US Architecture Schools

US Architecture Schools refer to university programs in architecture in the United States.

Professional degrees

There are three types of professional degrees in architecture in the United States: the Bachelor of Architecture, Master of Architecture, and the Doctorate degrees — either Doctor of Architecture, Doctor of Design or Doctor of Philosophy, respectively abbreviated as "B.Arch," "M.Arch," and "D.Arch.", "D.Des." or "Ph.D." Non-professional degrees include the Bachelor of Arts in Architecture (BA), Bachelor of Science in Architecture (BS), Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architecture (BFA Arch), and "Bachelor of Environmental Design" (B.Envd). A non-professional degree typically takes four years to complete (as opposed to five years for a Bachelor of Architecture) and may be part of the later completion of professional degree (A "4+2" plan comprises a 4-year BA and a 2-year Master of Architecture). The 5-year BArch and 6-year MArch are regarded as virtual equals in the registration and accreditation processes. There are also M.Arch programs for those with undergraduate degrees in areas outside architecture; these program typically take six or seven semester (3 or 3.5 years) to complete. Other programs (such as those offered at Drexel University, Boston Architectural College and NewSchool of Architecture and Design) combine the required educational courses with the work component necessary to sit for licensure exams. Programs such as this often afford students the ability to immediately test for licensure upon graduation, as opposed to having to put in several years working in the field after graduation before being able to get licensed, as is common in more traditional programs. There is currently an ongoing debate to upgrade the 3.5 year M.Arch title to D.Arch both for current students and retroactively for 3.5 year M.Arch graduates.

Rankings

Partial (NAAB Accredited) US undergraduate program rankings from the 2007 [http://www.di.net/ Design Intelligence] (DI) survey. Ranking was based on a survey of 400 firms who evaluated graduates hired during the past five years and considered how prepared they were for “real-world” jobs.Complete US graduate program rankings from the 2007 [http://www.di.net/ Design Intelligence] (DI) survey.