study in a variety of fields including urban and regional planning, environmental studies, land and real estate development, architecture, public administration, law, public policy, and business. The minor in environmental design enables students with interests in these areas to gain mastery while pursuing another degree program."</p>
<p>hope that helped</p>
<p>Environmental Design at Texas A&M is the same as an architecture major. The major difference is that you graduate with a 4 year BA degree instead of a 5 year B.Arch degree, so to become a licensed architect, your D will need a 2 year M.Arch degree in addition to the BA.</p>
<p>One neat thing about A&M is that you can choose your "track" after your sophomore year, either Architectural Studies or Visual Studies. Arch. Studies is for students who want to be architects, while Vis. Studies is for students who want to do more computer animation type stuff.</p>
<p>I have had a fair amount of experience with A&M. Their 4 year Environmental Design degree is really intended as a general education degree that would provide a solid background for many different courses of study at the graduate level (including architecture). They graduate a lot of students. You have one year of general design courses and only two years of architectural studios, It is a good program if you do not know whether you really want to be an architect. However most 4 year BS or BA programs in architecture will give an you extra year of architecture studios and a more solid footing with which to enter the profession. </p>
<p>rick</p>