Mom112233

program (5 year Barch)...my D has her eyes on Cornell, SLO, USC, RISD, Cooper, Rice...
Her stat:
She's a Junior at a highly competitive private HS
UW GPA 3.4
W GPA 3.85
Has taken architecture classes offered by her HS since Sophomore year. D gets A's here.
A lot of EC and leadership activities, and community service.
Has taken art classes since Freshman year. D always gets high marks for her art work.
Any ideas if she has any chance for Cornell or any other top architecture program???
How hard is to get a scholarship, grant or any other type of financial aid that is not a loan for an undergrad architecture program.
Thanks so much in advance!!!

RyanMac

Those schools are going to look at her portfolio and grades. From my experience, a portfolio probably won't get you into a school, but a bad one will certainly get you rejected. That said, she should focus on doing as well academically as she can. But she should go to summer program for architecture or be an intern to get some experience and make sure she loves it. Summer is getting closer, so she should try to get into one.

Yes, she has a chance at all of those schools. A 90+ average is sufficient to get her into any of them. Keep that up; it depends on her portfolio (or home test for Cooper).

4trees

My son, one year ahead of your daughter, has just completed the admissions cycle for BArch programs. The only thing left he has to do is decide where to enroll! He applied to a variety of schools and was accepted to all nine of the programs he applied to, with perhaps somewhat lesser stats compared to your daughter. All the privates offered merit scholarships, the publics were loans only. The key to merit awards is to be someone the school wants....
The top thread on this board has six of the nine schools that offered admissions to my son, (the others he decided against before the acceptance letters arrived.) As well as the schools of a bunch of kids on this board were accepted to. So there's some good contacts regarding specific schools. I think your daughter's list is mostly the top of the selective BArch schools, she may want to add a few less competitive schools depending on what her coursework rigor was and her SAT / ACT scores. Remember the programs are all small, some very small, so much depends on the applicant pool and what kind of kids they are seeking to 'build' their class. I feel most important is her level of interest she presents to each school. She might want to start contact now, first with the admissions office for the schools in general, then the arch department admissions staff and professors. The best advice my son received was to find the person(s) who makes the admit decisions for the arch students, e-mail and call them often enough that they know you on a first name basis. Find out what the school is looking for, explain who and what you are, and ask what you need to do to be a successful candidate. The arch people at all the schools he contacted were very friendly and helpful, usually directing him to specific professors for answers to many of his questions. By last December he had a few professors calling him! One prof. at a school my son did not apply to, told me that he avoids, and often refuses calls from parents, but is always open to calls from prospective students...

Lots of folks here will discuss Cornell, Rice, Cooper and most of the schools on your daughters list.

Good luck to your daughter.

jackht27

I had similar stats and I got rejected from the Barch programs that I applied to. I applied to SLO which was my first choice, and got rejected. I am going to U of Oregon next fall, and I am super excited. Their program isn't at the top of the rankings, but it's more than decent. The application process is disheartening and extreeeemmeeelyyy competitive.

Apply to a variety of different programs, not just reaches like Cornell and Rice....that was my mistake. Really do some research.


Good luck to you and your daughter! :]

momrath

Same as any undergraduate program, there's a difference between need based and merit based financial aid. Need based aid is offered by most colleges/universities. Try using one of those on-line calculators to get an idea of how much your daughter would qualify to receive. The actual need based awards will not be exactly the same from each college, but they will be similar.

If your family doesn't qualify for need based aid, then you'll need to research merit aid. Some colleges offer it; some don't. This will require more investigation on your part.

B.Arch programs like any other undergrad programs can be highly selective or less selective. Take a look at the acceptance rates to put the individual schools in perspective. Your daughter should have some of each on her list. The highly selectives are usually the best known. Nothing wrong with applying to reaches, but don't stop there.

The less selectives (AKA safeties, surebets) can offer wonderful programs (often plus merit money) but they're harder to find. If you intend to sleep between December and March, make sure that your daughter spends a disporportionate amount of time identifying and learning to love her safeties.

Mom112233

jackht27, thanks for your comments...You're right. We need to make more research about other archit. programs that are not so competitive..
Good luck to you at U of Oregon...

Mom112233

RyanMac, my D is thinking about getting an interhsip for the summer...
I'm not so sure what you mean by
"A 90+ average is sufficient to get her into any of them."
thanks!

Mom112233

4trees, thanks about the detail explanation about how important is to be in contact with the admission staff. I'll strongly encourage my D contact them and ask questions about their programs. I wonder how do you know what they want when the mix of the class is different each year...

RyanMac

I just meant that if she has an A- average in her academic classes, assuming she is taking challenging classes, that is fine. If she has SAT's above 2000, I would say her admission to all those schools would depend on her portfolio.

