You say acrreditation is not important, but if you want to become a licensed Architect it does...

this is what I saw on there Site on how far in the process they are to becoming accredited


"Is SFIA accredited?

Not yet. There are three stages of accreditation, starting with certification by the State of California. That is followed by accreditation by a regional accrediting body, and finally by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. We don't yet know how many years it will take to complete this process, but once complete, the accreditation is usually retroactive for several years.

Accreditation is a concern for many students who want to pursue a license to practice architecture. In the State of California, a total of 8 years of higher education and work experience are required, to take the exam. At this point, SFIA graduates may receive one year credit toward the exam.

Also, if you are working for a licensed architect, you'll receive full-time credit toward the architectural licensing exam. Those who work for engineers or as contractors receive partial time credit. Contact the State of California Board of Architectural Examiners at 916-445-3393 for complete information and a Chart of Equivalencies for related work-time credit.

We anticipate no problem in meeting the standards required for accreditation. But it is a time-consuming process. Meanwhile, we are attempting to provide as many of the benefits of accreditation as possible prior to the official final process."

So there really is no guarantee that they will become accredited....

i GUESS IF YOU PLAN TO STATY IN CHINA IT MIGHT BE OK...

Fred Stitt, the director of the school is a very interesting guy. He does manage to pull in alot of individuals either associated with Bruce Goff or Frank Lloyd Wright. I have not seen any of the program material, but I would tend to think Fred has put together
a good program if number one your interested in organic architecture
and sustainable architecture. I believe they will be given accredition
in the future, because of his ability to associate people with his program. It is most likely worth the investment, if your considering long distance learning.

DifficultFix and snook has given me a lot of insight about the school:
the accreditation of the school and the style of the director Fred Stitt.This is very useful for me when choosing a good quality architecture
distance learning course which would spend several years to complete.
I agree with DifficultFix that accreditation is very important as architecture
is a very professional life-long career and accreditation could assure the course standard could reach a well - acceptable level. I have confident
that SFIA would gain accredited in future.


From my impression, SFIA is different from Newschool of architecture
SCi-arc and Boston institute of architecture. It focus on ecological design and visionary architecture(I am not sure if i am right or not).

Other things SFIA impress me is it allow everybody who are interested in
architecture could have a pathway to study architecture regardless of their background.

yuan xue liang - are you interested in obtaining an undergrad or grad degree? I understand that the Boston Architectural College offers a Distance Masters of Architecture program and it is the first to be fully NAAB-accredited. You can obtain more information directly from the school website.

Thanks Katze, actually I am looking for a distance learning architecture degree(accredited, non-accredited,undergrad or grad) so that I could study while working in China. Since I have no formal architecture design background but I got a degree in urban design and undergraduate in
quantity surveying ( similar to building cost estimating in U.S).

I hope such distance learning architecture course could acquire me
the skill and knowlege of architecture ; which is estential for urban design ,urban design guidelines, master planning works.

Boston Architectural College is a famous architecture school in Chicago. Since I do not have a degree in architecture , I am not sure the
Boston Architectural College NAAB-accredited Distance Masters of Architecture program would accept me or not but I will ask them if they could also provide distance learning undergraduate degree.

Thanks!

Actually, the BAC will accept degrees from backgrounds other than Architecture - the catch is that you have to be currently working in the architecture field to obtain acceptance into the M.Arch distance program.

The BAC does not offer a distance learning undergraduate degree.

The BAC is famous in Chicago? How so?

The Boston Architectual College is located in Boston Massachusetts, not Chicago.

Thanks snooker, you are right. Boston architectural college is located in
Boston Massachusetts, I have already sent an inquiry to the distance learning architecture program manager to see if I could enrol and study
the course in China and I think is may by not as its a professioanl
MArch program which may require a closer link with the school and attend
lesson twice per year. Anyway, I will wait for the reply.

Also, I have sent the same inquiry to San Francisco Institute of Architecture to ask if I could study the distance learning architecture
program in China but I have not got the reply yet. I hope i could do
that as its seems to be the only 2 architecture school offer distance learning architecture program, I did not enrol part-time architecture course in China as they have no part -time architecture program, also, I believe architecture program in U.S would board my horizton and give
me new insight.

Boston Architecture College recently tell me that I could
not enrol the distance MArch course in China as they
normally require a 1st degree in architecture and distance learning
master of architecture is not very practical.

