DesignIntelligence released its 2010 landscape architecture graduate and undergraduate program rankings.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University was listed as the best undergraduate landscape architecture program, and Harvard University topped the list of graduate programs in the annual survey conducted by DesignIntelligence on behalf of the Design Futures Council.
Detailed rankings are available in the 11th edition of “America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools,” which assesses programs and education trends in architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, and industrial design.
Respondents from 381 private-practice firms and other organizations, which are listed in the report, answered questions in four separate surveys about the level of preparedness they experienced in graduates over the past five years.
DesignIntelligence’s most recent survey also identifies programs of long-term distinction.
Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Degree Rankings:
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
- Louisiana State University
- Kansas State University
- University of Georgia
- Pennsylvania State University
- Purdue University
- Ball State University
- Texas A&M University
- Ohio State University
- West Virginia University
Master of Landscape Architecture Degree Rankings:
- Harvard University
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
- Louisiana State University
- Kansas State University
- University of Georgia
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Virginia
- Texas A&M University
- Cornell University
- Ball State University
To purchase the full report for $39.95, go to the DesignIntelligence bookstore.
Glad to see that Virginia is well represented in the MLA programs!
Congratulations on the rankings, dear old alma mater!
LSU ROCKS! Barry Landry, ASLA (BLA ‘82)
I can not help but notice the striking irony of this posting. Unemployment is well into double digits for landscape architects; fewer landscape architects are affecting how our built environment grows in the face of narrowing constraints; growth of the profession is debatable; landscape architects are battling our customarily allied professionals for turf; the list of concerns goes on…
Yet here is a story related to the level of preparedness of our university program graduates to enter the field.
The field they are entering has changed from when any of us entered it, so how have the university programs prepared aspiring landscape architects for such a different world?
And how is ‘preparedness’ defined?
These are questions not only for current professionals to answer but for academics and recent graduates in particular to debate.
The posting begs further questions: In popular/consumer/political culture, who is speaking up for landscape architecture? Where are our leaders outside our insular world? Will landscape architectural practice suffer its own image recession due to the void of advocacy?
Many of us are independently attempting to, to greater or lesser success, scratch out a living in our post-recession world, but I wonder how many will leave landscape architecture for more resilient professions.
Lists such as those posted and ‘pat-ourselves-on-the-backs’ remarks do nothing to improve our place in the competitive marketplace, and I wish our graduates a better fate than nostalgic one-upmanship.
With all due respects Mr. Lancaster, seems you may need to do more to advocate for the profession personally rather than complain about positive comments made by fellow landscape architects. The questions you raised have not changed much in the past 28 years that I have been practicing as a licensed landscape architect, it’s a jungle out there and certain L.A.’s (not the entire profession) have always had an ‘identity crisis’. Who are these “customarily allied professionals” you mention battling us for work? Environmental Design has always been a highly competitive profession, timeless results and thoughtfulness still prevail. We need to do exemplary and thorough work within our discipline and worry more about those individuals who do not have the credentials nor license to practice who are out there diminishing the respect of landscape architects, not alienating and offending our fellow design colleagues or their pride in the incredible education they feel they have received.
Nostalgic or not, postings such as this ranking improve our place in the competitive marketplace via the www.
Our future leaders are the students who are enrolled in the highly ranked institutions mentioned above. Hopefully they won’t be trapped in the insular “box” you speak of upon graduation, I certainly didn’t buy into that after graduating and throughout my career. I am glad I didn’t get stuck in a negative sad-sack mire about my profession. Good Luck.
No west coast schools? Kind of hard to compare when it seems regionally based. It would be interesting to see which program has the most variety of classes, i.e. strongest curriculum.