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What Do You Think: Criteria for the ‘Top’ Architecture Schools?

By CSI HQ posted 09-24-2018 03:47 PM

  

What Do You Think is a weekly CSI conversation starter to help you share your experiences, insights, and observations about the work you do on the CSIResources.org CSI-Connect Community.

Last week’s post stated: DesignIntelligence has once again ranked the "top" architecture schools in America, but this year they changed their survey question, asking which are the "most admired" schools and "from which schools did you hire the most graduates?"

What criteria would you suggest to determine the “top” architecture schools?

Here are a few of the replies. You can read the entire thread, and add your voice to the conversation.

https://www.csiresources.org/communities/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=85&MessageKey=e9f33ccb-def4-4429-a215-9d7b8eb8b99d&CommunityKey=80c3b4dd-0d3f-4d4e-90f2-3bc6e4135dc2&tab=digestviewer&ReturnUrl=%2fbrowse%2fallrecentposts

For those considering spending tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars for a professional education, including delaying work income for 5 to 7 years, I would think the school evaluation criteria should include:

  • -The percentage of admitted students who graduate within some reasonable amount of time.
  • -The percentage of graduating students who become employed in architectural practice or a related field.
  • -The percentage of graduating students who achieve professional licensure within a reasonable amount of time.

Philip Kabza RA, FCSI, CCS, AIA, SCIP
SpecGuy Specifications Consultants
Mount Dora FL

I think the criteria should be more objective, like the following metrics:

  1. -Percentage of graduates placed in Architecture firms directly out of school 
  2. -Percentage of graduates licensed within 5 years of graduation 
    1. -Within ten years
    2. -Within 20 years
  3. -Percentage of graduates elevated to leadership roles ‘in architecture firms’ after 5 years
    1. -After ten years
    2. -After 20 years
  1. -Average time elapsed between graduation and licensure.

Cam Featherstonhaugh CSI, CDT, AIA
Associate, TruexCullins
Chair, Member Connection Committee

 

As a graduate of one of the schools that rose steeply in DI's ranking this year, I am inclined to forgive the soft-science nature of the question! ;-)

But seriously, I'd love to see schools ranked by the very cogent criteria named by others here, and there are ways of discovering that kind of data. I have a junior in high school, and her school is very serious about connecting students with fantastic data about where graduates of each university live and work, graduation rates, and so on. In searching for the data system they use, I came across dozens, including a data system run by the Department of Education.

I think magazine rankings are ways to get people talking about certain schools, or reading your magazine. It's nice to know how architects perceive schools of architecture, but that's just one data point (and probably not one you'll get on the Department of Education site) that feeds into college choice. You'd be wrong to send your kid off to school based on that information alone.

Vivian Volz
Principal Specifier
San Rafael CA

 

Add your thoughts to this conversation.

https://www.csiresources.org/communities/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=85&MessageKey=e9f33ccb-def4-4429-a215-9d7b8eb8b99d&CommunityKey=80c3b4dd-0d3f-4d4e-90f2-3bc6e4135dc2&tab=digestviewer&ReturnUrl=%2fbrowse%2fallrecentposts

 

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