So, it seems that San Francisco Institute of Architecture is the only hope
that I could study distance learning architecture degree outside US , however, I have not receive their reply and I am not sure at this moment.

Thomas Edison Offer a Bachelor of Science & Technology in Architectural Design by distance. This looks very interesting but would we get accepted to an accredited M.Arch afterwards? That is the big question which you want to answer before you waist 3 years studying!

Hey Yuan Xue, I've been reading with attention your requests about the SFIA in CA. I'm now in the same situation. What decision did you finally take? Was it to do the distance course? if so, How is being your experience?

Thank you!

SFIA does not offer a complete degree online. You will have to go to San Francisco a year after you start. This is what they told me. I live in Japan and there are no programs here in Japan in English. I have not researched yet but I have heard Australia might have some programs. SFIA has an interior architecture program offered fully online and I believe that is accredited. I am actually debating whether or not to do a masters in Urban planning\design or architecture. My background is in Exercise physiology so is completely unrelated.

I have seen that the Academy of Art University does offer some Graduate architecture courses online link. They seem to have a more developed program than SFIA and they do have an accredited Graduate degree but not one yet that is fully online. I have not taken any of the courses there but looked into this as an option to get some educational background to switch to a career in architecture since they do not require student to be enrolled in a degree program to take the online courses. But it is quote expensive for online classes and I instead took course through Stanford Continuing Studies and SJSU in person which were much cheaper.

Wish I had seen this earlier, Lawrence Technological university in Southfield mi offers a internet m.arch program.

Does anyone has any actual expirience with SFIA? tinsol wrote that they don't have a completely online degree, is that true? I'm trying to decide on a program and this is the major issue.

My mistake. SFIA does offer full online programs it was the Academy of Art University I was thinking about. SFIA has an Ecological Design program slated to be accrediated with Berkley Institute of Ecological Design. I think the information learned is so specific in the field that at least it would open doors and the classes are super cheap.

So does anyone has any actual experience with SFIA? I've almost applied to them but I've love to hear about personal experiences..

Hi! I'm an Architect who is looking to do an M.Arch or a graduate course in any field of Architecture. SFIA  isn't accreditted yet.  Does anyone know of any other institutions that offer an online course? Any experiences?

Hi Yuan Xue Liang:

Why do you want to do an online program? You learn a lot from the people you are in studio with and that face time with the professor is priceless. 

Why do you want to do an Undergraduate program? You already have two undergraduate degrees, one in Urban Design and one in Quantity Surveying. I would only look at Masters degrees because otherwise you will be in a program with undergrads who will likely be a lot younger.

SFIA is a good program, some of the professors from UC Berkeley teach there as well. I have met Fred and he is a very intelligent guy. The program is very focused on Sustainable Design and they are well connected to Taliesin grads and several of the firms who focus on sustainability. There are lots of programs throughout the United States which will not allow for you to transfer courses and force you to retake courses at their school. This works as a disadvantage to lots of students. SFIA is known to be very flexible and they promote unique learning paths. In my experience, they want people who are passionate about architecture to succeed and follow their dream. Lots of people get discouraged and drop out of architecture because of professors or other issues within their architecture programs. SFIA seems to pride itself on being different and promoting flexibility in education, so that you can graduate in architecture and work. I would likely shy away from the SFIA online program or any online architecture program unless you are working directly for architects at the same time, mainly because I feel as though you won't get the best education unless you choose to do so.

What are you planning on doing in the future? Do you want be an architect or do you want to continue working in Urban Design as an Urban Planner? Are you specifically looking at SFIA because you want a degree in architecture or because you want to study Sustainable Design? You could just get a Certificate in Sustainable Design, there are lots of online programs.

Maybe you can get a job working as an Urban Planner in an Architecture firm and get your feel for the architecture side of things that way. I would maybe look at a position with an International Firm, which could allow you to transfer over seas, so you can do a Masters in Architecture in another country in person.

I see that you are a Quantity Surveyor. Are you a member of RICS? If not, I would recommend it. We all see quantity surveyors on our larger projects because the banks use them in order to ensure that the project is going as planned. Your background in Urban Design and Quantity Surveying would be something that I would think would be very advantageous to a larger firm which has both architecture and urban planning under one roof.