How Many Years of School Does it Take to Become an Architect?

How many years of school does it take to become an architect? Three years. No, four years. No, Five years … It depends. I’ll explain your options.

To become a licensed architect, you’ll need three things: an NAAB-accredited architecture degree , apprenticeship  in the practice of architecture, and a passing score on each of six registration exams . The last two are the subject of other posts. . . let’s talk about architecture school! Architecture school offers a curriculum centered around design studio, the best mode of education ever invented.

You have three base options if you want an accredited architecture degree: five-year B-Arch, “4+2 M-Arch,” or “M-Arch for those who majored in something other than architecture as an undergraduate.”

Option 1: Bachelor’s of Architecture

This undergraduate degree, which spans five years, allows you to pursue licensure without a master’s degree. Be aware: not every university with an undergraduate architecture program offers an NAAB-accredited Bachelor’s of Architecture (B-Arch); only about half do.

Should you earn a five-year B-Arch degree and still wish to pursue a master’s degree in architecture, that’s a (typically 1- or 1.5-year) option in many, but not all, graduate schools. Below is a list I compiled , in rank-order of the rates in which B-Arch graduates pass their licensure exam.

• University of Notre Dame

• University of Oregon

• Virginia Tech

• Carnegie Mellon University

• Rice University

• Tulane University

• University of Texas at Austin

• Penn State

• University of Tennessee

• North Carolina State University

• Cornell University

• Ball State University

• Auburn University

• Mississippi State University

• Oklahoma State University

• Iowa State University

• Louisiana State University

• University of North Carolina at Charlotte

• Marywood University

• Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

• University of Arkansas

• Drexel University

• Drury University

• Syracuse University

• University of Maryland

• Rhode Island School of Design

• University of Arizona

• National Average

• University of Southern California

• Boston Architectural College

• Illinois Institute of Technology

• University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• University of Miami

• University of Oklahoma

• California College of the Arts

• New Jersey Institute of Technology

• Pratt Institute

• Kennesaw State University

• Cal State Pomona

• New School of Architecture and Design

• Southern California Institute of Architecture

• University of Houston

• Florida A&M

• The City College of New York

• Academy of Art University

• New York Institute of Technology

• Woodbury University

• Florida Atlantic University

Option 2: 4+2 Master’s of Architecture

To pursue architecture in this track, you’ll attend a four-year non-accredited bachelor’s of arts or bachelor’s of science program in architecture. Upon graduation, you can find a job in the profession and never get licensed, but if you’d like to get licensed–which allows you to legally use the title “architect” and is required to own your own practice–you’ll want to return to graduate school for a two-year, NAAB-accredited master of architecture (M-Arch) degree.

Option 3: Master’s of Architecture With an Undergraduate Degree in Something Other Than Architecture

Architecture school, for most of us, is fun. You may have heard that it’s difficult, but it isn’t so much difficult as it is time-consuming. If spending most of your free time in studio as an undergraduate doesn't sound like great fun to you (as it didn’t to me as an undergraduate), you can major in something other than architecture (I majored in math).

Then, upon graduation, you’ll want to seek out a graduate school that offers a program to people like you and me who didn’t elect to pursue an architecture degree as an undergraduate (or didn’t have such a program available where they went to school).

These NAAB-accredited master’s of architecture programs for those with an undergraduate degree in something other than architecture should probably have a universally accepted separate degree name, but they don’t … Like the 4+2 option above, this flavor is also officially called simply a “master’s of architecture (M-Arch) degree.”

Graduate programs in this option typically last between 3.5 and 4 years–after you’ve completed your undergraduate degree (in theater, history, or engineering). Below is a ordered list I compiled , again by licensure exam pass rate, of schools that offer an M-Arch degree.

• Princeton University

• University of Notre Dame

• University of Virginia

• Yale University

• MIT

• University of Washington

• University of Oregon

• Harvard University

• Virginia Tech

• Kent State University

• University Massachusetts Amherst

• Carnegie Mellon University

• Norwich University

• Portland State University

• University of Hartford

• University of Minnesota

• Rice University

• Tulane University

• University of Texas at Austin

• University of Cincinnati

• Judson University

• Montana State University

• Penn State

• Northeastern University

• University of Tennessee

• University of Colorado, Denver

• North Carolina State University

• Clemson University

• Ohio State University

• University of California, Berkeley

• University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Cornell University

