Grantl345

Is this true? I recently read an article stating that there are about ~1700 African American licensed architects in the US, which takes up a measly 1.61% of the population of all architects in the US. There are 104,126 registered architects in the US.<http://blackarch.uc.edu/publications/black_architects_by_state.pdf>


Why is this? I am African American male (Senior this year) myself and find myself standing out among my peers mainly because I truely want to be an architect, but I had know idea how un-diverse the field was. I take architecture seriously, I have been to two summer programs, one at Texas Tech and one at Cornell, and have a strong portfolio so far. I just want to know if people like me, which seems to be very few, are in high demand at all schools of architecture? Mainly schools like Rice, Syracuse, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, UT, VT, and RISD.

KandKsmom

Grantl345, what I saw of students while visiting some of the different architecture programs with my son a couple years ago seemed to validate what you read. Although we saw some of the studio classes at only four programs, they were not what I would call diverse. Mostly white males, not too many women and not many people of color.

How much of a factor that would be in admissions to some of the more reputable arch programs I don't know. I do know that at Virginia Tech they have implemented a program called CAUS (College of Architecture and Urban Studies) Ambassadors, in which ten students of under represented populations travel to schools to talk to kids and do other service oriented programs to highlight the profession. Maybe you could contact one of them with some of your questions. Here is the link:

Prospective Students | CAUS

Best of luck to you!

rick12

Grant, if you study architecture you will be a very rare commodity. You will have an advantage when applying to arch schools and finding professional positions. I think the greatest danger would be running into a glass ceiling later in your career that would keep you from advancing in an organization.

rick

llouis

LOL, now you mention it I have never seen a person of color or an International student in any of my classes

I never even thought about that, but I guess that why Architecture has such an elitist (and snobbish) reputation

there are a lot of Hispanic studying Civil Engineering though

ednamillay

Freshman class this year at cornell has more girls (33/57) and plenty of non-white and non-american students. It's a flawed system, but I feel like it's making necessary baby steps.