Rice School of Architecture programs retain top-10 status

The Rice School of Architecture is among the nation's best for undergraduate and graduate students, according to a new ranking.

The Rice School of Architecture (RSA) remains among the top 10 undergraduate and graduate programs in the 2016 ranking of the best architecture schools in America, as reported by Architectural Record magazine.

Rice is fifth in undergraduate education and eighth in graduate education. RSA has consistently placed among the top 10 undergraduate schools and has been among the top-10 graduate programs for three years.

The rankings by DesignIntelligence and the Design Futures Council are the product of a survey of the leaders of hundreds of architecture firms who have had direct experience hiring and judging the performance of recent architecture graduates. Participants were asked which accredited programs have best prepared their students for real-world practice.

“It’s a testimony to the strength of our faculty and students that the RSA consistently ranks so well,” said Sarah Whiting, RSA dean and the William Ward Watkin Professor of Architecture. “Both of our programs are considerably smaller than the other programs in the top 10, so the impact that our graduates have upon those filling out the DesignIntelligence survey clearly comes from quality rather than quantity.”

For the third year in a row, Cornell University and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, retained the top two undergraduate positions. Harvard University led the graduate ranking for the fifth year in a row.