Admission Requirements

In order to enroll in the M. Arch. Degree program, interested students must be accepted into the University of South Florida as well as the School of Architecture and Community Design. Undergraduate students must be accepted into the University of South Florida by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and graduate students must be accepted by the Office of Graduate Admissions. In addition, interested students must be accepted into the School of Architecture and Community Design.  These are separate admission processes that involve different application forms, supportive materials, and deadlines. For University requirements, interested undergraduate and graduate students should refer to the appropriate USF links here:

University of South Florida Office of Admissions

PREREQUISITE REQUIREMENTS

All students must meet the following prerequisites for admission into the School of Architecture and Community Design:

  1. completed a minimum of 60 semester hours of college credit earned
  2. completed the FKL General Education requirements and Gordon Rule of Florida
  3. earned an overall minimum GPA of 3.0
  4. an undergraduate course in Calculus (with a C or better)
  5. an undergraduate course in Physics (with a C or better)
  6. an undergraduate course in Computer-Aided Drafting (CAD) (with a B or better)
  7. a GRE test score

In addition, students who do not already hold an associate’s degree in architecture must complete the following:

  1. Introduction to Architecture (ARC 2211) – 3 cr. hrs.
  2. Introduction to Architectural Design/Graphics I (ARC 2131C) – 4 cr. hrs.
  3. Introduction to Architectural Design/Graphics II (ARC 2135C) – 4 cr. hrs.
  4. Creative art or design studio courses* – 3-4 cr. hrs.
  • *Examples include: Architectural Freehand Drawing Methods (ARC 2112L), Concepts and Practices I (ART 2101C),
  • Concepts and Practices II (ART 2203C), Beginning Painting (ART 2500C), Beginning Drawing (ART 2301C),
  • Beginning Painting (ART 2400C), Beginning Sculpture (ART 2701C)

 

Required Laptop Policy

  • All students are required to own and submit proof of ownership of a laptop with their Core Design Portfolio submission following successful completion of Core Design 3.
  • Laptop must meet or exceed minimum requirements of SACD software – SACD recommends not purchasing the laptop until middle of Core Design 3.
  • All students will be expected to use Autodesk’s Revit (free to students) for studio work – Revit does not run on Apple Laptops – Parallels is not an acceptable solution.
  • All laptops should include 3-4 years of on-site, next day service and either crashplan.com or carbonite.com to automatically backup studio work.
  • External hard drives are discouraged due to the high number of drive failures experienced by our students.

SACD recommends and exclusively uses DELL computers. Many of our students have also had good experiences with HP’s Business Class laptops.

Questions?

Prospective students make an appointment with our Undergraduate Advisor

Current USF Students make an appointment with our Undergraduate Advisor

For useful information about studying architecture, please refer to the NCARB website