<p>I am a junior in high school right now. I am very set on architecture as a career. I have been trying to create a list of colleges so I can plan visits and applications. I have a UW GPA of 3.56 and W GPA of 4.08 currently. I took my SAT once so far and got a 1240/1600 and a 1840/2400. I'm taking them again soon. I will have a large amount of extra curriculars including a large number centered towards architecture:4 years varsity wrestling, 2 year captain, 1-2 years of ACE Mentor program, Internship this summer, UF DEP Summer Architecture Program, National Honor Society, community service</p>
<p>I have taken all honors and AP classes, besides Spanish I and II, photography, and the required PE classes and weightlifting. AP classes: AP World History (Sophomore) AP English Language (Junior) AP US History (Junior) AP Art History (Junior) AP Psychology (Junior) AP Literature (Senior) AP Government (Senior) AP Macroeconomics (Senior) AP 2D Portfolio (Senior) AP Physics B (Senior) AP Calculus AB (Senior)</p>
<p>My grades this semester should be very strong, with hopefully no more than 1 B. I want to attend a top program but I don't know my chances of getting in. I'm not unrealistic, I understand anything like Cornell would be nothing less of a miracle. My schools I'm looking into are: U Cincinnati, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Auburn, Syracuse, Clemson among a few other consideration but those are my top schools right now. I'm from Florida and as there are no top architecture programs in the state, I will most likely have to pay OOS Tuition. I need a school I can get into with hopefully enough scholarship to make it an option. Any advice on other schools, especially a safety to consider would be great. Thank you for your help in advance.</p>
<p>Both your credentials and the architecture programs you’re looking at are strong. Of those mentioned, I can only write about the UCincinnati’s program, which my son attends. He considers it a top notch program: the courses, faculty, and the co-op experience. When he was accepted, nearly all the architecture students received Cincinnatus scholarships (minimally $3K/year for in-state & $5K/year for oos students). The Cincinnatus is more competitive now, so I recommend that you call UC and ask about the minimum credentials needed to qualify. My son is glad he chose to attend UC and would highly recommend it.</p>
<p>Have you also considered UTexas-Austin (also considered a strong program and a great value for the $, but known to accept very few oos students)? </p>
<p>If you can afford it, visit the programs you’re most interested in attending. Of the five schools each of my children visited (different universities for each), they each eliminated one from the application list that had been perfect on paper. The eliminated college was either the 1st or 2nd choice before the visit!</p>
<p>U Texas- Austin is on my list, I didnt name all the schools. Other than those I listed I’m looking at UT, CalPoly, and UF. UT I feel is a bit to much of a reach because I’m out of state and my GPA isn’t outstandingly high. The order I listed them are my order I’m looking at right now, but the top 4 were interchangeable. UT and CalPoly are both very hard to get into academically and CalPoly is far as I live in Florida. I don’t like UF’s program, though I do like the rest of the school.</p>
<p>I am also looking into University of Miami. Mainly because of the B. Arch/ MBA program. I was not before because I was incorrectly told that the program was mainly classical architecture based.</p>
<p>BTW, if anyone can tell me how to edit a post that would be great.</p>
<p>I’m not too sure about any of your other schools, but definitely consider Virginia Tech! Try to get your SAT score a little higher and I imagine getting in will be, for lack of a better word, easy (I almost don’t want to say that - sometimes their admissions seem to be a little screwy.) </p>
<p>It has an amazing engineering program and your scores are exactly in their percentiles. Just a warning, though; it’s a difficult program from what I’ve heard, and they aren’t too big on lending out money. But take a look at the campus and you’ll get a feel for if it fits you or not. Maybe you could even talk to the admissions office in advance about it?</p>
<p>From our experience, beware if you need financial aid: state schools are not giving much to OOS students (or in-state students). UT is very expensive for OOS - you could go to many private schools for what they charge and they give almost all of their merit money to Texas students. Their current tuition for arch majors is $30,680 and it’s already recommended that they increase tuition the next two years. The recommended tuition for arch students in 2010-11 is $32020 and for 2011-12, $33,280. Add on $10K for room and board, plus money for books and supplies, studio supplies, transportation, personal expenses etc. and you’ll be in the high $40Ks without much chance of any aid. </p>
<p>When you start the application process, make sure you have an economic safety; no matter how good your stats, don’t count on merit aid being guaranteed anywhere. Colleges are hurting and they just don’t have the money. As long as you have a true safety both in terms of admission and affordability, then you can spread your net wide and hope your dream school comes up with the money to make it possible.</p>
<p>csfmap, thank you for your reply. I am aware of that and that is why Texas is making it’s way further and further down the list. Do you have any ideas of a safety school I should like into for admissions with a cheaper tuition?</p>
<p>We live on the opposite end of the country so I have very little knowledge of schools east of the Mississippi. I would suggest you at least consider UF as your safety - I know their architecture program doesn’t show up in the DI ratings but I believe their landscape and interior architecture programs do. That would tell me they have a very strong design program and their in-state tuition is very reasonable and will be tough to beat. Plus, in general it’s a very good school and you like it. If you’re willing to look at schools in the midwest, there are some strong, ranked programs that accept many students from OOS and have reasonable OOS tuition and offer financial aid (Iowa State and Kansas State). If you are interested in Cal Poly check out their application on CSU mentor. They are perceived as “numbers driven” and they probably are, but part of the formula is class rigor across the California A-Gs. The only other insight I have that might be helpful is that Virg. Tech is the only school that didn’t offer my s anything. Great school but they aren’t known for generous merit award!s. Good luck and most important - keep those grades up to give yourself the best chance of getting in and getting scholarships</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. However, after checking my chances on 3 different sites, UF was my lowest chance school at around 20% I also do not like their program, which is why the more research I did, the less appealing it became. I do love the rest of the school though, so it is unfortunate the architecture program is not for me. I will look into those midwest schools, thanks.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, I’ll look into it more. However, I am hoping to get into a school with a large sports following, especially for football. Wouldn’t Auburn be a similar difficulty of admission as Roger Williams?</p>
<p>Chili, have you looked at LSU? Your grades and GPA would automatically qualify you for a waiver of half of out of state tuition/fees with a Tiger Scholarship, and if you can get your test scores a little higher you would automatically qualify for in-state tuition. Their landscape architecture program is considered one of the best in the country, but I am not sure off-hand where the architecture program stands in the DI rankings. </p>
<p>Ohio State has a similar merit scholarship that waives OOS tuition/fees for qualified students.</p>
<p>Oos tuition +room and board for capoly is 30k. No scholarships.Excelent school. My S is a sophomore there. Frankly we can not afford it -so my S applied to Cooper Union-and after nights without sleep i went to pick up the mail,and guess what-Cooper union acceptance package was there. Try it, they may like you and do not care about SAts ans GPAs</p>