My son who is a nonresident US citizen. wants to become an architect. He needs to choose between going to Occidental College majoring in Arts and to Univ of Florida majoring in Architecture for undergraduate. The main issues will be about State Residency, financial aids facilities and architecture school requirements in California and Florida. Which state would be more suitable for him going to Architecture school? Thank you for your help.
@CASCAS, Has your son already applied and these are his top choices? Or is he planning to apply in the future?
See UFL’s website for information about establishing residency. Occidental is a private college so I don’t think residency matters, but you should check this directly with the college.
If your son has acceptances already, he should receive his aid packages soon. If he’s not applied yet, then use the colleges’ net price calculators to get an idea of the amount of NEED based aid he may be eligible for. If that isn’t workable then pursue MERIT aid.
(If your son hasn’t applied yet, he might want to widen his list to include colleges that offer the BArch or BS in architecture.)
Neither University of Florida or Occidental offers the Bachelor OF Architecture (BArch) which is a professional undergraduate degree in architecture.
UFL offers a Bachelor of Design in architecture which could lead to an Masters of Architecture (MArch) at Florida’s Department of Architecture or at any other college.
Occidental College doesn’t have an architecture department per se. If he were to get a BA in Art History & Visual Arts, he would then have to go to another university for his MArch.
Either would be an acceptable route to an MArch program as long as he fulfills the prerequisites which are generally some art studio, some art history, some calculus, some physics. Requirements vary from school to school.
In most US states your son would need a BArch or an MArch to become a licensed architect. California allows holders of the BA or BS to become licensed, but it’s a long complicated process. If he wants to practice in the US he should get the BArch or MArch. If he intends to return to practice your home country (or any other country) then you need to check the individual requirements of each country.
Seems like going into the BArch program at one of the Cal Polys would be a better choice, since a BArch program is the fastest way (5 years) to the educational requirements for architecture licensing, and the Cal Polys, as CSUs, are not that expensive for out-of-state students.
A BA or BS in architecture would likely allow getting an MArch in a shorter time than usual (usual is 3-4 years) for those with unrelated bachelor’s degrees. But that still would take longer than a BArch.
Thanks for yr helpful replies.