Cornell vs. University of Maryland Architecture: How Do the Undergraduate Degrees Differ?

Cornell offers the more direct undergraduate route toward licensure because its five-year Bachelor of Architecture is a professional degree accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. Maryland’s four-year Bachelor of Science in Architecture is a preprofessional degree, so most students who want to become licensed architects continue to a NAAB-accredited Master of Architecture program. At both schools, the degree is only one part of licensure: graduates also complete required professional experience and pass the Architect Registration Examination.

The time structure is the clearest difference. Cornell students enter a five-year studio-based B.Arch curriculum and finish with the professional degree that meets the educational requirement for architectural licensure in most U.S. jurisdictions. At Maryland, the undergraduate program provides the design, history, technology, and liberal-arts foundation for architecture, but a student typically adds an M.Arch afterward, often making the full professional path about six years.

Cornell’s B.Arch is housed in the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning and is designed as an intensive, sequenced professional studio program from the start. That structure can be appealing to a student who is already certain about architecture and wants one continuous undergraduate-to-professional degree.

Maryland’s B.S. can offer more flexibility before graduate school, including room to explore related fields or decide whether architecture is the right long-term profession. Its graduate architecture program is the point at which students earn the professional M.Arch credential, so Maryland makes the master’s degree an expected step rather than an optional enhancement.