A degree in general architecture is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #127 out of 395 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
College Factual looked at 63 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best General Architecture Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 4,814 degrees in general architecture to qualified students.
Your choice of general architecture school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for general architecture schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best General Architecture Schools list, to help you choose the best school for you.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Best Schools for General Architecture in the United States
The schools below may not offer all types of architecture degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer.
Harvard University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a degree in general architecture. Located in the medium-sized city of Cambridge, Harvard is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #6 out of 2,198 schools nationwide means Harvard is a great university overall.
There were about 12 general architecture students who graduated with this degree at Harvard in the most recent year we have data available.
It is difficult to beat Massachusetts Institute of Technology if you wish to pursue a degree in general architecture. MIT is a large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Cambridge. A Best Colleges rank of #1 out of 2,198 schools nationwide means MIT is a great school overall.
There were approximately 32 general architecture students who graduated with this degree at MIT in the most recent year we have data available.
Yale University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a degree in general architecture. Yale is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of New Haven. A Best Colleges rank of #10 out of 2,198 colleges nationwide means Yale is a great university overall.
There were approximately 16 general architecture students who graduated with this degree at Yale in the most recent year we have data available.
University of Notre Dame is a good decision for students interested in a degree in general architecture. Notre Dame is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Notre Dame. A Best Colleges rank of #19 out of 2,198 schools nationwide means Notre Dame is a great university overall.
There were approximately 36 general architecture students who graduated with this degree at Notre Dame in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #20 out of 2,198 colleges nationwide means UC Berkeley is a great university overall.
There were approximately 128 general architecture students who graduated with this degree at UC Berkeley in the most recent year we have data available.
UPenn is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Philadelphia. A Best Colleges rank of #5 out of 2,198 schools nationwide means UPenn is a great university overall.
There were roughly 21 general architecture students who graduated with this degree at UPenn in the most recent year we have data available.
Columbia is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of New York. A Best Colleges rank of #13 out of 2,198 schools nationwide means Columbia is a great university overall.
There were roughly 18 general architecture students who graduated with this degree at Columbia in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the suburb of College Park, UMCP is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 2nd out of 35 schools for overall quality in the state of Maryland.
There were approximately 126 general architecture students who graduated with this degree at UMCP in the most recent data year.
UCLA is a very large public university located in the large city of Los Angeles. This university ranks 5th out of 165 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were approximately 37 general architecture students who graduated with this degree at UCLA in the most recent data year.
UT Austin is a very large public university located in the city of Austin. This university ranks 2nd out of 115 schools for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were roughly 70 general architecture students who graduated with this degree at UT Austin in the most recent year we have data available.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best General Architecture Schools award.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Credit for the banner image above goes to Danichou.
Your choice of general architecture school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for general architecture schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
