<p>This past week we attended our s's orientation at Virginia Tech and during the sessions with the Architecture department, I was struck by how few female students were a part of the incoming freshman class. In this particular group of kids (and I am not sure how many other orientation sessions there are still to come) there were maybe 5 out of about 40 or so students.
I was curious to see what all of your thoughts were. </p>
<p>Of course when I mentioned this to my son, he said he had noticed it, too, but said he was comforted by the fact that the girls he saw walking around campus, presumably in other areas of study, were "gorgeous". He then said it may be a good thing that they aren't students in his area ;)</p>
<p>Interesting to hear. It so happens that D2 and I were visiting Va Tech this past week. She's a rising junior, interested in architecture, and loved the campus. (By the way, we couldn't get the architecture information session because of the orientation!) She had heard about the school for years, since her mom is a Hokie. I'll have to tell D2 that there is a surplus of guys in the Architecture program!</p>
<p>I think some of the older Tech schools still get more males applying. I also think women are somewhat more likely to think about architecture later and so end up in M Arch programs. My M Arch class at Columbia 25 years ago was about 50/50.</p>
<p>Well, it seems that in one of the prior sessions it wasn't as lop-sided as ours. Yesterday I happened to run into a mom of another VT arch student who attended an earlier session and she said it was about 2/3 guys. With the artistic/aesthetic nature of the field, it just strikes me that there would be more females interested in it. </p>
<p>QuietType, it may be a blessing for your d if she ends up wanting to apply and go into this career. Do try to return so she can see Cowgill Hall and the design studios. They have just put a ton of money into refurbishing their design facility and it blew my son away when he saw it.</p>
<p>DAAP at Cincinnati is our next visit - end of this month. Again, D2 has heard about this school since her mom had an internship there (not in architecture, however). We keep trying to talk W into coming as well, but she claims she needs to take care of the dog (I suspect the real reason for her reluctance to visit is that she wants to keep an eye on D1!)</p>
<p>KandKsmom, I'd welcome a chance to get back to Va Tech - I always liked that campus since I visited my w-to-be when she was a student there. Thanks for the update on Cowgill - D2 had mentioned that she really didn't like the external appearance of that building - no Hokiestone!</p>
<p>KandKmom, I think the male/female ratio at that particular session was just an anomaly. All of the architecture programs my son considered (this was 3 - 4 years ago) had a high proportion of female students -- at least 35-40% everywhere and many were close to 50%.</p>
<p>From my own work experience (as a civil engineer who works primarily on private developments), I would say roughly half of all the architects I know are female.</p>
<p>Tech is known for being a very good "technical" school and as such had quite a few more males than females. That has been changing. Overall the school has a 42/58 split (female/male) according to US News. It used to be more like a 33/66 split. The split in the architecture program is about the same (or at least it was in 2006), i.e., a 42/58 split according to the NAAB. They show 234 female students out of 555 total architecture students.</p>