Notre Dame, along with half of the accredited architecture degree programs in the U.S., offers a five-year program leading to a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) degree. This is a "professional degree", one which satisfies the academic requirements for a license. After earning the degree, the aspirant architect spends three years in a licensed office as an intern, and is then eligible to sit for the licensing exam. Additional academic study may be substituted for part of the internship and work done over summers after the third-year of study can count toward the internship.
Some schools offer a four-year undergraduate program in architecture leading to either a BA or a BS in architecture. This four-year degree is not a "professional" degree and is not adequate for a license. The student seeking a license will then continue for two more years and receive an M.Arch (a "first professional degree"), either from the same institution or at another. Often the two programs of study are interrupted by a period of professional experience. This path is often referred to as a "4 + 2" program. The University of Notre Dame offers this M. Arch degree in its graduate program in architecture.
A third option is more analogous to the study of medicine or law, in which some schools have designed professional degree programs for architecture intended for students from diverse undergraduate programs other than architecture. The student generally spends three to four years receiving an M.Arch. Obviously programs adjust for the previous experience of the student: A student entering with a degree in civil engineering will have a different set of requirements than one entering with a fine-arts degree or a philosophy degree. Notre Dame does not offer this path to the M.Arch degree.
In addition to the B.Arch degree, some students also seek an M.Arch or other graduate degree in an allied field such as landscape architecture or city planning. The M.Arch earned in this sequence is called a "post-professional degree". The M.Arch, whether a "first professional degree" or a "post-professional degree", is normally required to teach in a school of architecture. Teaching aside, the "post-professional degree" allows a student to pursue an area of study beyond what an undergraduate degree provides. For example, it may balance an undergraduate degree based in architecture with an emphasis on technology with one emphasizing urbanism, or provide a focus on traditional and classical design that was not available in the student's undergraduate program. Notre Dame offers both the "first professional" and the "post-professional" M.Arch.
Each of these programs has its advantages and disadvantages in terms of time and monetary commitments, possibilities for crafting the professional and liberal aspects of one's education, choices of institutions and so on. At Notre Dame we see the five-year program, within a rich university environment, as enabling the pursuit of professional studies as a true liberal education. We also value our two-year graduate degree as a supplement to the education our own alumni received and as an opportunity for graduates of other schools to benefit from what we offer.
- Richard Bullene, CSC, Assistant Chair and Assistant Professor
