Clemson University
School of Architecture
Clemson's School of Architecture aims to be a premier producer of transformational architectural leadership, shaping the environment of the 21st century for a better future. Clemson's School of Architecture is an interconnected, geographically distributed community of teachers and learners, dedicated to:
Educating future architects, through rigorous and expansive design education, with local and global understandings of firmness, commodity and delight;
Generating knowledge to address the great challenges of the time, like health care, ecology, and an increasingly digital society, through innovative, interdisciplinary research, practice and scholarship;
Advocating for the improvement of built, natural and social environments, through design activism, public service and public education.
Setting
One of the country's most selective public research universities, Clemson University serves a uniquely driven and highly accomplished student body.
Ranked as the 21st best national public university by U.S.News & World Report, Clemson is the land grant institution of South Carolina with more than 21,000 students in over 200 degree programs. Founded in 1889, Clemson remains committed to world-class teaching, research and a high quality of life. 92 percent of seniors say they'd pick Clemson again if they had it to do over. Clemson's retention and graduation rates rank among the highest in the country for public universities. The university was named among the best values by Kiplinger magazine in 2013, and ranked 7th in return on investment by SmartMoney.
Located in the Upstate of South Carolina, the city of Clemson provides a small college-town setting on the shores of Lake Hartwell, near both the scenic foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the metropolitan areas of Greenville-Spartanburg, SC; Asheville and Charlotte, NC; and Atlanta, GA.
The research, outreach and entrepreneurial projects led by Clemson's faculty and students are driving economic development and improving quality of life in South Carolina and far beyond.
School Philosophy
Clemson's School of Architecture likes and promotes big, beautiful, innovative, theoretical ideas, but has an equally strong proclivity for making and doing, for actively engaging with real people and places, and with the critical issues of our time. For more than 100 years there remain some powerful consistencies in this school, with its southern roots + global reach.
• We are innovators. We incorporate visionary ideals into our work, and are engaged with the critical issues of our time.
• We are global citizens. Our graduates have a cultivated understanding of global issues, and are prepared for design leadership, having experienced a geographically rich and distributed Fluid Campus.
• We work hard, together. Our faculty and students are engaged and collegial, a family that shares and supports its members, excited about its work and passionate about making a difference.
• We are a design program. We value the conceptual and the technical. We like to get our hands dirty, have a strong appreciation for making and doing, and a determined entrepreneurial spirit.
• We value our reputation. Our program is widely acknowledged as a high-quality program and an educational value, in exceptional facilities, with graduates who are top performers.
Programs
Clemson University has taught architecture for over a century. Today, the School of Architecture is meeting 21st century challenges through pedagogical and technological advances, to provide design leadership in an expanding global environment. The School's students and professors regularly receive national and international recognition and the M.Arch is regularly included in the annual top 20 ranking of "America's Best Architecture & Design Schools" by Design Intelligence Magazine. The School is part of a College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities along with the departments of Planning, Development and Preservation, Landscape Architecture, Art, Performing Arts, Construction Science, Philosophy and Religion, Languages, English, and History.
The School of Architecture offers a four-year Bachelor of Arts in Architecture degree and a NAAB-accredited Master of Architecture degree with enrollments of approximately 270 students and 110 students respectively. The M.Arch program has a specialized option in Architecture and Health that is one of the most respected such programs in the country. Other options in the M.Arch include a certificate in Architecture + CommunityBUILD, and a certificate in Digitial Ecologies. The M.S. in Architecture and the Ph.D. in Planning, Design and the Built Environment are offered as post-professional research degrees. An undergraduate minor in Architecture serves non-Architecture students.
In 1972, Clemson was one of the first architecture programs in the country to establish a satellite center in Europe. Since then, we have built the idea of a "Fluid Campus", where students and faculty work in a variety of diverse physical, political and cultural settings. The "Fluid Campus," which includes Lee Hall and our main campus, refers to our geographically-distributed learning opportunities, the integration of these opportunities within our degree-earning graduate and undergraduate curricula, and the fluidity of communication and work practices in our increasingly digital and globally-interconnected world.
Semester-long opportunities allow students to study in Clemson or in one of our off-campus centers in Charleston, SC, Barcelona, or Genoa, in multi-disciplinary, vertical curricula. These "fluid semesters", in which students elect topical studios on- or off-campus, are for undergraduates in the spring of their junior year and fall of their senior year, and for graduate students in Semesters 4 and 5. Each center, including our Clemson campus, offers unique courses, experiences, study opportunities, and facilities. In Clemson, the Lee III complex, designed by Thomas Phifer & Partners and McMillan Pazdan Smith, received the 2013 AIA Institute Honor Award for Architecture. Lee III is a place that teaches the highest level of sustainable design through its own systems.
The School's faculty and students are leaders of a number of research institutes, projects and centers, including: Center for Health Facilities Design + Testing, Community Research + Design Center, Clemson University Institute for Intelligent Materials, Systems & Environments, and the Wood Utilization & Design Institute. The School led Clemson's participation in the 2015 Solar Decathlon, in which Clemson's entry, Indigo Pine, advanced a wholly new fabrication system, and was the only entry built entirely by students, from the ground up. Industry partnerships and generous alumni support provide significant program enrichment.
of Focus
1. Industry Collaborations
2. Community Design
3. Design/Build
4. Sustainability & High Performance Build Enviroments
5. Public Health
6. Digital Fabrication & Technology
7. Cross-Cultural Contexts > Human Experiences
8. Materials and Construction
Opportunities
Co-Op / Work Placement
Cross-disciplinary experience
IPAL
Teaching / Research assistantships
Study Abroad
Facilities
Large-format Printer
Laser Cutter
Woodshop
3D Printing
CNC Milling
Fabrication Lab
Policies
Transfer Policies
We are so glad you decided to join the Clemson Family! Your situation is very unique as a transfer student. Some of you may have a very short timeline to get everything situated before your classes start, and we are here to help you along the way.
This page: (https://www.clemson.edu/financial-aid/student-types/transfers.html) is dedicated to your specific needs regarding financial aid and the other resources you may need. And remember, if you have any questions, we are only an email (finaid@clemson.edu) or phone call (864-656-2280) away —you can also follow us on Twitter for regular tips and reminders (@ClemsonFinAid) throughout the school year.
