Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university inCambridge, Massachusetts, established 1636, whose history, influence and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

For students of Harvard College, Architecture Studies is a track within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, History of Art and Architecture concentration, jointly administered by the History of Art and Architecture and the Graduate School of Design.

What makes your school’s design, architecture, art, and planning program different & unique from other schools’ programs?

Our Architecture Studies track is emphatically a Liberal Arts curriculum, where the practical, studio component is integrated into a broader framework of historical, analytical, and critical work. Students in this track may plan to go on to graduate training at an architecture school, but the track also prepares students for other professions due to its broad understanding of the concept of “design” and indeed of architecture generally.

What are the top 3 program features that make your program stand out?

1. The program is fully integrated into a Liberal Arts curriculum at one of the foremost undergraduate educations in the world.

2. The program draws on faculty and resources from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, arguably the strongest professional architecture program in the world.

3. Enabling work between Harvard College and the GSD, the program draws on the strengths of Harvard University as a whole, breaking down the boundaries between knowledge (the traditional value of a university) and making.

Can students take courses in other schools?

Students are required to take other courses both for the concentration and for the undergraduate degree.

What steps do you take to evaluate a student’s candidacy, apart from reviewing their creative portfolio?

All Harvard undergraduates are eligible for admission to the concentration.

What does your program look for most in the creative portfolio during admissions? What do you think makes an A+ portfolio? 


No portfolio is required, and no portfolio is produced.

How are new technologies affecting students’ curriculums and/or ways of learning/collaborating at your school? 


New technologies are the focus of at least one of the required studio courses.

How does your program help graduating students with internships or jobs? Can students expect job placement more at your program than in others? If so, how or why? What kinds of job opportunities have you seen students take once they completed their degrees?

As with all undergraduate concentrations at Harvard, students are assisted in their future careers both by their advisors in their concentration and by special agencies at the College.

Are there any exciting developments for your programs that students should know about?

The program itself is new and innovative:  an architecture studies undergraduate program engineered to be also a strong, flexible Liberal Arts education.

What is the best advice you have for students entering the art, design & architecture field? What role does the artist play today?

Harvard has one of the strongest professional schools of architecture, has distinguished undergraduate programs in studio art, film, and environmental studies in the V.E.S. department, in addition to the most extensive art university art museum in the world.

Interviewed by Joseph Koerner
Director of Undergraduate Studies in Dept. of History of Art & Architecture

APPLICATION MATERIALS

Common App 
Universal College App 

PORTFOLIO REQUIREMENTS

Slideroom 2-25 pieces 

WRITING SAMPLE

Common App Harvard Questions & Supplement
OR Harvard Supplement w/Universal College Application 

TRANSCRIPTS

Required

RECOMMENDATION LETTERS

2 Teachers 

INTERVIEW

Recommended

APPLICATIONS DEADLINES

Early Action: Nov 1
Regular Decision: Jan 1

FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

TOEFL: 700 or higher  
IELTS: 7 or higher

ALUMNI

Christopher Alexander, Architect
John Andrews, Designer
Edward Larrabee Barnes, Modernist Architect
Christopher Charles Benninger, Architect
Garrett Eckbo, Architect
Andy Fillmore, Urban Designer
Danny Forster, Architect and Television Host
Frank Gehry, Pritzker Prize Laureate, Awarded Honorary Doctorate
Lawrence Halprin, Landscape Architect
Charles Jencks, Landscape Architect
Philip Johnson, Pritzker Prize Laureate
Grant Jones, Landscape Architect
Dan Kiley, Modernist Landscape Architect
Philip Lewis, Landscape Architect
Fumihiko Maki, Pritzker Prize Laureate
Thom Mayne, Pritzker Prize Laureate
Ian McHarg, Landscape Planner, GIS Development
Cornelia Oberlander, Landscape Architect
Michele Michahelles, Paris-based Architect
Roger Montgomery, First HUD Urban Designer, and Dean at U.C. Berkeley
Michel Mossessian, Architect
IM Pei, Pritzker Prize Laureate
Hideo Sasaki, Landscape Architect
Ken Smith, Aarchitect
Edward Durell Stone, Modernist architect
Edward Durell Stone, Jr., Landscape Architect
Kongjian Yu, Landscape Architect
Bruno Zevi, Architect, Critic, and Historian
Henry N. Cobb, Architect
Jack Dangermond, Environmental Scientist
Michael Graves, Architect
John Hejduk, Architect
Mitchell Joachim, Architect
Farshid Moussavi, Architect
Richard T. Murphy, Jr., President and CEO of Murphy Warehouse Co.
Eliot Noyes, Architect and Industrial Designer
Monica Ponce de Leon, Architect and Educator
Joshua Prince-Ramus, Architect
Paul Rudolph, Architect and the Chair of Yale University’s Department
Harry Seidler, Architect
Yoshio Taniguchi, Architect
Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Architect
Jeanne Gang, Architect

ADMISSIONS OFFICE

Harvard University Graduate School of Design
48 Quincy Street, Gund Hall, Cambridge, MA 02138

+1 (617)-495-5453