Best Universities offering graduate programs in Architecture

The interdisciplinary nature of the doctoral (Ph.D.) program stresses the relationship of architecture, urbanism, landscape, and building technologies to their cultural, social, and political milieu. Supported by strong affiliations with other departments in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences, the program has developed a comprehensive approach to the study of the field. Students interact with their peers to sustain their individual projects in a context of collective research.

The Master of Science degree in Advanced Architectural Design is a three-semester program aimed at providing outstanding young professionals—who already hold a Bachelor of Architecture or Master of Architecture—the opportunity to conceptualize design as a critical practice that shapes the world’s technological, relational, and environmental evolutions. The program is viewed as a framework for exploring both academic and professional concerns through a set of inquiries and premises: architecture and its design practices are critical in addressing contemporary challenges; architectural specificity is the result of transdisciplinary cooperation; architecture’s future agency lies in the discipline’s capacity to mobilize realities across different scales and time frames. These ideas are explored through innovations in representational tools and the embrace of new probationary artifacts, inviting students to shift away from the specialized mastery of specific scales towards methods of “interscalarity.” By aligning new models of response to new architectural modes of practice, the Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design program strives to empower graduating students in the face of unknown future scenarios.

The M.S.AAD is a designated STEM program eligible.

The Advanced Studios bring together students in the Master of Architecture and Master of Sciences in Advanced Architectural Design programs. These studios, which take place during the fall and spring semesters at the School, have always explored the future of architecture in a diversity of ways. Each studio creates its own world—with its own intersection of social, cultural, formal, material, economic, and environmental concerns—and students have almost 20 worlds to choose from. After selecting a studio, students conduct experiments and develop projects through concepts and massings, programs and forms, drawings and models, materials and atmospheres, metrics and narratives.

Cornell's professional Master of Architecture (M.Arch.) program uniquely engages global practices through a foundation in making and conceptual thinking. Its close community of talented and dedicated students and faculty work together to push the boundaries of the discipline.

The fully accredited M.Arch. program is a three-and-one-half-year course of study dedicated to preparing graduate students from diverse disciplines and backgrounds for careers in architecture. The M.Arch. program is open to applicants possessing a four-year bachelor's degree in any discipline. Students interested in applying from fields outside architecture are encouraged to enroll in Cornell's Intro to Architecture program.

The M.Arch. program is accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). In addition, the M.Arch. program is now designated as a STEM program in Architectural and Building Sciences/Technology (CIP code 04.0902) making international M.Arch. graduates eligible to extend their F-1 visas for up to three years in order to work in the United States.

Students in the Department of History of Art and Architecture are able to study in a wide array of areas including ancient, medieval, early modern (Renaissance, 17th and 18th centuries), modern, contemporary, East Asian, African and Latin American art and architecture, and history of photography.

The department's faculty consists of historians of the major periods of Western, African and East Asian art and architecture, representing a broad spectrum of the discipline's methodologies and specialties. Courses offered at Harvard and the nearby Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) may be taken for credit free of charge by history of art students with the approval of the department.

Access to the holdings of the RISD Museum and the library of the Rhode Island School of Design, adjacent to the Brown campus; use of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World for students interested in antiquity; collections of the Bell Gallery, the John Hay Library, and the John Carter Brown Library; an extensive slide library housed in the List Art Center; and electronic visual resources in development.

The M.Arch is a three-year, NAAB-accredited program that leads to a Master of Architecture degree.

The M.Arch. curriculum prepares students for the practice of architecture by providing a focused framing of today’s cultural, ecological, political, and technological questions with a view to what architects may bring to bear on such complex issues. At each stage of the curriculum, students become equipped to not only lead the professional field but also to construct new opportunities for it by positioning their design skills within a rapidly changing world.

The program is eligible for the STEM OPT Extension for F-1 visa holders.

The UVA Master of Architecture program is an accredited first professional degree focused on the production of innovative architecture in the context of global cities. The breadth and depth of our faculty expertise teaches students to push experimental boundaries while providing a strong connection to society, scholarship, practice, and technology.

The Master of Architecture program, rich in instrumental and methodological diversity, exposes students to a rigorous and inventive architectural education. We enjoy a collaborative community, comprised of internationally recognized faculty who are primarily in residence throughout the semester to engage an energetic and culturally diverse student body. The program prepares graduates as design leaders, global citizens, and critical scholars. The students learn to actively shape the values, boundaries, and methodologies of architectural practice.

Georgia Tech's Master of Architecture (M.Arch) program offers a professional degree that can be used to pursue a career in architecture or a related field. Through a curriculum that mixes design studios with history, theory, technology, and practise, the NAAB-accredited and STEM-designated program combines design and research.

The Master of Science in Architectural Studies enables students to develop specialized research skills to meet the challenges of tomorrow as an environmental design professional or academic.

The MS program is open to students holding a degree in architecture, as well as students with experience and degrees in allied fields who seek new ways to engage environmental design through advanced research skills. Students develop a specialized focus in one of the school’s program areas or craft their own focus through courses within the college and across campus. To earn this degree, students must complete a total of 32 hours of graduate credit. The program length varies from one to one-and-a-half years and, depending on focus area, may include fieldwork or internships.

The Master of Architecture (M.Arch) program at the University of Florida leads to a professional degree certified by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), the academic credentials required for registration as an architect in the US, Canada, and Mexico.

Students must establish an individual area of study, supported by professors of their choice, as the basis for their thesis or project-in-lieu-of-thesis (PILOT), which must be completed in the program's final semester. Based on their academic credentials and portfolio of work, applicants to the program will choose one of three curricular paths.

The Post-Professional Master of Arts in Interior Architecture (IA) aims to create ethical, socially-conscious design thinkers and leaders in the industry of the built environment through an academic program that emphasizes conceptual thinking and the design process, community engagement, and leadership in the profession. As our campus is located across the street from the White House in the US Capital, many of our projects will be DC based, involve the community, or focus on global issues. The Post-Professional MA IA is designed to educate students who have previously received an undergraduate degree in interior design, interior architecture, or architecture, who want to continue to challenge themselves in an academic setting. This degree program focuses on teamwork, leadership, and social responsibility; by learning and developing skills that prepare student to take on leadership roles in their future firms, graduates will be able to make positive changes in the built environment. The core of the program will be the consecutive studio sequence, Studio A and Studio B, which will challenge the students to solve a problem by creating a spatial design solution—with a focus on global design issues, serving clients of varied income and diversity spans, and community involvement. The main project for the continuous studio sequence will emphasize teamwork, which aligns with the professional work environment, allowing for a creative process that leads to collaborative design solutions.