Architecture school rankings

 

Architecture program rankings by average architecture licensure exam division pass rates (undergraduate programs)


Composite average pass rates for schools offering an NAAB-accredited BArch degree
Rank
 School Pass Rate
1
 University of Notre Dame 77%
2
 University of Oregon 72%
3
 Virginia Tech 71%
4
 Carnegie Mellon University 70%
5
 Rice University 69%
6
 Tulane University 69%
7
 University of Texas at Austin 69%
8
 Penn State 67%
9
 University of Tennessee 66%
10
 North Carolina State University 65%
11
 Cornell University 64%
12
 Ball State University 63%
13
 Auburn University 62%
14
 Mississippi State University 62%
15
 Oklahoma State University 62%
16
 Iowa State University 62%
17
 Louisiana State University 62%
18
 University of North Carolina at Charlotte 62%
19
 Marywood University 61%
20
 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 61%
21
 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 61%
22
 University of Arkansas 60%
23
 Drexel University 59%
24
 Drury University 58%
25
 Syracuse University 58%
26
 University of Maryland 58%
27
 Rhode Island School of Design 57%
28
 University of Arizona 57%
29
 National Average 55%
30
 University of Southern California 53%
31
 Boston Architectural College 52%
32
 Illinois Institute of Technology 52%
33
 University of Louisiana at Lafayette 52%
34
 University of Miami 50%
35
 University of Oklahoma 50%
36
 California College of the Arts 48%
37
 New Jersey Institute of Technology 47%
38
 Pratt Institute 47%
39
 Kennesaw State University 46%
40
 Cal State Pomona 45%
41
 New School of Architecture and Design 45%
42
 Southern California Institute of Architecture 43%
43
 University of Houston 43%
44
 Florida A&M 42%
45
 The City College of New York 41%
46
 Academy of Art University 39%
47
 New York Institute of Technology 37%
48
 Woodbury University 32%
49
 Florida Atlantic University 31%

Architecture program rankings by average architecture licensure exam division pass rates (graduate school)


Composite average pass rates for schools offering an NAAB-accredited MArch degree
Rank
 School Pass Rate
1
 Princeton University 81%
2
 University of Notre Dame 77%
3
 University of Virginia 77%
4
 Yale University 77%
5
 MIT 73%
6
 University of Washington 73%
7
 University of Oregon 72%
8
 Harvard University 72%
9
 Virginia Tech 71%
10
 Kent State University 71%
11
 University Massachusetts Amherst 71%
12
 Carnegie Mellon University 70%
13
 Norwich University 70%
14
 Portland State University 70%
15
 University of Hartford 70%
16
 University of Minnesota 70%
17
 Rice University 69%
18
 Tulane University 69%
19
 University of Texas at Austin 69%
20
 University of Cincinnati 69%
21
 Judson University 68%
22
 Montana State University 68%
23
 Penn State 67%
24
 Northeastern University 67%
25
 University of Tennessee 66%
26
 University of Colorado, Denver 66%
27
 North Carolina State University 65%
28
 Clemson University 65%
29
 Ohio State University 65%
30
 University of California, Berkeley 65%
31
 University of Nebraska-Lincoln 65%
32
 Cornell University 64%
33
 Miami University 64%
34
 Roger Williams University 64%
35
 University of Colorado 64%
36
 Washington State University 64%
37
 Ball State University 63%
38
 Texas A & M University 63%
39
 University of Kansas 63%
40
 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 63%
41
 Iowa State University 62%
42
 Louisiana State University 62%
43
 University of North Carolina at Charlotte 62%
44
 University at Buffalo, SUNY 62%
45
 University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 62%
46
 University of Michigan 62%
47
 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 61%
48
 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 61%
49
 Columbia University 61%
50
 Kansas State University 61%
51
 North Dakota State University 61%
52
 University of Kentucky 61%
53
 University of Idaho 60%
54
 University of Utah 59%
55
 Drury University 58%
56
 Syracuse University 58%
57
 University of Maryland 58%
58
 Georgia Tech 58%
59
 Washington University in St.Louis 58%
60
 Rhode Island School of Design 57%
61
 University of Arizona 57%
62
 Lawrence Technological University 57%
63
 University of California, Los Angeles 57%
64
 University of Pennsylvania 57%
65
 Catholic University 56%
66
 University of Illinois at Chicago 56%
67
 National Average 55%
68
 University of Detroit - Mercy 55%
69
 Wentworth Institute of Technology 55%
70
 Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture 54%
71
 School of Art Institute of Chicago 54%
72
 Southern Illinois University Carbondale 54%
73
 Temple University 54%
74
 University of Southern California 53%
75
 University of New Mexico 53%
76
 Boston Architectural College 52%
77
 Illinois Institute of Technology 52%
78
 University of Louisiana at Lafayette 52%
79
 Philadelphia University 52%
80
 Andrews University 51%
81
 Morgan State University 51%
82
 University of Florida 51%
83
 University of Miami 50%
84
 University of Oklahoma 50%
85
 Louisiana Tech University 49%
86
 Texas Tech University 49%
87
 California College of the Arts 48%
88
 Arizona State University 48%
89
 University of Hawaii at Manoa 48%
90
 New Jersey Institute of Technology 47%
91
 Pratt Institute 47%
92
 Savannah College of Art and Design 47%
93
 Cal State Pomona 45%
94
 New School of Architecture and Design 45%
95
 Southern Polytechnic State University 45%
96
 University of South Florida 45%
97
 University of Texas at Arlington 45%
98
 University of Texas at San Antonio 45%
99
 Southern California Institute of Architecture 43%
100
 University of Houston 43%
101
 Florida A&M 42%
102
 University of Nevada, Las Vegas 42%
103
 The City College of New York 41%
104
 Academy of Art University 39%
105
 Woodbury University 32%
106
 Howard University 32%
107
 Florida International University 29%

Methodology

I’m an architecture professor at Virginia Tech and teach ARE exam prep, so I’m by no means an objective independent third party. I very much have a “horse in this race.” While I have a math degree, no trained statisticians were used for this ranking and we make no claims of scientific validity. We simply culled data from publicly available sources, averaged it, and rank-ordered it.

All the data we used was pulled from NCARB’s ARE 5.0 Pass Rates by School website and inputted into this spreadsheet. If we’ve made an error while transcribing, let me know at mermann@vt.edu.

School licensure pass rates were based on the average pass rates for each of the six architecture licensure exams averaged over four years (2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020), so 24 cells in total (six exams times four years). If a school had, for instance, more alumni taking CE than PjM over those four years, or more taking exams in 2019 than 2020 (as most did because of COVID closures) our data would not have reflected that anomaly. We averaged the CE pass rates with the PjM pass rates (and all the others) and weighted each exam division and year as equal.

We used “missing teeth” in the data as a proxy for “a school is too small or too new to have useful data.” The vast majority of schools had data for each exam, each year. Those that didn’t were left off this survey. Below is an example of a program with a “full set of teeth,” included in our survey, and a program left out of the survey because of “missing teeth.”

 While NCARB has found that candidates with graduate degrees, on average, pass exams at a +4% rate relative to candidates with only undergraduate architecture degrees, the school-level data that NCARB provides for programs that offer both undergraduate and graduate degrees does not differentiate between the pass rates of the school’s undergraduates and graduates. Therefore, if a university offers both degrees, the overall pass rates for all degrees were reported in each list.

Only NAAB accredited programs were included in this ranking.