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I am a prospective architecture student who has been accepted at both Syracuse and Carnegie Mellon for the BArch program, and I am struggling to make a decision. I know that both programs are great, but I want to make sure I make the right decision and am fully informed about the program I choose. I was hoping to get some insight as to which choice would be better for me not only during college, but also after.

Here are some of my preferences regarding school: I probably won’t be participating as much in the party scene or greek life, but I still want to be in a social environment. I don’t really care much about the weather. I do want to travel abroad and obtain job/ internship opportunities in and out of school. I don’t want too artsy or too technical of a program, somewhere in the middle.

Now I’ll give more details for why I am struggling to make a decision:
Syracuse:
Pros: $10,000/ year scholarship, highly accredited (and ranked) architecture program, I like their arch building, I like the student work, good study abroad (NYC, Florence, South Korea, Japan), better connections with professors
Cons: very cold, not much in the surrounding area, 140 incoming architecture freshmen (very big class), less prestigious as a whole, professors only teach and aren’t active in the field

Carnegie Mellon:
Pros: near city, professors are active in the field, well rounded school, only around 50 incoming architecture freshmen, 1 year study abroad at Singapore’s NUS, better location
Cons: QOL not the best, more technical focused program (?), couldn’t find many images or videos of student work or the facilities themselves

I understand that money does play a part in making a decision, but I would like to know about the programs themselves and which one would potentially be best for me. I would appreciate any answers, especially if you are alumni or active students at either school, or just architecture students in general. Thank you for any help!
(also I have to make a decision by the 15th so this is kind of like a stress post lol)

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Carnegie Mellon vs Syracuse for architecture - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums

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Thank you

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Not knowing you personally I can’t make any suggestion as to which program is right for you. S23 is now in the Tulane BArch program and we toured both Syracuse and CM. What I can offer:

You don’t need to worry about participating in the party scene or greek life too much. BArch programs are incredibly time intensive. You’ll likely have the ability to pick up 1 extra-curricular/club/etc but won’t have time for much more than that unless you have excellent time management skills.

You mention the size of the Syracuse incoming class. Yes, it is much bigger but for Studio’s you’re going to be broken into cohorts of 10-15 students. By the time you get to your third year (in most programs) the size of it is going to be 1/2 or less than what you started out with.

I would agree with you that Syracuse as a whole is a “less prestigious name” than CM but would question that prestige ranking when it comes to the BArch programs. They’re both very highly ranked.

CM’s building/facilities are shared with their performing arts. In the tours for S23’s cycle we found that the larger programs have a dedicated building, the smaller programs share a building with other disciplines. Yes, CM’s program is going to be more technical than Syracuse - which is going to be more art/design but the core of all the BArch programs are going to be pretty similar because of the NAAB accreditation.

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Here are the conclusions from this morning of a poster making the same decision…

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While, at CMU:

Significant difference between the two programs.