Master of Architecture: MArch 2

The MArch 2 is a four-semester, professional curriculum for students holding baccalaureate degrees with majors in architecture. This 75-credit program leads to a professional, STEM-designated and National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) accredited Master of Architecture degree.

Placement in this curriculum is highly selective and based on prior preparation and coursework in architecture and on the quality and complexity of work in an applicant’s portfolio. To be considered for placement in the MArch 2 program, students must have completed an Architectural History course that covers the following topics: Greco Roman Classicism, European Middle Ages, Renaissance + Baroque, 18th-/19th-century Neoclassicism, and the Industrial Revolution. Students are also expected to have been exposed to non-Western content, such as Pre-Columbian, Islamic, South Asian, or East Asian. Calculus and physics are are also required as prerequisites for admission.

The MArch 2 sequence commences with a two-week preparatory presemester studio and orientation before students enter the International Housing Core Studio (ARCH 6010) in the fall semester, joining the MArch 3 (three-year program) cohort. Students progress into two semesters of Advanced Architectural Design Studios, culminating in their fourth and final semester with the Degree Project (ARCH 7020).

Waiver Requirements

Students admitted to the MArch 2 program have the opportunity to waive the following courses:

  • ARCH 3340 Building Systems
  • ARCH 4340 Structures I
  • ARCH 4350 Structures II
  • ARCH 2220 Architectural History II: Architecture Since 1880
  • ARCH 4320 Architectural History III: Advanced Theory
  • ARCH 3310 Environmental Systems I
  • LANDARCH 2040 Shared Ecologies

Students must obtain a waiver prior to the semester in which they would normally be expected to take the course that is being waived. In other words, students may not skip a required course on the assumption that they will receive a waiver for it in the future.

Any such waiver requires evidence that the student had adequate exposure to the required material as part of their previous academic experience. Course waivers will only be granted for an equivalent course or a combination of courses completed satisfactorily to meet NAAB-accredited student performance criteria. Equivalence is measured in terms of both content and assignments. Waivers will not be granted for courses taken pass/fail. To be eligible for a waiver, prior course work must have been passed with the equivalent of a grade of C or higher. Grades for waived courses will not appear on the student's Washington University record and will not figure into the student's GPA.

Up to 6 credits (two courses) of waivers can be applied toward required degree credits. If more than two waivers are granted, the student must earn an equivalent number of general elective credits in place of the courses being waived. Courses that have been waived or previously completed as an undergraduate at Washington University cannot be repeated for credit.

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