America's Best Architecture Schools

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, school rankings are influencing prospective students’ decisions on where to apply, and architecture firms’ decisions on whom to employ. RECORD looks at this year’s survey and asks people in academia and the profession what it all means.

THE MAN BEHINDTHE NUMBERS

James Cramer, Hon. AIA

James Cramer, Hon. AIA: Perhaps best known to architects as the chief executive of the American Institute of Architects from 1988 to 1994, Cramer founded Greenway Group in 1982 and launched it as a fully staffed organization shortly after leaving the AIA. His Atlanta-based firm operates a management consultancy that services the design and construction industries. The company’s communications division administers think tanks (such as the Design Futures Council), organizes conferences, produces publications (such as the bimonthly DFC journal DesignIntelligence), and assembles the annual architecture-school rankings. He is the author of several books, including Design Plus Enterprise: Seeking a New Reality in Architecture (2002, 2nd edition). To learn more about his company and its methodology, and to discover trends that have materialized over the course of 10 years of surveys, go to architecturalrecord.com/features for an exclusive interview with Cramer. D.S.

DEANS AND CHAIRS SURVEY 'EARLY ON, deans at a number of schools moaned about the rankings,' remembers Theodore Landsmark, Assoc. AIA, president of Boston Architectural College. The deans and chairs feared that state funding might be tied to their position on the charts. Some people in the academy still view the survey with a certain skepticism. 'The higher our rank, the more intelligent we think the document is,' laughs Douglas Oliver, a professor at Rice University School of Architecture and director of design at Morris Architects, in Houston. 'If we slip we think the system is flawed.' In response to earlier criticism, in 2007, Greenway began using a school-evaluation survey informed by questionnaires sent to academic leaders in addition to its practitioner-driven rankings. 'Deans and chairs of all NAAB-accredited architecture programs are invited to participate,' Cramer says. This year 67 programs responded, and the deans' opinions do not differ from those of practitioners as dramatically as was perhaps suspected. Academia's top five schools hew closely to the more publicized rankings; only the appearance of Auburn and Princeton in the B.Arch. and M.Arch. ratings, respectively, differentiates this list from the practitioner-rated top 10. D.S.
Deans and Chairs Survey
1	Cornell University
2	University of Texas, Austin Most admired B.Arch. programs
2	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
3	Auburn University
3	Rice University

Most admired M.Arch. programs
1	Harvard University
2	Yale University
3	University of California, Berkeley
4	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
5	Princeton University

Architecture Student Survey What students are pursuing (%)
41	Bachelor of Architecture
16	Bachelor of Science in Architecture
4	Bachelor of Arts in Architecture
1	Bachelor of Arts in Architecture Studies
35	Master of Architecture
3	Other (including dual degrees, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architecture, and other architecture programs)

Percent of Students who believe they will be well prepared for their profession upon graduating: 93

Quality of program overall (%)
49	Excellent
40	Above average
8	Average
2	Below average
0	Failing

Quality of program Relative to cost (%)
52	Excellent
48	Above average
16	Average
4	Below average
1	Failing

What students do after graduating (%)
33	Pursue an advanced degree in architecture
6	Pursue an advanced degree in something else
50	Work in private practice
3	Work for a corporation
3	Self-employment
3	Undecided or other
1	Work in government
1	Community service
85	Planning to take the Architect Registration Exam
77	Planning to become LEED certified