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What are the best schools for architecture?

I'd really like to be some sort of architect and would love to deal with the restoration of historic buildings. Washington D.C. seems like a great place to do this but any school in the north east I would consider. Thanks

Public Comments

1. Calpoly San Luis Obispo This California state university is FAMOUS for architecture! definitely apply here if you want to build and design stuff and be creative and anything! unfortunately it's not in the northeast, but as a college student, you should be more open to opportunities and explore the other side of America :]
2. Some of the best ones are: Princeton, Columbia, Cooper Union, UCLA, UPenn, MIT, Notre Dame, Rice (ranked as number 2), Iowa State (ranked as 14th best in the country for undergrad architecture), Clemson
3. To add to the other answers list: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Virginia Tech FYI Virginia Tech is currently considered the best in the country. For the current Rankings check: http://whichuniversitybest.blogspot.com/2008/10/american-top-architecture-school-2008.html Also check the Design Intelligence rankings. These are the rankings by people in the architecture field and are therefore better than the general rankings from places such as US News and World Reports.
4. Okay... So I've been to two schools for architecture as an undergrad now, and spent a long time looking at a lot of colleges. I'm really only familiar with 4+2 programs, as that's what I looked at, and those are the programs the NCARB is moving towards anyway. (New 5 year programs won't be added any more.) I'm going to school in D.C. right now at the Catholic University of America. I transferred here from the university of Kansas at the start of this year. Although I never thought this school would be a good fit, I have to say that as long as you stay within the school of architecture its a fantastic place to be. Its a decent sized school, that's fairly competitive and has very good programs in place. We just got reviewed, and the national accreditation board had good things to say, and it seems in general that the school is a rising star right now. Lots of grads are going on to top flight grad schools, including our own. Cornell is here of course as well, but to be honest, I'm not as wound up about their program as some ratings boards are. I just don't know if its a happening place to be anymore, plus, its a five year program, which I don't think offers the same level of education as a 4+2. I guess that you could also go to UMD or Howard here in D.C. but I don't think either of those are great schools. In the northeast, I think MIT is the best you can do in my opinion, but of course Harvard has something to offer too. My personal dream school is the University of Toronto, but apparently you can't get aid if you don't live in canada, so its very very expensive. New York is a great place to be, both because Columbia has a good program through barnard, and because of the job connections there. Syracuse would also be a good place to go in the region.