Master of Architecture Program

The KCAD Master of Architecture program requires an earned baccalaureate degree as a condition of admission. We acknowledge and embrace the wide variety of preparation our students will bring, and believe the differences in students’ backgrounds and academic preparation will contribute to the diversity we seek to foster in the program and its community. Rather than requiring a standardized test such as the GRE, the program considers each candidate’s unique capacity to succeed based on elements such as an open-ended portfolio requirement and an interview, which allows students from a wide range of backgrounds to express themselves and their potential for graduate study in architecture.

At KCAD, graduate students admitted with a regionally accredited undergraduate degree in any discipline may study architecture for three years (90 credits) to achieve the first professional M.Arch degree. In addition, we offer a two-year (60 credits) course of study for those students who have completed a pre-professional degree in architecture. In both cases, the application and admission process is the same. Applicants are required to submit the following:

Application to the program

• Official transcripts
• Resume
• Three (3) letters of recommendation - letters must be sent directly from the reference to KCAD through Slideroom
• Statement of Purpose - 500-700 word statement that answers these three (3) questions:
  • What is your interest in architecture?
  • Why are you applying to this program?
  • What unique qualities or perspective do you bring?
• Portfolio
  • Portfolio must be a single PDF document, not to exceed 30 pages and 20MB
  • PDF document must be titled in the following manner: last name, first name, portfolio, _2yr OR _3yr, depending on your desired placement in the program (for an applicant to the 2-year track, the portfolio document would be titled smith_carolyn_portfolio_2yr.pdf).
  • Your portfolio will not be reviewed if you upload individual images.
  • Links to online portfolios and/or hard copy materials will not be accepted
  • All portfolios must have a cover page as the first page with the following information:
    • first and last name
    • street address
    • city, state, postal code, country,
    • email address
    • telephone number
• All applicants are required to submit official transcripts from the baccalaureate-granting institution. If the undergraduate degree program is still in progress at the time of application, admission is conditional upon degree conferral.

Applicants are evaluated for their potential to succeed in the rigorous, intensive, and nontraditional course of graduate study that is the KCAD M.Arch program. We ask all applicants to articulate their intentions and goals in undertaking a professional graduate architecture preparation in their statements of purpose. We also ask them to include some sample of visual communication in their portfolios. We encourage applicants to understand the portfolio as an opportunity to demonstrate their unique intellectual and academic potential as well as their communication skills in visual and verbal media.

When the applicant’s materials are complete and have been reviewed by the KCAD M.Arch Admissions Committee (faculty and administrators), an applicant interview with two to three representatives of the committee is scheduled. This 45-minute interview gives the opportunity for KCAD to learn more about the applicant and for the applicant to have their questions of the program answered. We have found this step of the process to be invaluable.

Shortly after the interview an admission decision is made by consensus of the Admissions Committee. The committee also makes a recommendation of merit-based financial award, if any. All KCAD M.Arch applicants who are accepted into the program are automatically considered for merit-based financial aid.

The KCAD M.Arch program seeks to provide learning experiences that support student success in professional graduate studies in architecture. The program does not seek to admit students who will not succeed. The admissions process as outlined here undergoes annual assessment to determine that it yields a strong cohort of graduate students who support each other, learn from each other, and complete their degrees – and to revise the process as necessary to better meet that objective.

An internship in practice is required as part of the course of study. These internships are broadly supported by regional firms. The thriving design community of Grand Rapids will present you with numerous opportunities to expand your learning outside of the classroom, and internships outside of West Michigan are also available.

The program will work closely with you to develop an internship experience that broadens your understanding of the possibilities and practice of architecture and design.

Grand Valley State University (GVSU) Interdisciplinary Engineering students seeking a career in the built environment can earn both a B.S.E. and a Master of Architecture degree in just six years instead of seven through a new articulation agreement with KCAD. 

Contact the Master of Architecture Program Chair with questions and for more information.

In the United States, most registration boards require a degree from an accredited professional degree program as a prerequisite for licensure. The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), which is the sole agency authorized to accredit professional degree programs in architecture offered by institutions with U.S. regional accreditation, recognizes three types of degrees: the Bachelor of Architecture, the Master of Architecture, and the Doctor of Architecture. A program may be granted an eight-year term, an eight-year term with conditions, or a two-year term of continuing accreditation, or a three-year term of initial accreditation, depending on the extent of its conformance with established education standards. 

Doctor of Architecture and Master of Architecture degree programs may require a non-accredited undergraduate degree in architecture for admission. However, the non-accredited degree is not, by itself, recognized as an accredited degree.  

Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University offers the following NAAB-accredited degree program: 

• Master of Architecture 
  • Track I (undergraduate degree with architecture major + 60 graduate semester credit hours)  
  • Track II (undergraduate degree with non-architecture major + 90 graduate semester credit hours)

The KCAD Master of Architecture will have its next NAAB accreditation visit in Spring 2030.

