DesignIntelligence

Top Ranked
Architecture Schools — Focus Areas


Architecture firms and other professional organizations were surveyed regarding America's Top Ranked Architecture & Design Schools, which ranks undergraduate and graduate programs from the perspective of the professional practitioners who hire and supervise graduates of architecture. Rankings are compiled for the strongest programs in each of 12 different focus areas.

1 — Communications and presentation skills

Undergraduate

School Name 2019-20
Cornell University 1
Cooper Union 2
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo 3
Syracuse University 4
Southern California Institute of Architecture 5
Rice University 6
Virginia Tech 7
Pratt Institute 8
University of Texas, Austin 9
Rhode Island School of Design 10
University of Southern California 10

Graduate

School Name 2019-20
Harvard University 1
Columbia University 2
Cornell University 3
Yale University 3
Southern California Institute of Architecture 5
Princeton University 6
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 7
Virginia Tech 8
Syracuse University 9
University of Texas, Austin 10

2 — Construction materials and methods

Undergraduate

School Name 2019-20
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo 1
Virginia Tech 2
Cornell University 3
Auburn University 4
Syracuse University 5
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 6
University of Texas, Austin 7
Southern California Institute of Architecture 8
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona 9
Rice University 10

Graduate

School Name 2019-20
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1
Harvard University 2
Cornell University 3
Columbia University 4
Virginia Tech 5
Yale University 5
Southern California Institute of Architecture 7
Georgia Institute of Technology 8
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona 9
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 9

3 — Design technologies (BIM, AI, VR, AR, etc.)

Undergraduate

School Name 2019-20
Cornell University 1
Southern California Institute of Architecture 2
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo 3
Virginia Tech 4
Syracuse University 5
Pratt Institute 6
Cooper Union 7
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 8
Carnegie Mellon University 9
University of Southern California 10

Graduate

School Name 2019-20
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1
Columbia University 2
Harvard University 3
Southern California Institute of Architecture 4
Cornell University 5
Virginia Tech 6
Yale University 7
Georgia Institute of Technology 8
University of California, Los Angeles 9
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 10
Syracuse University 10

4 — Design theory and practice

Undergraduate

School Name 2019-20
Cornell University 1
Cooper Union 2
Southern California Institute of Architecture 3
Rice University 4
Syracuse University 5
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo 6
Rhode Island School of Design 7
Virginia Tech 8
Pratt Institute 9
University of Texas, Austin 10
University of Southern California 11
Carnegie Mellon University 12
University of Notre Dame 13
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 14
Auburn University 15

Graduate

School Name 2019-20
Harvard University 1
Columbia University 2
Princeton University 3
Yale University 4
Cornell University 5
Southern California Institute of Architecture 6
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 7
Virginia Tech 8
Rice University 9
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 10
University of California, Los Angeles 11
University of Pennsylvania 11
Syracuse University 13
University of Southern California 14
Clemson University 15

5 — Engineering fundamentals

Undergraduate

School Name 2019-20
California Polytecnic State University, San Luis Obispo 1
Virginia Tech 2
Cornell University 3
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 4
Illinois Institute of Technology 5
Carnegie Mellon University 6
Syracuse University 7
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona 8
Pennsylvania State University 9
University of Texas, Austin 10

Graduate

School Name 2019-20
Cornell University 1
Columbia University 2
Harvard University 3
Georgia Institute of Technology 4
Virginia Tech 5
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 6
Illinois Institute of Technology 7
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 8
Southern California Institute of Architecture 8
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona 10

6 — Healthy built environments

Undergraduate

School Name 2019-20
Cornell University 1
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo 2
Virginia Tech 3
University of Oregon 4
Southern California Institute of Architecture 5
Syracuse University 5
Cooper Union 7
Carnegie Mellon University 8
Auburn University 9
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona 10

Graduate

School Name 2019-20
Harvard University 1
Cornell University 2
Columbia University 3
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4
Southern Califormia Institute of Architecture 5
Virginia Tech 5
Yale University 5
University of California, Berkeley 8
Clemson University 9
University of Oregon 10

7 — Interdisciplinary studies (awareness of, and collaboration with multiple disciplines impacting the built environment)

Undergraduate

School Name 2019-20
Cornell University 1
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo 2
Virginia Tech 3
Cooper Union 4
Syracuse University 5
Southern California Institute of Architecture 6
Carnegie Mellon University 7
Rice University 8
University of Texas, Austin 8
University of Southern California 10

Graduate

School Name 2019-20
Harvard University 1
Columbia University 2
Cornell University 3
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4
Yale University 5
Virginia Tech 6
Georgia Institute of Technology 7
University of California, Berkeley 8
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 9
Syracuse University 9
University of Southern California 9

8 — Practice management

Undergraduate

School Name 2019-20
Cornell University 1
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo 2
Virginia Tech 3
Syracuse University 4
University of Southern California 5
Southern California Institute of Architecture 6
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona 7
Carnegie Mellon University 8
Rice University 8
Pratt Institute 10

Graduate

School Name 2019-20
Harvard University 1
Columbia University 2
Cornell University 3
Yale University 4
Virginia Tech 5
Southern California Institute of Architecture 6
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 7
Georgia Institute of Technology 8
Syracuse University 9
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 10

9 — Project planning and management

Undergraduate

School Name 2019-20
Cornell University 1
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo 2
Virginia Tech 3
Syracuse University 4
Rice University 5
University of Southern California 6
University of Texas, Austin 6
Southern California Institute of Architecture 8
Carnegie Mellon University 9
Auburn University 10
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona 10
Pratt Institute 10

Graduate

School Name 2019-20
Harvard University 1
Columbia University 2
Cornell University 3
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4
Southern California Institute of Architecture 5
Virginia Tech 6
Yale University 7
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 8
Georgia Institute of Technology 9
University of Southern California 10

10 — Research

Undergraduate

School Name 2019-20
Cornell University 1
Cooper Union 2
Southern California Institute of Architecture 3
Virginia Tech 4
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo 5
Rice University 6
Syracuse University 7
Carnegie Mellon University 8
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 9
Pratt Institute 10

Graduate

School Name 2019-20
Harvard University 1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2
Columbia University 3
Cornell University 4
Princeton University 5
Yale University 6
Southern California Institute of Architecture 7
Virginia Tech 8
Georgia Institute of Technology 9
University of California, Los Angeles 10

11 — Sustainable built environments/adaptive design/resilient design

Undergraduate

School Name 2019-20
Cornell University 1
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo 2
Virginia Tech 3
University of Oregon 4
Auburn University 5
Carnegie Mellon University 5
Syracuse University 7
Southern California Institute of Architecture 8
Rice University 9
University of Texas, Austin 10

Graduate

School Name 2019-20
Harvard University 1
Columbia University 2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 3
Cornell University 4
University of California, Berkeley 5
Southern California Institute of Architecture 6
University of Oregon 7
Virginia Tech 8
Yale University 8
Georgia Institute of Technology 10

12 — Transdisciplinary collaboration across A/E/C

Undergraduate

School Name 2019-20
Cornell University 1
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo 2
Virginia Tech 3
Syracuse University 4
Carnegie Mellon University 5
Auburn University 6
Southern California Institute of Architecture 7
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 8
University of Texas, Austin 9
Cooper Union 10

Graduate

School Name 2019-20
Harvard University 1
Columbia University 2
Cornell University 3
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4
Virginia Tech 5
Georgia Institute of Technology 6
Southern California Institute of Architecture 7
Yale University 8
Syracuse University 9
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona 10