Prospective & New Students

Prospective Undergraduate Students

Prospective Students from High School

For students who have/will graduate from high school and who have never taken a college course for higher education credit.

Any student who applies to PSU and is accepted may begin taking 100-level Architecture (ARCH) courses without special permission from the department. Begin by contacting PSU Admissions, who will walk you through the application process.

Once formally accepted to PSU, new students must attend an Orientation run by the Admissions office, where they will meet with an advisor to tell them which courses to begin taking for the major and for general elective requirements. The first two classes Architecture majors should take are ARCH 100 and ARCH 120. All ARCH classes must be taken for a letter grade to count towards a BA/BS in Architecture. 

The only difference between a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture are the electives taken. If a student chooses to take mostly math/science electives, they will receive a BS; if a student chooses to take more humanities/arts electives, they will receive a BA. For those who are considering applying to a Master of Architecture program in the United States, either degree will make you eligible to apply to an accredited M.Arch program.

Architecture Majors must have a B- or higher in all 9 of the classes mentioned above for those classes to count towards a degree.

Students must have a Major GPA (ARCH classes only) of 3.00 and have completed all 9 required architecture courses to get permission to take ARCH 360 and 380 (both required for the major).

Tuition and fee information is available on this website; our office does not provide cost estimates. Tuition is lower for Oregon residents. If you are not a resident of Oregon, please see the PSU Residency website for information. 

Prospective Transfer Students from Community College

Our School strongly recommends students at community college transfer to PSU as soon as possible, forgoing completion of an AA or other degree at the CC. The vast majority of architecture-related employers want the minimum of a BA or BS in Architecture for their employees, and most community college credits cannot be substituted for major-required classes in our program. Students who complete a degree or certificate at a CC will not be given any additional Architecture degree-required class substitutions over what is listed below.

Since our major-required studio courses cannot be taken concurrently (e.g., cannot take 280 and 281 at the same time), students who transfer from a CC should still expect to take 3 years of ARCH classes to complete their BA/BS degree requirements. Transfer students who rely on financial aid (loans, scholarships, etc.) sometimes run into another problem: they have completed all of their general elective courses, but still have two to three ARCH classes to take. Financial aid often requires students to take a minimum of 12 credits per term, but ARCH students usually only have 10 credits per term of classes for the major. If the transfer student has completed all of their electives, they may have to pay for a 2-credit class they don't need to meet the financial aid requirements.

Regarding which credits transfer, there are two separate issues at hand:

1) Which credits will transfer to PSU overall.

2) Which classes will count toward the Architecture major (see our website for a list of degree-required classes).

To learn about PSU's process of evaluating transfer credits, please visit the Transfer Evaluation Reports web page.

For prospective PSU transfer students, the Transfer to PSU web page explains the transfer process and how to attend a transfer information session. Prospective students interested in joining the Architecture undergraduate major should start by contacting the Office of Admissions in order to learn about the university, degree requirements, set up a campus tour, and get connected to admissions advising.

In addition, the Transfer & Returning Student Resource Center provides support and advising to students who are transferring to PSU or returning to the university after a break in order to make the transition back to college as smooth as possible.

In regards to ARCH equivalents, there are two classes that transfer from CC to PSU as major-required credit:

PCC's ART 131 = PSU's ARCH 120

PCC's ARCH 200 = PSU's ARCH 100

Our program is scheduled to take a full 4 years, and because our studios are scheduled on the same days and times of the week, students cannot take different-level studio courses concurrently (for example, they cannot take ARCH 380 and 480 at the same time). There is also a portfolio review process at the end of the 200-level classes (from our website):

Admission to the Professional Track (Years 3 and 4 of the program) at the junior level is contingent upon completion of the nine required undergraduate courses in Architecture (ARCH 100, 101, 120, 121, 230, 231, 232, 280, and 281).

Students must have a Major GPA (ARCH classes only) of 3.00 to get permission to take ARCH 360 and 380 (both required for the major).

Architecture Majors must have a B- or higher in all 9 of the classes mentioned above for those classes to count towards a degree.

Tuition and fee information is available on this website; our office does not provide cost estimates. 

Prospective Transfer Students from Another 4-year BA/BS program in Architecture Program

If you are a student transferring from another 4-year BA/BS program in Architecture, the best method of checking equivalent courses and credits is to contact our director Juan Heredia or one of our faculty members for further guidance. You can make an appointment with a faculty member to help guide your next steps. 

PSU has tons of resources to offer help with transferring to our school. You can visit the Transfer to PSU webpage to find answers to generic questions. Getting in touch with a Creative Pathway Advisor would also be an excellent resource to start working toward transferring into PSU successfully.

Prospective International Students

Prospective International Students can find the majority of information needed about transferring to PSU on the school's main website. Here are some great resources for finding general information and advising contacts for international transfers: The International Transfer page, the International Advising Services page, and the Transfer Credits from International Institutions page.