Cal Poly SLO vs. UC Berkeley vs. Virginia Tech

fermium
Mon, 09 May 2011 18:17:53 +0000

For undergraduate, both VT and Cal Poly are top 5 architecture programs in the US, whereas Cal’s undergraduate architecture is not.

TOP 10 UNDERGRADUATE ARCHITECTURE SCHOOLS
1 Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
2 Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.
3 California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
4 Virginia Polytechnic institute and State University
5 University of Texas, Austin, Tex.
6 Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kans.
7 University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.
8 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I.
9 Rice University, Houston, Tex.
10 University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif.

Also, I think both VT and Cal Poly grant B. Arch, whereas Cal does not. This means if you choose Cal, you will need to attend graduate school shortly to be employable. I am not an expert on this, but this point could be a deal breaker for you.

Architecture is sort of a specialty major, you can’t just go by the overall brand name of the whole university as the primary decision driver for your choice of architecture school.

If you want to be a practicing architect immediately after graduation, I would lean toward VT or Cal Poly. The UCs definitely does not come anywhere near to ruling the roost in architecture.