Documentation

• 2024 NAAB Decision on Plan to Correct - PDF
• 2024 NAAB Plan to Correct - PDF
• 2023 NAAB Decision on Plan to Correct - PDF
• 2023 NAAB Plan to Correct - PDF
• 2022 NAAB Letter of Continuing Accreditation - PDF
• 2022 NAAB Visiting Team Report - PDF
• 2021 NAAB Architecture Program Report - PDF
• 2020 NAAB Conditions for Accreditation - PDF
• 2020 NAAB Procedures for Accreditation - PDF
• 2019 NAAB Letter of Accreditation - PDF
• 2018 NAAB Visiting Team Report - PDF
• 2018 NAAB Architecture Program Report - PDF
• 2015 NAAB Procedures for Accreditation - PDF
• 2014 NAAB Conditions for Accreditation - PDF

Students and alumni of the KCAD Master of Architecture program have access to career and professional development support through the Ferris State University Career and Professional Success (CAPS) Office. The CAPS webpage provides information about job fair events, links to make an appointment with a career counselor, and access to the Handshake job platform, among other resources. 

Additionally, through the academic advising process, M.Arch faculty meet with each student twice annually to discuss their academic and career advancement, providing support for students as they seek internship opportunities and begin learning on the job. Full-time M.Arch faculty member Michael Jen serves as a National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) Licensing Advisor, and is available to provide students with guidance as they transition to professional practice and pursue licensure. Representatives of NCARB provide regular training sessions to KCAD Students on the path to licensure in architecture.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) provides a helpful career development resource. There is also strong local support in Grand Rapids for students’ career development. As active members of the American Institute of Architects Grand Rapids Chapter (AIAGR), M.Arch faculty promote the organization’s networking and learning opportunities, from scholarship and awards events to “lunch-and-learn” lectures and workshops, many of which are held at KCAD. To study architecture at KCAD, in other words, is to be invited into the West Michigan community of professional architects.

M.Arch students, through their local American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) Chapter, host regular career development events each year. With support from the KCAD Student Services office, their Faculty Advisor, and local architecture firms, the KCAD AIAS group puts on Firm Crawl events in which students visit local offices to learn about career opportunities in architecture. Additionally, AIAS hosts resume and portfolio workshops here at the college with visiting architects serving as guest critics. Their participation shows how important students and emerging professionals are to the professional practice community.

The program’s learning and teaching culture focuses on building meaningful connections at multiple scales.

The M.Arch curriculum includes a series of seminars that are intentionally paired with design studios, linking courses, and by extension, connecting modes of thinking and working. In the course Critique of Architecture, for example, students study contemporary and historical theories of architecture while developing their own theoretical argument for the project they are designing in Studio III. In the Systems Integration seminar, students test and compare building systems’ performance to inform the systems design of their concurrent Studio IV project.

The program values the diversity of KCAD’s creative community, and encourages interdisciplinary learning in this context. Through their elective courses, and in design reviews, M.Arch students can engage with faculty from the fine arts, industrial design, and the humanities, to name a few, testing the broader significance of their architectural work. In a similar way, as each new cohort of 3-year students enters the program, with a variety of academic backgrounds, the dialogue in the M.Arch studio is enriched.  

Located in the center of Grand Rapids, MI, the M.Arch program emphasizes architecture’s role in urban culture. In the Urban Collaborative studio, for example, students work with local partners such as neighborhood associations and nonprofits to develop visions for future development, or design-build public space interventions—a learning and teaching process that builds community. In the Critical Travel course, the view is broadened. Students visit and critically analyze an unfamiliar, and often international, urban environment, expanding the sense of what is possible in urban culture.

Each M.Arch student’s academic experience culminates in a thesis project, which itself creates connections. This work stages a dialogue between students’ personal interests and concerns and those of the larger discipline and culture. They are public-facing, often exhibited in the KCAD galleries, and invite dialogue about the built environment of the future.

Applicants who have completed a pre-professional program in architecture may be awarded advanced standing in the program, entering at the level of the first semester of the second year (Year one of the “Two-Year M.Arch”). Placement is based upon review of the transcript and portfolio, with a follow-up applicant interview as needed. Students admitted to the two-year, 60 credit M.Arch are expected to fully follow the stated curriculum.

Students admitted to the three-year, 90 credit sequence (the “Three-Year M.Arch”) come from a wide variety of backgrounds. With their academic advisor, an individual course of study is developed. Students with substantial relevant academic or professional prior experience may place out of certain courses in year one only of the three-year M.Arch.

Those who are admitted to the program are assigned an academic advisor from among the architecture faculty or administration. This faculty advisor meets with the student prior to initial enrollment to discuss program expectations for engagement, standards for graduate-level academic achievement, the opportunities for developing special interests through electives and co-curricular activities, and the student’s own expectations for intellectual and professional development. At the end of each semester, the student and faculty advisor meet to discuss the student’s progress, to surface concerns about the program or about the student’s engagement in it, and to develop and revise the student’s academic plan in support of her/his individual interests and goals. A record of each semester’s advising session is placed in the student’s advising dossier so that the overall arc of the student’s education may be tracked.

Cost of Attendance for KCAD Programs