We’re finding it very difficult to get a good sense of admissions likelihood for B.Arch programs inside larger universities. Most people can just use the Common Data Set, but that doesn’t help when the specific program you apply to is harder than the university itself. How are people getting a sense of what is a target, reach, and so on?
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Some universities, like Cal Poly Pomona, are relatively transparent about different admission standard for different majors. Freshman Student Profile says that Cal Poly Pomona multiplied the recalculated-for-CSU GPA by 1000 and added 450 to get an index number. Then a competitively determined threshold is set for admission. Last year, the threshold for architecture was 4468, indicating a 4.018 recalculated-for-CSU GPA was needed for admission to that major (this typically corresponds to about a 3.7 unweighted GPA for an applicant who took a decent number of courses accepted as “honors” by CSU and UC).
However, other universities give less detailed information. For example, Cal Poly SLO gives only limited information, and by division rather than specific major: First-Year Student Profile | Cal Poly
I think this really varies by college and probably takes some legwork. Can you narrow down a little the colleges you’re looking at - region, selectivity etc? You might get some insight here from people with experience of some specific schools you’re looking at. But, my sense is ultimately you’re going to need to do the legwork of looking at each college page specifically.
You’ve had an example with the Cal Polys above.
Another example, U Arizona’s BArch is more selective than general admission but that just means you need a 3.5 rather than a 3.0 for an auto admit (but then there is a second step of selection to continue with the major once you’re in)
U Oregon requires a portfolio and answering specific questions about interest in design, while USC also requires a portfolio, so the selectivity is based on different criteria than simply ‘x% get into b arch vs y % overall”. Are you planning on submitting a portfolio?
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Yes, definitely have a portfolio for any school who wants it. Likely applications to UVA, U of Miami, U of Michigan, Tulane, Syracuse, and Penn State.
Are you instate for any of the publics?
Part of the issue is the portfolio. An applicant can be a 5.0/1,600 stat student and if they can’t drawing is stick figures, for any school that required a portfolio, it’s going to be a “no thanks”.
Virginia Tech provides a pretty useful tool to narrow down admissions statistics by school/major and other criteria. https://udc.vt.edu/irdata/data/students/admission/index but yes, for many other schools it’s incredibly opaque and can lead to a bit of the shotgun approach when picking schools to apply to. You can’t assume rejection at one that might have been a “target” indicates anything about how others might come back. S23 had 3 applications admitted to the university but not to the program “we welcome you but pick from a different program”.
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Sadly, no. Legacy at UVA (parent), Syracuse (aunt), and Penn State (grandparent), but those schools don’t prioritize that any more.
UVA doesn’t offer BArch. Syracuse comes down to the portfolio and Penn State is a very small program (therefore pretty selective).
There were some comments online indicating that the penn state program had about a 10% admit rate but those are pretty old (> 5 years). If it’s like the general trend though it’s probably lower now.
I’m not that familiar with schools east of the Rockies (which seems to be where the OP is looking) because of where my student is looking at, but are there any like a U Arizona or even Cal Poly Pomona where they don’t require portfolios and a certain grade would be either an auto admit or a likely admit? It strikes me that with the unpredictability of BArch admissions the need for likelies/safeties is probably even more critical than a normal college search?
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In general I wouldn’t believe online comments not directly from the school - but yes, it’s certainly a tougher admit than PSU’s general numbers.
Auburn is very like U Arizona. You’re admitted to the school if you hit their GPA & SAT/ACT. Then at the end of the first year there’s a cut-down into the actual B.Arch program. I’m not sure how many of the ~50 follow that kind of admissions criteria.
In terms of Likelies/Safeties - the challenge is to know which programs those are since it’s generally not GPA based and you likely don’t know how you fit into their “model” of an Architecture student. Some will look to be more design/art based, some will look to be more engineering focused. The kid that gets into Syracuse might not get into Virginia Tech and vice versa.
The student definitely needs to meet the first hurdle of general admissions. They can be the best artist in the world but if they’re a C student they’re not getting into Cornell. But a student that might be in the lower 25% admits to the school, if an exceptional artist, might get an accept to the Arch program.
Where I feel like some of our high schools do a disservice is when they offer an “architecture” course at the 9-12 grades it’s focused on CAD. Most university portfolio submissions will state explicitly they do not want CAD/building design work.
