U of AZ, Iowa State or NJIT

College Majors Architecture Major
1

Hi!
My Son has been accepted at NJIT, U of AZ and Iowa State. Any insight as to which program best prepares them for licensure and private practice? We are NJ residents but he’s leaning towards a large campus experience. NJIT and U of AZ are BArch from the first year on but Iowa State requires a re-application type of process to proceed into BArch which is a negative. Cost wise NJIT comes out the lowest cost followed by ISU and Uof A with a 45k price differential. As of now I think his ranking is UofA, NJIT, Iowa State. Thanks!

2

I realize this is a month after your question, but $45K is a significant difference in educational cost. Some things to think about:

  1. The majority of college students change their major before they graduate.
  2. There is a significant attrition rate among architecture students. In the case of D2’s BArch class, approximately 60% of her starting class transferred out of the architecture program before graduation.
  3. If your son were to possibly consider changing majors, where would he be able to most readily do so, and into an acceptable alternative major? (i.e., if he wants to change from architecture to engineering, or english, or math, or whatever, what school would provide the best opportunity for such changes?)
  4. There is a certain regionality to architecture schools. In other words, architectural firms tend to have interns and hire from schools in relatively close proximity to their offices. Accordingly, I would bet that the majority of NJIT grads get jobs in the mid-atlantic region and ISU grads get jobs in the midwest and the AZ kids tend to wind up in the southwest. Certainly there are exceptions to this statement.
  5. By all means, keep student loans to a minimum. Dealing with these post-graduation, will have a major effect on what choices that student will have upon entering the workforce.

Good luck.
A fellow architecture student’s parent.

3

Thank you for your advice! In the end it came down to the campus tour. He chose Iowa State after seeing the campus and department in action in person and he is happy with his decision as we are as well. (We’re from the midwest ourselves). Cost-wise, it fell right in the middle of the differential, NJIT even offered him more money last week but ISU remains his solid choice. Thanks!