• Miami University

• Roger Williams University

• University of Colorado

• Washington State University

• Ball State University

• Texas A & M University

• University of Kansas

• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

• Iowa State University

• Louisiana State University

• University of North Carolina at Charlotte

• University at Buffalo, SUNY

• University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• University of Michigan

• Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

• Columbia University

• Kansas State University

• North Dakota State University

• University of Kentucky

• University of Idaho

• University of Utah

• Drury University

• Syracuse University

• University of Maryland

• Georgia Tech

• Washington University in St. Louis

• Rhode Island School of Design

• University of Arizona

• Lawrence Technological University

• University of California, Los Angeles

• University of Pennsylvania

• Catholic University

• University of Illinois at Chicago

• National Average

• University of Detroit - Mercy

• Wentworth Institute of Technology

• Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture

• School of Art Institute of Chicago

• Southern Illinois University Carbondale

• Temple University

• University of Southern California

• University of New Mexico

• Boston Architectural College

• Illinois Institute of Technology

• University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• Philadelphia University

• Andrews University

• Morgan State University

• University of Florida

• University of Miami

• University of Oklahoma

• Louisiana Tech University

• Texas Tech University

• California College of the Arts

• Arizona State University

• University of Hawaii at Manoa

• New Jersey Institute of Technology

• Pratt Institute

• Savannah College of Art and Design

• Cal State Pomona

• New School of Architecture and Design

• Southern Polytechnic State University

• University of South Florida

• University of Texas at Arlington

• University of Texas at San Antonio

• Southern California Institute of Architecture

• University of Houston

• Florida A&M

• University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• The City College of New York

• Academy of Art University

• Woodbury University

• Howard University

• Florida International University

Know that in some states, you can earn a license without an NAAB-accredited degree, but that’s not something I’d rely on as a readily available option if you don’t have to. Know also that many schools offer non-NAAB-accredited master’s of science degrees, often about two years in length, in subspecialties like architectural acoustics, historic preservation or architectural theory. Those degrees alone won’t get you eligibility to test for licensure, but especially if you have an NAAB-accredited B-Arch and enjoy school, this path may offer something worthwhile.

So, Which Path Should You Pick?

Which option should you pursue? I teach at Virginia Tech, a five-year undergraduate B-Arch program ranked third on that B-Arch list, and my colleagues swear by this five-year model, but I’m not so sure it matters that much which option you choose: 5-year undergrad, 4+2 M-Arch or M-Arch without an undergraduate architecture degree.

In a fifty-year career, you’re not going to look back and be thankful that you saved a year or two of school, nor will regret spending an extra year or two in school to earn a master’s degree. Instead, I offer these four pieces of advice:

1. If, as you approach the end of your bachelor’s degree, you find that you enjoy school, plan on earning a master’s degree. It’s increasingly a master’s-degree world (though currently in architecture your employability with an M-Arch isn’t that different from your employability with only a B-Arch).

2. If you think you may want to pursue a master’s degree, take the GRE exam while you are in college. The GRE is like the SAT for graduate school. Many, though not all, architecture graduate schools require a GRE score, and your ability to do well on this kind of exam will only wane over the years after graduation. You don’t have to go to graduate school right away you can work first — but have that GRE score in your pocket when you’re ready to return for a master’s degree.

3. You don’t have to decide beforehand whether to pursue a master’s degree or pursue a career after you complete your undergraduate architecture degree: you can simultaneously apply to both graduate schools and jobs at the conclusion of your undergraduate program and decide once you know who wants you (and how much salary/financial aid they’re offering). I don’t know why everyone seems surprised that applying to both before you decide is an option.

4. I strongly believe that if you think you’ll want to go to graduate school, then you ought to enroll immediately after earning your bachelor’s degree and not go to work “for a few years first” because life gets in the way. I used to hold an agnostic stance on this issue — and probably leaned slightly toward the “work for a few years first” camp–until I began teaching continuing education courses to practicing architects at AIA chapters around the US.

These courses spanned three full days, and I did fifty of them, so I got to know about 1,500 practicing architects. A common lament among the enrollees in my courses went something like this: “I’d like to go back to graduate school, but there are no worthwhile architecture graduate schools in my city and I can’t move because my partner loves her job, my local aging parents need my help, my children have good friends in high school that I’m not ready to rip them away from, I’ve become accustomed to a spending level above that of a student, and, besides, what would I do with my house and furniture while I’m in school?”