himedeep - Hi. I'm on the Alumni Advisory Board for Auburn's Architecture school - feel free to email me offline and I'd be happy to share what I can about Auburn. Both are certainly very good schools. In general, at the undergrad professional degree level, I would advise keeping overall loan rates as low as possible. If your son wishes to pursue a graduate degree later, the choice of school can make a larger difference. 

One of the main things I would look for in the schools is a professional degree, meaning a 5 year eduction that culminates in a Bachelors of Architecture. Both Auburn and CMU, in your case, offer a professional degree. He would, with that, be able to obtain a professional license without having to go back to school and get a Masters in Architecture. The Masters will, without a doubt, open up opportunities for teaching, but that simply may not be something he'll know whether he wants to do or not at this stage.

Hope that helps some. Purely as an AU alum, of course I think it's a great option. The faculty there is in a good place, they've got two great travel programs and the Rural Studio is one of the most acclaimed undergrad program options in the country. It would be very, very difficult to say it's a poor option between the two.

Your son would have to do some serious networking at CMU for the extra $165,000 to ever pay off financially.  I am not sure what CMU has that justifies 4x the price.  

The more I read these threads the crazier the numbers get.  For $45k per year you could hire an architect to open an office with your son as a partner (depending on state rules) and teach him as they work on real projects.  Too bad most states eliminated experience as a path to licensure :(

Auburn all the way, even without the scholarship. its a great school

Both are great schools. Auburn offers a well-rounded, fundamentally sound education...very sound. I did not appreciate this until I worked with recent grads from other programs. I've also interacted some with CMU people and was very impressed. In this case the funding is a large factor. If it were not, then the choice may come down to the strengths of each school. These schools are very different. CMU also has mature grad programs through the doctoral level with some heavy focus in emerging technologies, including CAD tools and robotics. There will be more people around to support interests in scripting, digital design trends like algorithmic architecture, and mixing architecture with experience design Auburn has a great construction science program and industrial design program, and a maturing design-build program, to which hour son would have a access. Both are great. But different. If your son wants CMU but the numbers don't work, take a look at georgia tech. If he is more into CMU, you could

i sent my response from my iphone and the formatting got screwed up and the autocorrect changed some words erroneously --- and for some reason the 'edit comment' option is not showing up on my comment --- i'm not going to bother retyping --- hopefully, the point is clear

He could have a resume that says "President Scholarship" on it for life.

Or he could be paying student loans for the rest of his life.

Hope that makes it simpler. We are talking about an architecture degree, nothing more.

Auburn has a MUCH better football team!

Thank you very much for all your reply. They do give us some more ideas.

My son is also accepted by Tulane and Gatech, both will cost us around $30000/year.

Gatech's archiecture program is 4 years, and it seems not as good as other three schools. But it has very good engineering. In case he find out he don't want to do architecture, he will have other chance. Well, it is still hard to decide and time is running out. Thanks again.

I have to say that when I visited auburn as a HS senior, it was my safety school.  But I just fell in love with the place and ultimately I let that be my guide.  it was a great place to spend a few years --- and the program is not too bad either.  for a BArch, for the money, i doubt you would find better --- you will definitely find comparable, you will find different, but I doubt you will find better.  and as I've bounced around the country in the years since leaving auburn, the degree has served me very well.

hidmedeep: not sure why you feel Georgia Tech is inferior to Auburn or Carnegie Mellon -- GT produces some fine graduates, in my estimation.

Nevertheless, if you have not already done so, you should become fully aware of the different degree programs available and the connection between the various degrees offered and licensure. If your son wishes to become licensed then typically he will need a "professional" degree, which generally means a 5-year Bachelor of Architecture, or a Masters in Architecture, which will take different lengths of time, depending on the school and the undergrad education of the entering student. A 4-year BS of Architecture generally is not considered a 'professional' degree but more typically a precursor to graduatie education in architecture.

It's good to see schools inform people before they plunk down 30 grand PER YEAR what the four year degree is.

hidmedeep: I am a CMU alum, but I am not going to blindly support CMU just because it's my alma mater.  Both CMU and Auburn are good schools, and previous #2 man in CMU had gone to Auburn as a head (and now he's a dean of College of Arch at Washington University in St.Louis), so they somewhat share similar ideology.  Sure, CMU is good school, but since your son will get A LOT more $ from Auburn, it's somewhat difficult to make a case to push for CMU.

Thank you all for your post. This helped us a lot. We should had asked here earlier before my son applied schools. He finally decided going to Auburn.

Thanks again.

hidmedeep - congrats on the decision. hope to see his work at the school sometime next year....