Hi, I’m currently a high school senior planning to major in landscape architecture, and am deciding whether to go to UC Berkeley or Cal Poly SLO. SLO seems to have the better program, but the problem is I’m not 100% sure I want to be a landscape architect, and so Cal’s program is appealing to me since I feel like it will give me more opportunities to explore, and I have the overall prestige of the school to fall back on if I decide to switch majors. But I’m also thinking that it would probably be safer to go to Cal Poly’s accredited program. I’m just not sure if I should go for the school with a better ranking in my major or the school with prestige + flexibility in my major. Any suggestions? Any insight into the programs at SLO or Cal would be greatly appreciated.
Is SLO accredited? Because UC Berkeley isn’t. That being said, my girlfriend had no trouble getting a job afterwards, and she’s headed to UPenn for grad school in Landscape architecture haha.
If you have any questions about it I can try to answer them, and any that I can’t I can try to pass on to my gf tonight
@1359aud BTW I saw your other thread and I just wanted to mention: Due to the accreditation issue that I (and the other poster) mentioned, my girlfriend was forced into the longer MLA program at some of the schools she applied to. For example, at UPenn people with accredited BLA degrees get into a 2 year MLA program, but she got into the 3 year program for people with no relevant background lol. They’re being flexible and letting her skip some intro level classes but still something to consider.
My D is currently a freshman LA at SLO. SLO’s program is accredited and very highly ranked. We did a lot of research on both programs and she decided not to apply to UCB because she wanted the option of not getting an MLA. Do not assume it will be easier to switch majors at UCB, it will depend on how impacted the new major is. Switching into comp sci will be very difficult at both schools, but If you are switching into a major that is not terribly impacted it will not be hard to do at SLO (my D knows a couple of students who have changed majors already).
@philbegas, SLO’s program is accredited. But do you know if I can still be licensed, specifically in California, if I end up going to an unaccredited program? From my understanding I can, but I’m still not completely sure.
And are there many opportunities given to take on an internships or a job related to the major? Do you think that the program prepares the student for a job as a landscape architect and offers enough hands-on projects? I guess these questions are for your girlfriend, if she doesn’t mind me asking. Also, I’m curious to why she ended up choosing Berkeley for her undergrad.
I’ll answer what I can and then I’ll get back to you when I can with answers from my gf. Probably this weekend sometime because tonight is going to be hectic for me.
At UC Berkeley there was a professional practice class that matched students with internships. She got an internship at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Roberts_%26_Todd
I think all of her friends were employed pretty soon after graduation as entry level designers, despite the fact that the L.Arch program isn’t accredited. Isn’t having an accredited master’s degree the more important thing? IDK. We are probably moving to Philadelphia because she will be going to UPenn graduate school and I’ll probably be going to Drexel.
Unfortunately, after her internship was over they simply didn’t have a position open for her to become a full-time entry level designer, but she had a very good relationship with the people there and they gave her glowing recommendations that helped her get a job at a different landscape architecture firm. She did a lot of studio projects (and the studio teachers at Cal were some of her fav teachers). I would go hang out with her at the studio sometimes until 12/1AM.
I don’t remember exactly why she chose Berkeley, I’ll have to ask her.
For licensing purposes in CA, you will need 6 yrs combination of education/job experience. An accredited program will count as 4 yrs, a non-accredited program 3 yrs. However, this is only for licensing purposes - employers will be concerned about experience level from non-accredited program and will desire an MLA. So, is catch 22 in that you will have hard time getting 3 yrs professional experience without having been in accredited program or doing MLA (education credit is max 4 yrs whether you do undergrad or MLA, still need 2 yrs on job).
Note also that the licensing rules could be completely different – and tougher on non-accredited degrees – in other states. I don’t know about landscape architecture specifically, but in general California has a reputation for being unusually lenient when it comes to accepting unaccredited degrees for licensing purposes.
For example, it’s possible in California to qualify for a Professional Engineer’s license without an ABET degree, or to qualify for the bar without an ABA degree. Other states are much stricter. So even if you did get licensed with an unaccredited degree in CA, there is no assurance that you would qualify for licensure by reciprocity anywhere else. It might be possible, or it might not, depending on the local laws. In contrast, you can safely assume that an accredited degree will be universally accepted.
When my girlfriend was picking schools she didn’t know what major she wanted to do yet. So she was picking between UC Berkeley and RISD, and she picked UCB because there were more options for majors and they gave her a better financial package. Also have you visited San Luis Obispo and Berkeley?
@Corbett My girlfriend was saying the way she understood it, if you qualify for basic licensure in a state, generally, it is reciprocated for any state where they only need basic licensure. BUT, in some states, like CA, there’s extra requirements. For example she was under the impression that in CA you need to do a supplement that has to do with your understanding of irrigation/water?
In civil engineering, California has state-specific supplemental exams for licensure. So licensed civil PEs from other states do not automatically qualify for licensure by reciprocity in CA; they have to pass the CA supplemental exams first. It wouldn’t surprise me if there is something similar in landscape architecture.
In civil engineering, California doesn’t require a professionally-accredited degree for licensure, but other states do. So licensed civil engineers from CA do not automatically qualify for licensure by reciprocity in such states; they don’t have the right kind of degree. It wouldn’t surprise me if there is something similar in landscape architecture.
In other words, you might need an accredited degree to qualify for “basic licensure” in some states. Note that an “accredited degree” can be either a bachelor’s or a master’s. So you can get an accredited degree by going to grad school, even if your bachelor’s is unaccredited.
The OP might want to contact the California state licensing board for landscape architects and see if someone there can discuss the licensing requirements and the pros and cons of unaccredited degrees. An accredited degree willl be universally accepted. An unaccredited degree may work in CA (assuming you can get the extra work experience) but may lead to issues in other states.
@Corbett, I’ve been trying to contact them via phone and email but for phone it’s hard to get connected to an actual person. Someone had called me back, but I missed the call. From the voicemail the person left me, it seems that CA has a six year experience requirement and a non-accredited program counts for 3 yrs of the requirement while an accredited program counts for 4 yrs, like a user above has mentioned. Also, an accredited program would allow me to take sections 1 and 2 of the test after the program while I’d have to do the full six years if I go to a non-accredited program. I haven’t asked about other states, but that’s something I also want more information on.
@philbegas I live around ~40 mins away from Berkeley so I’ve visited that campus more often than SLO’s. I’ve been to SLO two times and both times I’ve liked the campus, but not loved it. It’s very pretty and clean, but not very stimulating or interesting to me. Berkeley is not the most pleasant place to me, but yet it has a lively atmosphere that I find myself attracted to. Another difference is that SLO’s program is very structured with no free electives, while Berkeley’s is very flexible, but of course the trade off for that flexibility is that it makes the program unaccredited. The approaches of the two schools are just different. Also, one more question for your girlfriend: In her opinion, how cutthroat or competitive is it at Cal, specifically in CED? I’ve been getting a lot of warnings lately about the environment there.
She said it was fine. Not particularly competitive at least for LA