Best architecture schools
The best architecture schools are the programmes that the profession ranks for the quality of the studio and the placement of the graduates, and they are a stable list that the national accreditation and the professional survey hold together year after year. The ranking runs on the 2 measures that set the order, the accreditation that marks the standard and the reputation that the faculty and the employers give, and the schools at the top hold both. The list the field uses is the one the American Institute of Architects and the accreditation body publish, and it is the list the student who weighs the schools reads, the order that has held for the 2 decades of the 21st century.
The top schools in the United States
The top architecture schools in the United States are the 6 that sit at the head of the field's ranking, and they are the programmes the student who aims for the top applies to. The Harvard Graduate School of Design has led the list for most of the 21st century, and its master of architecture is the reference the others are measured against. The MIT School of Architecture and Planning holds the next place, the programme that carries the science and the technology of the building. The Yale School of Architecture holds the design and the history, the programme that teaches the building as the art and the record. The University of Pennsylvania, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of California at Berkeley hold the rest of the top tier, each with the strength that sets it in the list, the policy and the technology and the environment that each carries. The 6 schools, the Harvard, the MIT, the Yale, the Penn, the Texas and the Berkeley, are the top of the United States list, and they are the programmes the accreditation marks and the employers place their graduates into, the schools the degree from them opens the entry job of the large firm.
The schools of Texas and California
The architecture schools of Texas and California are the 2 states that carry more than their share of the top programmes, and they are the states the student who weighs the region reads. In Texas the University of Texas at Austin carries the top programme, the school that sits in the top tier of the national list and the one the Texas market hires from, the school the state's construction feeds. In California the 2 schools that carry the state are the University of California at Berkeley, the public school that sits in the top tier, and the California State schools and the private schools that carry the rest of the state's programmes, the Berkeley and the private schools the West Coast market hires from. The 2 states, the Texas and the California, are where the student who wants the region and the top programme looks, and the schools of the 2 are the ones the national list places in the top tier, the Austin and the Berkeley that hold their states in the ranking, the programmes the accreditation marks and the market of the state places the graduates into.
The schools of the world
The best architecture schools of the world are the programmes the international ranking holds, and they run across the 3 regions that carry the discipline's teaching, Europe, North America and the rising schools of Asia. In Europe the schools of the 2 centuries of the discipline's teaching hold the list, the London and the Paris and the Berlin schools that carried the modern movement and still teach it, the European schools the international student applies to for the history and the theory. In North America the United States schools of the top tier hold the list, the Harvard and the MIT and the Yale that the international ranking places at the head. In Asia the schools of the rising construction hold the new entries, the schools of the cities that build at the scale the older markets do not, the Asian programmes the international student applies to for the scale and the speed. The 3 regions, the Europe, the North America and the Asia, are where the world's schools sit, and the list the international student reads is the one that runs across the 3, the schools the discipline taught in and the ones it is taught in now, the world ranking that holds the 2 centuries of the teaching together.
How the ranking is built
The ranking of the architecture schools is built on the 2 measures that set the order, and they are the accreditation and the survey. The accreditation is the first measure, the review the national body runs on the programme, the examination of the curriculum and the faculty and the outcome of the graduate, and it is the mark that the accredited school carries, the NAAB accreditation in the United States that the licence path requires. The survey is the second measure, the judgement the faculty and the employers give, the ranking that the profession's own members make of the schools they teach in and hire from, and it is the measure that moves a school within the tier. The 2 together, the accreditation that sets the standard and the survey that measures the reputation, are what the ranking reports, and the student who reads the ranking reads both at once, the mark of the standard and the mark of the reputation. The ranking is not the test the student sits but the record the profession keeps, the order the schools hold by the 2 measures, and it is the record the applicant reads before the portfolio and the application go to the school that holds the place the student aims for.
How to choose between the top schools
To choose between the top architecture schools, the applicant weighs the 3 things that differ from school to school, and they are the studio, the city and the cost. The studio is the first, the teaching the school is known for, the design and the technology and the history that each carries, and the choice of the studio is the choice of the teaching the 5 years run on. The city is the second, the setting the studio works in, because the project is drawn on the city around the campus and the internship is placed in it, and the student who wants the work of the coastal metro chooses the school that sits in one. The cost is the third, the tuition of the 5 years that the school charges, the private figure above the public and the one the 5 year total makes the number the student weighs against the salary. The 3 together, the studio that teaches the work the student wants, the city that supplies the project and the internship, and the cost that makes the 5 years possible, are the 3 the applicant weighs, and the ranking tier is the floor they all share, the top tier the 6 schools hold and the choice the 3 make within it.