<p>3.67 regular GPA / 4.2 weighted GPA
31 ACT
72/885 class rank (public school)
Involved in sports and extra curriculars</p>
<p>I'm having a hard time deciding on a college that has a well known architecture progam and has great academics. I want a medium/large sized college, high academics, a friendly atmosphere, a fun college town, and nice weather would be great, also a college that is good on placing students after graduating. If anyone has any suggestions that would be great!</p>
<p>cooper union in NYC has a really good architecture program. their acceptance rate is really low though...</p>
<p>Rice comes to mind. They have a top-tier architecture program, fun campus life, an vibrant location, and warm weather.</p>
<p>Cal Poly also fits the criteria, along with Virginia Tech, Auburn, UT Austin, and USC.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Rankings
Bachelor of Architecture </p>
<ol>
<li>Cornell University</li>
<li>Rice University</li>
<li>Syracuse University</li>
<li>Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University </li>
<li>Rhode Island School of Design</li>
<li>Auburn University (tie)
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (tie)
University of Kansas (tie)</li>
<li>University of Texas at Austin</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon University</li>
<li>University of Notre Dame</li>
<li>Kansas State University</li>
<li>Illinois Institute of Technology</li>
<li>Iowa State University (tie)
Pratt Institute (tie)
University of Oregon (tie)
University of Southern California (tie)
[/quote]
</li>
</ol>
<p>The rankings I used.</p>
<p>USC has everything you want.</p>
<p>I want a pony. Does USC have ponies?</p>
<p>I think they have an Equestrian team.</p>
<p>Not anymore.</p>
<p>have you decided if you want to pursue a 5yr program or a 4 +2? The rankings are different for the 5 yr bachelors than 4 + 2 masters. Both are professional degrees, but the 4 gives a pre-professional degree and then you can specialize (+2) or change your mind and do something else. The five is very focused. All elite universities have adapted to the 4 + 2. (harvard, yale, princeton, Berkeley) I have liked the 4 yr program at Berkeley, and in the end I have decided to wait on the Masters. The choice to get a professional degree is crucial because only about 20 states permit one to get licensed without it. ncarb.org has all of that info </p>
<p>I hope this helped</p>
<p>Another school worth looking into would be University of Maryland. I guess they don't rank as high when it comes to architecture, but I think it might be a strong academic overall option.</p>
<p>Super-recommend Rice and Cornell.</p>
<p>There are different rankings for archtecture. For example, Design Intelligence Magazine ranked architecture and interior design schools based on input from architecture firms. Univeristy of Cincinnati came out 5th in the US.</p>
<p>See America's</a> Best Architecture & Design Schools 2008</p>
<p>You may have to subscribe to this report to see the rankings.</p>
<p>In addition, Cincinnati has something that most of the other top schools don't have: 1.5 years of paid coop experience! This gives their grads a big edge over other top schools. Perhaps this shouldn't have come as a surprise considering the Design Intelligence ranking and strong coop program.</p>
<p>In case you choose to disregard this rankings by the firms themselves, do a survey of architectual firms in your area and ask them what are some of the top architecure schools, and what they think of University of Cincinnati. I did this and was surprised at how highly architects thought of the school.</p>
<p>Have you had a chance to look at the Architecture discussion forum ( in the Majors forum) here on CC? There are quite a few great posts about different paths to take, schools, etc in that forum. There are some very informed members there (some are architects themselves, some are parents of arch students) and are great resources for information. </p>
<p>Like you, my son started doing his search last year. In addition to the academics, he had some of the same criteria as you, especially the fun college town, friendly atmosphere and nice weather part!(we are from Va). He was sold on Virginia Tech after visiting, seeing their facilities and the campus. Now, we are as biased toward VT as taxguy is toward Cincinnati! :) (Glad to hear your daughter is loving it there taxguy!) </p>
<p>Anyway, rankings are only the start. You really need to, if you can, narrow down your possibilities and visit. It was incredible to see how fast our guy made decisions on where he wanted to go based on a 3/4 day visit to a school. Good luck. Oh, on VT's website there was a link for the "Educational issue" of Architect magazine. I have pasted it here. Maybe it will give some more information you can use. Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Cornell is one of the best, if not the best in architecture. The Cooper Union is a superb school, but I'm not sure if it fits you since you wanted a college town (NYC is not a typical college town) and a medium/large school (Cooper is very small).</p>
<p>
[quote]
All elite universities have adapted to the 4 + 2. (harvard, yale, princeton, Berkeley
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'm not familiar with Berkeley's program but HYP are not on a 4 + 2 plan. </p>
<p>Yale for example offers a BA in Architecture, but this is different from a Bachelors of Architecture or BArch. With a BA or BS in Architecture, Architecture Studies or an architecture focused degree in Art Studio or Art History, you would still need to spend 3 to 3.5 years getting a Masters of Architecture. </p>
<p>What HYP (and MIT and several others) offer is a Masters of Architecture (MArch) which takes about 3 to 3.5 years on top of an undergraduate BA or BS no matter what your major was.</p>
<p>Many successful architects have taken the BA/BS + MArch route. It's a good idea if you're not 100% sold on Architecture when you enter your undergraduate program, but it does take longer and therefore cost more.</p>
<p>I believe TCNJ has a pretty stong architecture program.</p>
<p>University of Michigan! It seems to have all that you want.</p>
<p>But it doesn't have the nicest weather per say........</p>
<p>ive heard that university of oregon has a great architecture/design school.</p>
<p>Notre Dame Architecture has a mandatory year of study in Rome. That's a nice perk.</p>
<p>Cornell and Rice seem to be the top programs in the US.</p>
<p>Penn State has a great architecture program and is housed in a beautiful new building! Its all you could want from a college, but a huge campus. You won't find to many architecture schools that are small, NJIT or Norwich.</p>