<p>When you say "high academics", it sounds like you want the opportunity to dabble in studies other than architecture...yes? No? If that's the case, sounds like you might want a 4-year undergraduate major followed by graduate school. Plenty of top schools offer this option (I looked most closely at Columbia, Yale, Princeton), as well as the opportunity to study other things you're interested in since you don't have the restriction of a 5-year BArch program. That's the way I'm planning to go.</p>
<p>Otherwise there are those BArch schools, which are fantastic--if you know at the age of 17 that architecture is your one true calling. I did explore some of these and I liked Cornell, Syracuse, and Notre Dame, all of which have highly-regarded programs with the advantage of being part of larger liberal arts universities. The downside, I found, was that you really do nothing but architecture for five years...so academically it almost doesn't matter how broad the rest of the university is. Your life will be architecture only. (And a note about Notre Dame: it has a great program, but be aware that it is focused on the study of classical architecture rather than modern.)</p>