I am currently in my fourth year of interior design at my high school. I am apply to study architecture at the University of Florida. Because I already have work related to this field, I was wondering if UF accepts portfolios for undergrad applications to their architecture program and what the process for that is.
Hi, my dad's an architect so I asked him for you. First of all, he suggested that if you want to be an architect you probably don't want to do a 4+2 program meaning you go to Pre-professional BA in architecture and then 2 additional years in MArch program and then 3+ years of interning before you can sit and take your NCARBs licensing exam (9 years minimum). He strongly suggested you apply to a more rigorous 5-year Professional BArch program and save a year and start taking studio design right away and architectural classes rather than taking a bunch of prerequisites like World Lit, English, Calc, Physics, Science, Language classes that makeup 1/2 of the 1st 2 years at Clemson. That's not a very productive use of your time especially if you already are a good student and have taken say, AP Lang, AP Lit, AP Calc, AP Physics, and AP some language already.
He suggested you take a look at this link and think about going to a top 10 BArch school. He got waitlisted at #1 Cornell but went to #5 Syracuse which is not very different in terms of rigor and coursework. Most of the top 10 BArch school track each other and have the same sort of visiting professors and pretty much stay within a place or two of their rank over the past 20 years.
https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/14289-americas-top-architecture-schools-2020
Once you get to point of applying you most likely will not be presenting your physical portfolio in person so they will want to see your drawings, sketches, paintings, sculpture scanned in high-resolution pdf format. Sometimes they are very specific about what to submit so they will say 10 original pieces of art, no architecture, or something like that. Sometimes is better not to submit floorplans and elevations because that will give them a lot to rip to shreds. My dad dragged a bunch of architectural drawings to Ithaca and Syracuse but in hindsight, he said it was really garbage compared to what he learned in architecture school and wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It's sometimes better for them to see "raw" potential in your artwork and drawing ability versus your idea of what architecture is supposed to look like.
Anyway, think about it because architecture school is extremely difficult no matter where you go to school and you want to go somewhere that has some clout and an excellent reputation so you can get a job immediately while you intern for your NCARBs.
Good luck with your college admissions process.
I noticed you've repeated this question for several schools. I suggest you visit each school's website for current and valid information about submitting a portfolio. If you're still not satisfied, you can reach out to the admissions officer of your region and get better clarification.
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