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It was reportedly what they were told by the department while on a tour , but yes it’s second hand
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Do you know anything about what Syracuse is looking for in the portfolio?
Attend one of their SoA admission sessions. They will tell you exactly but it centers around hand sketched B&W observational stuff. “We want kids that go everywhere with a sketchpad and pencil and in their free time break it out”.
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I would concur with @mashinations that the schools of architecture themselves are the best source for the information you seek.
Many schools of architecture offer in person information sessions for prospective students and their families. These are separate from the university’s general info sessions.
They may not be willing or able to share specific admission rate statistics but they will be able to talk about what they’re looking for in portfolios and essays.
Schools of architecture are well aware that their BArch programs have inordinately high drop out rates. They want to admit students who understand (as much as it is possible for a high school student) what an intensive architecture education will entail. To that end the admissions team is usually quite generous with their time and information.
Except for Miami, all of the schools on your son’s list look a bit reachy to me (though I don’t have any more hard facts than you do). I would think that your StateU BArch would be a good starting point for a less selective option. Or a local BS/BA+MArch if the BArch isn’t available.
Some BS/BA+MArch programs that are less selective than UVA and UMich (and WUSTL which is in the same league)would be Roger Williams, Clemson and Cincinnati. BA/BS graduates can stay at the same school for their MArch or go on to an MArch anywhere.
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Hi! Just went through admissions to Architecture programs with my daughter. It’s incredibly competitive and super difficult to determine target/reach/likely. Feel free to DM me with any questions and I can see if I can help! She’s actually pursuing Civil Engineering after digging deep into the programs to make sure she was certain it’s what she actually wanted to pursue. 5 years is a big commitment and some programs are super pricey without good merit/aid (Tulane) so if you don’t know 100% it’s what you want, it’s best to go somewhere more affordable.
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S23 is at Tulane now. I agree that they are pretty tight with the merit but the FA package left the net price pretty similar to the other schools we were shopping (several of which were State schools - OOS).
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The registration portal at my sons school shows past years course enrollment. And I was able to couple that with the degrees conferred to come up with the following information.
Some of the students that started first year studio could certainly have gone on to get a BS Arch or leveraged it into some other major but it gives some indication of how the cohort shrinks.
Fall 2016 - 58 students took first sem. studio - 20 Barch degrees were conferred in '21.
Fall 2017 - 51 students took first sem. studio - 18 Barch degrees were conferred in '22.
Fall 2018 - 55/23
Fall 2019 - 68/23
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Those stats are really interesting. I’d note though that all of them encompass the pandemic, and I’m wondering how studio etc would have worked in Covid … do you know anecdotally or otherwise if that had any effect on say students taking an extra year to complete ? Or if there is data further back ?
Can you share which school or prefer not to?
(So far though that definitely confirms my belief that it’s probably better for my own kid to do the bs arch - m arch route)
It’s Tulane (I could opt not to say it but someone could easily enough look back at my message history and figure it out). 
The registration information doesn’t go back far enough to capture any non-COVID years but would guess the 2016/17 data set wouldn’t have been impacted substantially. A student isn’t likely to have done 3-4 years of the program only to have COVID completely blow it up. I agree that the class starting Fall 2019, COVID could well have driven the steep(er) drop off from 68.
And we often talk about the attrition rate of the program but there’s been some statistics out there that ~50% of ALL college students change majors. Assuming that’s anywhere near an accurate statistic, Arch might be higher than average but not dramatically.
In any case I agree with what was said earlier about the programs being more than willing to sit with a prospective student to explain what the profession is and what it isn’t - and the different paths to licensure. Every college we visited we sat down with someone in the program and they were happy to do it. Virginia Tech we visited on a Saturday and they set up for a couple of 5th years to walk us around and answer questions.
If you haven’t done so already I might suggest reaching out to the prospective program for your student and ask to talk to a current MArch student (someone nearing the end of the program) - Q&A around the benefits or downside of going that path. Looking at the different curriculum’s my sense is that the intensity of the MArch isn’t substantially different than the BArch. You’re not spreading the 5 years of work over 7 years. If the hope is to get your student established in college life in a less stressful way and validate Arch is the path for them then the BA Arch/MArch may well do that!
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Yes re the last sentence! Thanks as always for your insight.
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