good small architecture school, a little conservative faculty, excellent outreach center, nice area. prepare to do a lot of hand drawings.

abroad program in Rome or Mexico City.

If you're a big fan of E. Fay Jones, I heard they'll never stop talking about him. I had a professor that taught there for a number of years and that is what he said about it.

Whereas I assume dekrpto has long since made her/his decisions regarding the school, this seems to be the only direct, searchable thread for Arkansas' program so I thought I would at least correct med's final statement. I started the program one year after Jones retired from teaching and I don't recall his even being mentioned by the faculty more than twice in the five years I was there.

For others who may be interested in the program I'll share my experience/knowledge. This is admittedly after many years away from the school and Fayetteville so some of this may be a bit off now (I do occasionally talk with recent alum). Others should post any corrections:

As a state program, admissions is different than say Rice, CMU, Tulane, etc where there is no portfolio submission but, rather anyone at the school can declare architecture or landscape architecture as a major and show up...for the first year. The professional program begins the second year and the vast majority of those that declared as freshmen are long gone by then (studios begin in the first year and the weeding out process is intense); my class started with 268 on day one, gained 9 more but only 35 architecture majors and 19 landscape majors were accepted for the "professional program." Thus, the drop off rate is quite high.

Also as a state program in a fairly isolated area, the school is necessarily of more regional significance than national. However, when I was there more than a third of my classmates were from Chicago, both coasts, Hong Kong, Spain, etc. Also the school finally broke in to Design Intelligence's top 20 rankings last year - a dubious system to be sure, but the only one so far as I know (and DI's methodology has improved greatly since the first few years of emailing questionnaires a few firms). It is isolated, so one has to consider whether the benefit of an active, urban milieu is more important than an environment of sort-of solitude where you don't mind living in studio 24/7, free of many distractions. Fayetteville is a decent college town and I hear it's much more active than when I was a student. Obviously the lecture series and visiting juror availability can never compete with the options one will get in or near a larger city.

The faculty, especially after a noticeable re-callibration in 1992, has remained very strong. Marlon Blackwell is the biggest "name" and professors such as Darrell Fields, Ethel Goodstein, Greg Hermann, David Buege, Dean Shannon, etc enable a vibrant and stimulating program. The Community Design Center has received much national recognition recently - won damn near all of the AIA Urban Design awards a couple years ago in addition to a few PA awards/citations - though I am told its connection to the school is far too indirect.

As to the potential job outlook - in times better than right now, of course - good students can get positions anywhere. The regional cities that are littered with Arkansas grads (and many UArk alum-owned practices) are obviously Memphis, Little Rock, and Dallas. I once moved to St Louis, got to know many firm principals, and it seemed that none of them had ever even met a UArk grad! Conversely I now live in Boston and they're all over the place (and I know of a few in New York as well) so I suspect that was more about an aversion to St Louis!

I don't know the particular averages but based on my class and info from some younger grads that I've known, about 15% of graduates (4 or 5 out of my class of 35) go on to get their MArch or other post-graduate architecture degrees, often at top programs (the GSD has had a constant stream of Arkansas alum over the last 20 years. Note to future applicants, Yale is the place right now!).

Finally, if the prospective student thinks that choosing Arkansas over any other given program will somehow make for an easier or more laid back 5 years, think again. I've subsequently gotten to know graduates from almost every other 5 year and 4+2 program in the US and I am convinced that Arkansas's studio environment is the toughest/most demanding there is. Some schools (Cooper Union for instance) lock up their building at midnight! At Arkansas, don't even bother renting an apartment!

For my thesis review, we had a visiting critic from Arkansas and he was fantastic. I don't know much about the school at all, but I was impressed with the way this individual talked about Architecture.