University of Maryland offers both the B.A. & B.S. degrees in architecture, and not the B.Arch. Maryland Institute College of Art offers the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Environmental Design (no psychology major offered, only general electives). Not sure if this is what you are looking for curriculum-wise.
Here is a link to one of the old cc threads from 2025 on a similar topic:
As you already have a California school on your list - USC offers a BS in
Architectural Studies. Staying on the west coast, UW Seattle also does, but that has secondary admission to major so that may not work for you (it didn’t for my student).
Your list seems a little tilted towards reaches - your GPA and ECs are good but obviously so are many applicants to those schools. The portfolio is an unknown in the process.
If you are interested in some target/likely schools, these may include Pitt (internship is required as part of their BS so that tilts practical), CU Boulder if not too far from Denver for you, U Illinois Chicago (I’m assuming Urbana-Champaign is too far from a city for you), U Minnesota (also has secondary admission to major).
This seems to be at odds with your desire to avoid the professional BArch degree. A 4-year non-professional degree will be (by definition) less practical or practice-focused. I would exclude the BAC from this group - its vibe is mostly a “night school” for working professionals. You may want to also look at Wentworth IT, which is right next to Northeastern with a co-op program (and less selective).
Lehigh would be worth a look, although it’s not in a large city, but neither is Michigan.
I think UPenn is going to be a very big reach with no AP scores and being under the 25th percentile for SAT. The ED acceptance rate is still less than 15% and that includes all the hooked applicants.
I would have the counselor note the health issues but that’s 8 APs and it’s over time - and you took and did well on the SAT.
I suspect no to Penn but you never know. If it’s your top choice, then why not.
I don’t know about BAC - but the rest of your list - you might very well strike out.
So you’re not looking for something like these - at LACs - not sure if you are male or female. If male, ignore Smith College below.
For bigger schools, UNCC, U Kentucky, UMN, U Cincy (Co Op like Northeastern), and for smaller, Ithaca. NOt sure if they have the right curriculum but there are many schools that have architectual studies,
I would add some sure bets - you have none.
If you want large city, look at UMN, UK, U Cincy, U New Mexico - well look at the curriculums.
I was going to suggest Wentworth as well. You seem to like Boston and Wentworth’s program is studio rather than theory based, has good internships, and has opportunities to study abroad. It also probably falls into the likely range for you, unlike most of your list.
Some schools that would qualify as being urban or near cities that offers a non B. Arch major in architecture are below. I did not look to see which ones have secondary admission requirements for the major, but suggest you do so for any school you’re considering. And some of these schools have been mentioned upthread.
Arizona State: About 65k undergrads at this school in the Phoenix metro and offers a BSD in Architectural Studies. Also offers a BS in Construction Management and Technology, if that’s of interest.
Case Western (OH): About 6500 undergrads at this school in Cleveland that offers a B.A. in Pre-Architecuture but may only be chosen as a second major (i.e. another major is required as well). Demonstrated interest is important here.
Florida A&M: About 7900 undergrads at this HBCU in Tallahassee that offers a B.S. in Architectural Studies as well as a B. Arch. There’s a BS in Construction Engineering Technology, if that’s of interest.
Howard (D.C.): About 12k undergrads at this HBCU in the nation’s capital that offers a BS in Architecture & Design Studies (as well as an M. Arch).
Marywood (PA ): About 1800 undergrads at this school in Scranton that offers a B.Arch but also bachelor’s in environmental design in architecture, architectural engineering, and construction management, should that be of interest.
North Carolina State: About 28k undergrads at this school in Raleigh that offers a Bachelor in Environmental Design as well as a B. Arch.
North Dakota State: About 10k undergrads at this school in Fargo that offers a B.S. in Arch (with an M. Arch also available).
Samford U. (AL): About 4200 undergrads at this school in Birmingham and offers a B.S. in architecture with an available M. Arch afterwards.
Thomas Jefferson (PA ): About 3800 undergrads at this school in Philadelphia and offers a B.S. in architectural studies as well as a B. Arch.
Tulane (LA): About 8200 undergrads at this school in New Orleans and offers a B.S. in architecture as well as a B. Arch. Demonstrated interest is known to be very important here.
