Change and School Rankings
Happy Tuesday! There are many things to think about as the fall wind swirls around, creating eddies of whirling orange leaves across campus. As you pull out those scarves and jackets – perhaps even fluffy blankets – to keep you warm in studio, you might be thinking about your future. After all, you might be applying for graduate schools or searching for internships. Or worrying about doing these things in the years to come. Either way, you certainly could use all the help you can get.
As a result, I think it’s time for another fun fact. Design Intelligence has just released the top design schools for graduate and undergraduate architecture. If you want to read all about it, as well peruse through all the other useful information found in DesignIntelligence, pester the people you know who paid money for the publication, or purchase it yourself at http://store.di.net/products/america-s-best-architecture-design-schools-2015. However, if you’re happy only looking at the top ten undergraduate architecture programs and top ten graduate architecture programs (completely for free), then head over here:http://www.archdaily.com/563673/and-the-best-us-architecture-schools-for-2015-are/.
Most of the names on this list are not surprising. As usual, the Ivy League schools score well and occupy the spaces at the top of the graduate school list. In fact, the first five schools listed are Ivy Leagues (a full fifty percent of the top graduate programs). Harvard, Columbia, Yale, MIT, and Cornell lead the list, but are followed by many state schools and public universities. Thomas Jefferson’s university even makes the list, although his hallowed UVA resides at number nine (and it’s still a fantastic achievement for any university to rank in the top ten).
Undergraduate programs are not ruled by these giants in quite the same way. Cornell tops the list, but no other Ivy League universities appear. In fact, Texas and California dominate the list, Texas with Rice University and the University of Texas at Austin, and California with California Polytechnic State (in San Luis Obispo), Southern California Institute of Architecture, and the University of Southern California.
As usual, these rankings have changed over the years and will continue to change. The students attending these schools will graduate and enter the working world, replaced by new and eager minds. If anything stays consistent over time, it’s that change is inevitable and likely comes in alternating strong and weak waves. There have been many such waves over the past years, though one of the more notable ones occurred in 1871, with incredibly lasting effects.
In 1871, three universities admitted female students to their architecture programs. This was a large turning point in history because they were the first three schools to do so. The University of Illinois, Cornell University, and Syracuse University have since been followed by all other American universities. These names might sound a bit familiar. If you remember, our own Professor Marleen Davis graduated from Cornell and later taught at Syracuse. The process of change was slow, as even sixty years ago, there were not many schools that admitted women. In the present day, there is no question about women’s admittance to architecture programs. This might not have been the case if three revolutionary universities did not take action.
Now is the time to think about the change that has accompanied our journey to the present day. And to see who owns the most recent DesignIntelligence publication and borrow it from them. And probably return it eventually. Maybe.