4trees

Well the more you ask and research the better you will understand a particular program. For example, at one school my son determined that the interest of the department head, and several of the professors was architecture preservation and restoration. It was still a BArch program, but had a slant that wasn't his cup of tea.
A couple schools told him the ability to demonstrate creativity and problem solving rated much higher than any drawing, drafting or cad skills he might have had, while another wanted to know details of what experience he had with cad and drafting, (which was none).... My favorite was during an interview he had (that I was invited in on) when the arch admission director pulled out a crate of portfolios of past applicants. She flipped through and pointed out examples of what they liked. When she came to a line drawing of someones left hand, she said; "Please don't send me yet another perfect hand that took four months to complete!"

laurstar07

she should also apply to Syracuse, Penn State and VTech, which have top ranked BArch programs. out of the 9 schools i applied to, my BArch list included Cornell, RPI, VTech, Syracuse and Penn State, and 4+2 UMD, Wash U, UMich, Miami U of Ohio. she should apply to a variety of schools, especially with ones that have a variety of other majors and options, especially if she discovers that architecture really isnt for her.

to get into any program, you need a strong portfolio. it can make or break an admissions decision. a person with lower stats and a better portfolio would most likely get in rather than a student with higher stats and a mediocre portfolio. even if she doesnt attend a summer program (i didnt...and im still surviving), she should devote her summer working on her portfolio. they dont want to see any drafting work at all because she will be taught how to do so in school. to get a better understanding of the portfolios, visit the schools and see the ones they have on display. i know they have a whole table dedicated to them at cornell.

tell your daughter good luck!

SSD

My S just went through the process and did get into 3 - 5yr programs, waitlisted at one with merit schlolarships. His grades were similar with high SAT scores inthe 1400s. The state schools where tuition is lower is very competitive and will require greater than 4.0 weighted grades with high SATs. The private schools are also very competitive but seemed to weigh the portfolio more. In general it is very hard to get in. Our private counselor told us the programs were all reaches for my son. I would start working on a portfolio as early as possible. My S did go to a summer program and that helped but did not take art in HS as he was too busy. He studied at night with an art instructer to create the free-hand drawing in the Fall of Sr. Yr. Its very stressful experience and we are glad its over.

jjcddg

My son just went through this process as well, and I felt that it was much more stressful applying for Barch programs than if he'd decided on liberal arts.
Of course it helps that you are limited in where to apply, so the first step is easy, but then you realize that first you need the stats to get accepted to the colleges, then you need a great portfolio to get into the school of architecture so the requirements to get in are far more stringent. Not all schools require a portfolio, but since your daughter has a strong art background she should be fine in that area.

Without knowing what your daughter's SAT scores will be, it's hard to comment on her chances at Cornell, Cooper, USC or Rice. However, as mentioned previously she will need to get at least a 1400 to be competetive. Financially Cornell, USC and Rice claim to meet 100% of need, run your numbers through the EFC calculator "institutional methodology" to get an idea on what your expected contribution would be. Cooper Union is great with "free tuition", but the cost of living in the city is a lot. Plus they only accept something like 8% of architecture applicants.

Depending on her scores, RISD and SLO look like they may be matches or safeties. However, as mentioned in other posts, I would definately add more matches and safeties to her list. Actually, this didn't work out for my son because his only rejection was from his safety (UNC Charlotte- he was accepted to the college but not the school of architecture) and it was the one school that I felt had the most work to apply - but I also think he bombed his interview.

I agree that Syracuse would be a good "additional" choice, they claim to meet approximately 82% of need. If money is an issue, keep away from VTech and Penn State. VTech has a financial aid calculator on their website, and based on the numbers we eliminated it immediately. Despite having heard that Penn State gives terrible aid we visited it, my son fell in love and applied and was accepted to their school of architecture. With a small merit scholarship and loans, we were left with a cost of over $30K. So, when you hear that aid is terrible - believe it and don't hope for a miracle.
Unfortunately, many of the Barch programs are at state schools and both financial and merit aid is not great. This is one of the disadvantages of not having a lot of "choices"

We did look at some of the lesser known privates, but even with their merit scholarships (many post the stats required right on their website) the cost would have been high because the financial aid portion would have been poor.

My son's final decision is Tulane. This was not originally on his radar, but he applied because of their free application. They have an undergraduate March 5 year program (no one can figure out exactly what that means) They give nice merit money, and they meet 93% of need. Fortunately when he visited the school two weeks ago he absolutely loved it. Because, this ended up being one of the most reasonable price wise.

Sorry this post is so long. I just wish I'd had more info when we started our search.

msheft

I noticed very few of the postings indicated anyone looking into Univ of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. I thought they had a good reputation. It seems most of the schools on the posts are on the west coast, NE/East/Atlantic, or South.

My son is a junior and we live in the Chicago area. He prefers a 5-year BArch so UIUC is only being considered because of us being instate.

Any comments on my son getting into USC or Syracuse with a 31 ACT and an GPA unweighted of 4.9 (out of 5.00) and GPA weighted of 5.4?

Should he consider taking the ACT again to see if he can get higher than a 31?

momwith3

msheft

Assuming his portfolio is good, those numbers are well above the averages for Syracuse. Lucky you for having a 5 year Barch program at a state school.