So... should I go to Rice for the B.Arch program or to Princeton with a B.A./B.S. majoring in architecture?

Answered

My dad is an architect. When he was 17 he thought he'd want to be an architect so he applied to only B.Arch schools and got into Syracuse and waitlisted at Cornell. While at Syracuse we also wanted to study business as well and got a BS in Finance and a B.Arch. But in hindsight, he told me it would have been better offering to apply to a better college and get a liberal arts degree.

Why?

1.) The most successful architects generally get graduate degrees from Harvard, Columbia, Yale even though it takes longer to do so. There is more professional clout going through the Ivy League and prestigious firms like Robert AM Stern would almost hire an Ivy versus someone coming out of SciArc, Rice, RISD, etc with 4 or 5-year degrees. And clients like to hear you went to an Ivy versus a less brand school even though the education is the same. And if you want your designs built, you know that you need to appeal to wealthy and successful people that value the brand of an Ivy education or MIT. When you are interviewing for designing someone's building, they feel more proud and comfortable giving the commission to a young architect from Harvard vs someone who went to USC even if the USC architect has a better design. The same is true about picking a doctor, lawyer, or someone who is going to be your next CEO. It's not fair or logical but that's the world we live in.

2.) Doing an accelerated B.Arch program is rather rigid and inflexible so you have to take core curriculum classes as soon as you start Freshman year. Therefore you do not get a well-rounded liberal arts education at all. It's very similar to doing a BS/MD program where you do a deep dive into your medical education and it's very hard to switch into something else after you've committed 2 or 3 years into the program. Most people grind it out or take an extra semester or two to finish rather than changing majors like CS or Engineering or Business.

3.) Part of being a successful architect is your future connections. So you are going to meet kids of wealthy, successful, and powerful people at Princeton, not so much at Rice (with the exception of Texas millionaires/billionaires). It's important to network with these people and join their eating clubs and keep in touch with them as you build your practice and future business.

4.) Part of being a successful architect is your overall intelligence. You have to be a great public speaker like IM PEI (MIT) if you want to get commissions like University Buildings, Museums, and International Projects. You have to have the ability to write well and express your ideas on paper and visually and through how you articulate your thoughts. My dad thinks that if he had 4 years of an Ivy education where he could take courses like Philosophy, Ethics, travel abroad and take Languages, study more humanities like advanced topics in English or History, he would be able to put his ideas into a better framework of how the rest of the educated world saw things and how they felt architecture fit into the world. When you go straight into a B.Arch 5-year architecture school it's like going to the Culinary Institute of America to learn how to cook. You immediately get your apron and clogs and knives and start chopping vegetables to get into the practice of being a chef. Your initiation is 1 day of orientation, then off you are running trying to catch up.

5.) Don't conflate the B.Arch architectural school rankings with the Graduate School rankings. Yes, you need either to become an architect but no one ever told my father there was a preferred path and it's not the obvious path. Being an architect is diametrically different than being a computer genius like Bill Gates or Marc Zuckerberg. You can't leave school after 1 year and become a billionaire architect. It's impossible. Since being a great architect requires a multi-disciplinary education and work experience, it's far better to be a very well-rounded educated person before you to a deep dive into architecture.

The only plus for going to Rice is that you might save a year of schooling but that doesn't make up for the quality of education, networking and friendships, and experiences you would gain at Princeton. Plus if you graduate from Princeton, it will much much easier to get into Harvard, MIT, Columbia, and Yale for grad school.

Hope that helps.