U. at Buffalo (NY): About 20k undergrads at this school in…Buffalo…and offers a B.S. in Architecture and an M. Arch.
U. of Arizona: About 45k undergrads at this school in Tucson and offers a B.S. in Sustainable Built Environments as well as a B. Arch.
U. of Cincinnati (OH): About 33k undergrads at this school in…Cincinnati…and offers a B.S. in architecture (with an M. Arch available).
U. of Memphis (TN): About 16k undergrads at this school in…Memphis…and offers a BFA in Architecture.
U. of Pittsburgh (PA ): About 26k undergrads at this school in…Pittsburgh…and offers a BS in Architecture and a BA in Architectural Studies.
U. of San Diego (CA): About 5900 undergrads at this school in…San Diego…and offers a Bachelor’s in Architecture (unsure if BA or BS, but it’s not a B. Arch).
U. of San Francisco (CA): About 5300 undergrads at this school in…San Francisco…and offers a BA in Architecture.
Vanderbilt (TN): About 7200 undergrads at this school in Nashville and offers a B.A. in Architecture and the Built Environment.
If Temple and/or Drexel are your only options, would you happily send in your deposit, enroll, and look forward to four years there? If not, I would suggest finding alternative safeties or finding out more about the opportunities at Temple and Drexel to make sure you would be happy to spend four years at either school.
Couple of comments about some on the list that we looked into:
The USD degree is a BA Arch
The UoA BS in built environment is quite different to an architecture degree and likely not what OP is looking for
If applying to Tulane, apply EA
Some schools (Pitt above, UMN, UIC, some others) offer a choice of BA or BS. It is generally but not always the case that students looking on this as a pre-professional degree (so intending to do an MArch) are advised to do the BS option. (At colleges that only offer one option it doesn’t seem to matter what the degree is called…BA, BS, BSD, BEnvD etc…) As already noted above, there can be quite different curricula between schools so a deep dive is always a good idea. My student cut some schools off their list (as varied as UNM and the prospect of the junior-year-entry UCLA option) as they seemed more focused on things that didn’t interest them.
I would also advise visiting colleges for department tours, whether before applying or once there are acceptances to choose from. We saw some quite dramatic differences in the facilities available to arch students between different colleges.
I’m not going for the B.Arch because I’m not 100% sure I’m committed to architecture as a profession and want to keep my options open. B.Arch locks you in and I’d like to see how I handle studio. If I’m fully invested, I will go for M.Arch for sure. I’m in at Pitt already, I forgot to say and think I’d be happier there than Drexel or Temple.
I think with Pitt, the issue is cost - right. $60K-ish. Temple will be less.
Is Cost not a consideration because you can afford $90K a year? Or is it not because you just want to go to the best school (in your mind) and you’ll borrow to oblivion (well your parents would, not you)?
In your sense - either doing a Masters and Architecture or something totally different - grad school is in the offing, so unless you can afford it all, cost matters.
I think you can get into #1-8 but I think you can go 0 for 8 too. If I had to bet, maybe 1 or 2 and maybe not the main campus (i.e. Northeastern) if you’re full pay.
But I’m not admissions.
If you are happy with Pitt (and can afford it), then you’re all set - because worst case, you go to Pitt and that’s a very respected school.
But given your future, you should think - where would I be happy. Michigan is huge as is Berkeley…Tuffs isn’t. Maybe going to a less expensive large flagship like UMN is better so you can save for grad school. None of these names are going to put you ahead - with the degree you’re going to pursue -either for architecture or for another major for grad school - unless you pivot during your four years.
If you won’t be happy at Pitt, I’d suggest adding others but Pitt has a wonderful reputation (if affordable). And it’s universally respected, and strong in so many areas if you changed your focus.
That looks like a strong in-contention GPA to me, but I’m going to page @Gumbymom here as she has info for the UCs. @Gumbymom , do you have any level of detail for admission stats to the college of environmental design at Cal?
UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design admits by major but unfortunately there is no specific breakout of admit rates for each of the 4 Undergraduate majors.
Overall admit rate was 8% for the College with a Capped weighted UC admit range (25-75th percentile) of 4.15-4.30. Overall campus UC Unweighted GPA admit range (25-75th percentile) was 3.91-4.00 and Weighted Uncapped was 4.36-4.73.
Campus Overall OOS admit rate was 10.0% (31707 apps/3155 admits).
You are competitive for Berkeley but it is still a Reach school. Good luck.