University of South Florida

School of Architecture & Community Design

USF College of The Arts

Admission Requirements

All prospective students must meet the following prerequisites for admission into the graduate programs at the USF School of Architecture & Community Design (SACD):

  1. Earned a minimum of 60 semester hours of college credit
  2. Completed the General Education requirements and Gordon Rule of Florida
  3. Earned an overall minimum grade point average of 3.0
  4. An undergraduate course in Calculus (with a C or better)
  5. An undergraduate course in Physics (with a C or better)
  6. An undergraduate course in Computer-Aided Drafting (CAD) (with a B or better)
  7. A GRE test score - The School of Architecture and Community Design prefers to have the GRE information from applicants, the test is available online. If there are extenuating circumstances the SACD may waive the requirement.

In addition, students who do not already hold an associate degree in architecture must complete the following:

  1. Introduction to Architecture (ARC 2211) – 3 credit hours
  2. Introduction to Architectural Design/Graphics I (ARC 2131C) – 4 credit hours
  3. Introduction to Architectural Design/Graphics II (ARC 2135C) – 4 credit hours
  4. Creative art or design studio courses* – 3-4 credit hours

* Examples include: Architectural Freehand Drawing Methods (ARC 2112L), Concepts and Practices I (ART 2101C), Concepts and Practices II (ART 2203C), Beginning Painting (ART 2500C), Beginning Drawing (ART 2301C), Beginning Painting (ART 2400C), Beginning Sculpture (ART 2701C)


Required Laptop Policy

SACD requires students to have their own laptops when they begin the Advanced Design sequence. Due to the high volume of digital work involved, the laptop must be able to run the advanced architectural design software that SACD uses. Please refer to the SACD Required Laptop Policy for information on minimum requirements.

  • When students have completed Core Design 3, along with their Core Design Portfolio they must submit proof that they own a laptop.
  • The laptop must meet or exceed the minimum requirements of software listed in the required laptop policy. For this reason, SACD recommends not purchasing the laptop until the middle of Core Design 3.
  • All students will be expected to use Autodesk's Revit (free to students) for studio work – Revit does not run on Apple laptops – Parallels is not an acceptable solution.
  • All laptops should include three to four years of on-site, next day service and either crashplan.com or carbonite.com to automatically backup studio work.
  • External hard drives are discouraged due to the high number of drive failures experienced by our students.


Questions?

We are happy to help with any questions you may have! Please email Architecture Advising if you have with any questions. Prospective students can also make an appointment to meet in person.