Ashley Whittingham
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Cal Poly’s undergraduate architecture program was named the best in the Greenway Group’s 2014 survey of America’s top architecture schools.
The survey asked 693 professional architecture firms and corporations which universities best prepare students for practice. Greenway also gathered data from 89 deans and chairs of architecture schools and polled 2,760 students on how satisfied they are with their program.
Cal Poly’s “Learn By Doing” philosophy might be the reason the university stands out as a top program, according to Margot McDonald, Cal Poly’s Architecture Department head.
“It seems maybe cliché, the ‘Learn By Doing’ philosophy, but I have to say it’s really in action here,” McDonald said. “In addition to students building things they design, they also do a lot of community service work, so there’s a very high visibility component to the effort that’s going on here.”
Cal Poly replaced Cornell University as the top program, which had been ranked No. 1 for the past five years.