<p>I am currently a freshman at university of michigan. I am in the honors program now but have always had an interest in architecture. Does michigan have a good program, and also what are the top undergraduate architecture schools?</p>
<p>IMO, the two top BArch programs in the US are Cornell and Cooper Union because those are the two that get the most respect in New York City and New York City is still the center of the architecture universe in the US--even though Gehry is on the other coast. Please don't flame me. I was just in LA and I can't get over how little architecture has been built in the last 20 years. Who knows what Angelians are doing with their vast wealth. New Yorkers have spent a fortune on architecture by comparison.</p>
<p>Cooper and Cornell grads get the best 'design' positions and they also get good MArch placements.</p>
<p>However, UMich has a great program--especially if you want to stay in that region to work; ie Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland. If you do decide to do architecture in Michigan, try to go to Italy for an entire year of study. Ann Arbor is cute but it is not full of noteworthy architecture. One of the essential aspects of turning yourself into a good architect is knowing what makes GREAT space. You cannot learn this from photographs. You cannot. Do not try to fool yourself into thinking you can--even though there is a whole industry of architects who operate from the basis of producing the cool photograph and calling it 'architecture'.</p>
<p>To turn yourself into a great architect, you have to physically experience thousands and thousands of spaces--the greater the space the keener the sensibility. You cannot teach yourself ANYTHING about space in a WalMart, for example. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>University of Michigan is not a BArch program, it is a BSc program, so comparing it directly to Cornell and Cooper Union is not entirely apt. The goal of the programs is entirely different.</p>
<p>A BSc program prepares you for graduate study, allowing you to enjoy college a bit and explore different things in those 4 years. ie. you could do sports, organizations, etc. on the side. A BArch program is kind of an intense, one-tracked-mind sort of alternative, and it takes 5 years. However, out of a BArch, you can get your degree directly.</p>
<p>I don't know anything about BSc/BA Arch programs.</p>
<p>The programs that are generally regarded the best for BArch are Cornell, Sci-Arc (in LA), Rice. There are only like 65 BArch schools in the country, so most of them are at least decent.</p>
<p>Sorry. the OP asked for the best undergrad programs and I named the two best--in my opinion. </p>
<p>For undergrad, you cannot beat a BArch becuase it is 10 semesters of design studio. Period. If you add a MArch to it you get 13 or 14 semesters of design studio. </p>
<p>The more design studios you take at reknowned schools, the better an architect you are likely to become.</p>
<p>This is why it is quite difficult to compete in grad school if you enter with only a few semesters of part time design studio. 49 times out of 50, the student who goes to grad school with 10 semesters of design will be a superior design student.</p>
<p>Rice does not have a national reputation like Cornell or Cooper--or even SCIARC. Reknowned architects are not leaving NYC and LA to teach in...Houston. Sorry but they are not. Rice has an excellent regional reputation.</p>
<p>When it comes to BA/BSc - i e the preprofessional programs designed to prepare you for graduate school - some of the best ones are Penn, Princeton and Yale.</p>
<p>When it comes to graduate school, BArch and BSc/BA students usually enroll in programs with different length. The BSc/MArch route would usually land you a total of 10-12 semesters of design studios, depending on the programs.</p>
<p>I'm doing a BArch, so I agree on one hand...the more studio, the better...</p>
<p>but there are other aspects to design that you can learn if you don't spend all day and night in studio for seven years, and stick your head into somewhere else. Social ones, practical ones. These are things I often wish I had time for. That is the beauty of 4+2's (BSc) etc.</p>
<p>Also, it totally depends what you're interested in. Both Cooper Union and SciArc are great schools if you're into the theoretical side of architecture. A lot of Cooper grads become professors for that very reason, though. If you're into the more practical, there are other places that are better for that. I wouldn't want to go to SciArc. The more of a practical background you get in school, the less likely you are to get disillusioned that the crazy ideas of school can't (or are unlikely to be) built. The trick is to get a nice combination of crazy ideas as well as the practical background to know whether they are feasible or not. I doubt any school can truly provide that, but some are better at it than others. Cooper and SciArc aren't among them.</p>
<p>You're still in school so your perspective might be skewed. I am 49 and I have owned my own practice for 20 years--moved it across the globe as a matter of fact.</p>
<p>True, the BArch can seem excessive and those students do pine for poetry classes in their latter years but, believe it or not, the five years of studio do make a big difference out in the field--even if they've been five years of conceptual architecture. The profession requires a three year apprentice and that is where you will learn how to build. You don't need to learn that in school. You don't ignore what they do teach you--but the place to really learn construciton detailing and process is in the field, in a busy office, interacting with builders and engineers. It's quite easy to learn because it is very interesting. I opened my own office five years out of school and although I was more than ready to handle all kinds of building projects--I haven't stopped learning yet. I am tackling the problem of mineral waterproofing up against sheet piling--just this week. I have had to call in a Geotech Phd to try to find a proper soil to solve the problem and I am more than a little annoyed the weasley structural engineers left this up to the contractor and sub-contractor to design and coordinate. Live and learn.</p>
<p>As long as you are the fastest CAD draughtsman you know, you will do well in any office in the US. When offices hire for construciton detail talent--they hire because of experience at other reknowned architect's offices. Hiring partners just skip right over any building details done at school--pulllleeeezzze--but those details done in Richard Meier's office? In Norman Foster's office? Those are a little more interesting, LOL.</p>
<p>The Cooper grads I know are not professors. They are practising architects of the highest caliber--a ton of fun to work with--and employ. They add heaps to the profession by virtue of their unique conceptual perspective, their emphasis on unusual materials and their concentration in NYC. I am always happier if I have a Cooper grad in my office and I bet many New York architects would say the same.</p>
<p>I'm currently in a B.Arch program, in my third year, and I am applying to transfer to another B.Arch program. From my 3+ years of research (started looking at architecture schools in the summer of 2003), as well as what I have learned from the countless friends I have made at architecture schools all over the country through my involvement in the AIAS, I would say that Cornell is the best program in the country. The program is challenging, well-respected, well-funded, and not too large nor too small. Pluse, they keep a few spots open each year for transfer students like yourself.</p>
<p>Additionally, as a side note, I would recommend going to a B.Arch program over an undergraduate BA or BS. Less debt, quicker route to registration, more studio time.</p>
<p>wow I didn't know cornell's program was that well respected. But I must say that as a first year architecture student at Cornell, the architecture school here is wonderful. The students here are very driven and come from different backgrounds. Admissions have gotten very competitive lately, with only 1 out of every 9 applicants admitted into the program. They do work you hard here though, but that is probably the same for other schools.
There are also great networking opportunities along with a great faculty and visiting critics. Since the program is more than a hundred years old, we also have a lot of traditions. For anyone looking at architecture schools, I highly recommend Cornell.</p>
<p>laldm: "Both Cooper Union and SciArc are great schools if you're into the theoretical side of architecture. A lot of Cooper grads become professors for that very reason, though. If you're into the more practical, there are other places that are better for that."</p>
<p>This is a common misconception, which is creating opposition where there is none. The conceptual feeds into the practical, the practical feeds into the conceptual. Placing them at opposite ends of a scale is just wrong, no matter the natural affinity architects seem to display for dualities.</p>