<p>I’ve always wanted to go to a liberal arts school, but many I’ve looked at do not have Architecture programs (like Oberlin, WHY???) I was wondering if any of you have suggestions? Thanks!</p>
<p>Architecture degrees are pre-professional degrees, and thus are inherently contradictory to liberal arts. A few have architectural studies, but that’s a far cry from an actual degree in architecture.</p>
<p>i know what you mean. perhaps i should have rephrased my question to liberal art-esque colleges haha. all i want is a very small school. low student teacher ratio. good arts. english. humanties. and architecture programs. cool?</p>
<p>Rice fits that criteria</p>
<p>hmmm. my dad has been trying to get me to go for rice because its only a couple of hours away from home. its a really great school, but i dont know if its for me. everyone i have talked to says it has a terrible feel about it which has made me somewhat hesitant about rice… i suppose i’ll just have to see.</p>
<p>Try Lehigh, or Wash U in St. Louis. I also have the same problem finding a school that offers business/engineering in a smaller setting without being some weird tech school with no girls, bad attitudes, and conservative politics. Good Luck!!!</p>
<p>Hobart-William Smith Colleges (arch studies)
Roger Williams University</p>
<p>Yes, Rice might be your best choice if you want a professional degree (Bachelor of Architecture) from a very respected school of architecture set within a small university. </p>
<p>Middlebury College would be a good choice if you want a non-professional degree (a B.A.) from a true liberal arts college with a strong architectural studies (a.k.a. “pre-architecture”) program. </p>
<p>Several of the Ivy League universities (Yale, Princeton, Penn) offer a B.A. in Architecture. These schools are larger than Rice or Middlebury. They offer non-professional degrees in a liberal arts curriculum, as Middlebury does, but each of them also has a graduate school of architecture. Cornell is the only Ivy League school that offers a Bachelor of Architecture from an undergraduate professional school (and I don’t know how feasible it is to concurrently take many courses in their college of arts and sciences). </p>
<p>Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design offer a BA/BFA dual degree program. This might offer you the closest to ideal environment in which to put together your own architectural studies program with a liberal arts focus, but also with access to the kind of courses you’d get in a B.Arch. program. </p>
<p>All these schools are extremely selective. Connecticut College, Hobart & William Smith, and several other liberal arts colleges also offers architectural studies, and are a little less selective than Middlebury. Or, you can pick almost any LAC that appeals to you, but be sure to cover the pre-professional requirements that graduate architecture schools expect (such as physics, math, art history, drawing and portfolio preparation). Colorado College, for example, would be a very interesting place to study environmental science, with some pre-arch courses, in preparation for a career in green architectural design. That’s the path one of my kids chose after going through the same agony this past year. Nice new science center, new arts center, gorgeous location; strong academics too, but more relaxed than some of the east coast schools. </p>
<p>You really do have a lot of options.</p>
<p>While many Liberal Arts Colleges do not offer Architecture due to its inherent pre-professional curriculum, you may want to look for schools with Urban Studies, which may resemble the sort of education that you are looking for. I know Vassar offers Urban Studies as does Bryn Mawr, if you’re female.</p>
<p>Ciao, I think the first thing you have to decide is if you’re interested in going after a B.Arch degree (an undergraduate professional degree). If so, then you’ll have to abandon the LAC option as most B.Arch programs are housed in large universities. There are a few medium sized programs like Rice which is certainly worth exploring. Here are some others (including some big U’s):</p>
<p>Boston Architectural College
California Polytechnic State U., San Luis Obispo
Carnegie Mellon University Cincinnati
Cornell University
Kansas State University
Rhode Island School of Design
Syracuse University
University of Notre Dame
University of Texas at Austin
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University</p>
<p>If, on the other hand, you decide to get an undergraduate BA or BS you’ll have a lot of choices at LACs, medium sized privates and large publics. You can study art studio, art history, architectural studies, design or, really, whatever appeals to you. M.Arch programs admit students with a wide range of educational backgrounds. You basically need a strong portfolio, some art studio, some art history, in some case a little calculus and physics, but you DO NOT need to have studied architecture per se.</p>
<p>Most LACs that have decent art studio or design departments have counseling establishments that advise their students on how to prepare for the M.Arch. I don’t have personal experience with Oberlin, but my guess is that if you were to do some probing on the internet you would find something under their career counseling or graduate school advising areas that would indicate which M.Arch programs Oberlin students have attended.</p>
<p>My son is a graduate of Williams in art studio and history and he’s about to begin his M.Arch at Cornell. Other LACs that he looked at are Wesleyan, Hamilton, Kenyon, Conn College, Skidmore. Conn College has a well established architecture studies department. I’d also suggest Smith if you are female. And Oberlin of course.</p>
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<p>If you like Bryn Mawr’s Growth of Cities program, but you’re male, then apply to Haverford (which is located next door to Bryn Mawr). Haverford students can cross-register to take classes at Bryn Mawr. Haverford students also are allowed to enroll in some classes at UPenn (though I don’t know specifically about architecture courses there).</p>
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<p>Actually, even if you are female, but just like HC better, you can apply to Haverford. Lots of Haverford mena and women decide to major at BMC (and vice versa) for a variety of reasons.</p>
<p>There are a lot of liberal arts colleges that have architecture majors, but not all of them have in-house design studio faculty or architects who are knowledgeable about the field. A liberal arts undergrad in architecture can be a phenomenal way to go for a college career. I recommend looking at east coast schools, in particular Hobart and William Smith Colleges.</p>
<p>You want to look for a liberal arts college in architecture that teaches fundamentals in design and prepares you for lots of different kinds of design and planning fields. You also want to make sure you can come out with a strong portfolio. The architecture major at Hobart and William Smith Colleges is really strong in this regard.</p>
<p>I have been admitted by Hobart and William Smith College this year, but I wonder between the HWS and Connecticut College, which is a better college to learn architecture. Dose Hobart and Wiliam Smith have a strong teaching in architecture?</p>
<p>Yes, my daughter is at HWS entering her senior year (yikes!), double majoring in architecture and environmental studies. She LOVES her studio architecture design instructor and the architectural historian (who’s also an architect, not just an arch historian) and feels really well prepared for both working in a firm or going to graduate school – I can’t believe how well she can draw now (she could draw flowers and things like that, but she now has a sketchbook and models that are really sophisticated).<br>
She’s deciding between going to graduate school for interior design, architecture or landscape architecture. All her friends in the major got into graduate schools — good ones too: University of Michigan, University of Washington, Notre Dame, Virginia, Wash University, Harvard.<br>
She had looked at Conn College too when she originally applied to HWS — but the student work was mediocre from the studios and they mostly had art historians who also taught architectural history. There weren’t any trained architects on the faculty at that time — maybe there are now. But based on my daughter’s experience, I’d recommend HWS.</p>
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<p>Look at UVA. I was surprised to see VT on a list… IMHO it is the exact opposite of what the OP is looking for. However, that’s what’s great about cc, you get a lot of opinions and ideas you may not have thought about. One might spark your interest and be worth a look.
Good luck! :)</p>
<p>University of Oregon has a top rated architecture program plus they have the Clark’s Honors College which is a “small, LAC within a major university”. Clark’s has a very traditional liberal arts curriculm but it’s competitive to get into.</p>