first off, I'm not familiar with any 5 year prof. arch programs in Canada.
Generally, you're looking at doing a 4+2 (bachelor of environmental design or similar + M.Arch).

Secondly, a lot of it will depend on the college program and future university you're interested in, as both the type and quality of education will varry drastically, as will the university's admission requirements.

Off the top of my head, I'd recommend that you look into BCIT (Vancouver), NAIT (Edmonton) or Ryerson (Toronto) if you're keen on studying architectural technology. To be honest though, you might be better off concentrating on your language skills for a while and then applying directly to university programs.

best of luck

My bad... Yes, I am looking at the BEDS program.

Sorry I confused with the California university program that is 5 years.

canada has only a few architecture programs so it is possible to contact each one and find out if they will accept transfers, but my impression when i was a student was that getting credit for non-university courses was not possible.

Even if they do accept that community college is equivalent i am guessing you will only get a few elective credits and not a full year (or 2) and will indeed need to start from scratch once in the program.

best way to find out is to give the schools a call and ask them.

one further thought.

you should also check when you need to have the toefl sorted.

i think it is possible to apply to archi-school without making the toefl grade before hand...not sure about that but it could be a way for you to apply regardless of your current status as long as you meet the requirement later on. don't trust me on this because it is only here-say, but possibly worth checking out.

jump, I know that the UofM has given credit (for specific courses, not entire years) for graduates of Red River College.

At one point, Manitoba was also looking into formalizing a transfer agreement with NAIT's Architectural Technology program (which would knock off two years of ED). With the massive over-haul of the undergraduate program recently, I'm not sure if that's progressed at all though.

i am not sure how that would work now either, Iamgray. I was at UM last spring and the system seems to be pretty intense. courses probably can transfer but the program is pretty narrowly focused so entire years i don't imagine happening...not that UofM is all that special. All architecture school believe they are doing something so special it is impossible that anyone could have learned something relevant at a different school ;-)

and it has always been so. ages ago, i transferred into architecture school at U of M(anitoba) from fine arts and got credit for physics, English, and numerical mathematics. Funny enough they asked me to re-take the intro drawing course (life drawing no less) even though i had just come from a faculty where drawing was pretty much all we did. It was silly, but they actually thought that the artists teaching the architecture school class were better than the ones in the fine arts department. not that i didn't enjoy doing more drawing, but it was kind of goofy. academia is a funny old place.

Yeah, architectural programs in Canada seem to be quite a bit different than in the States, admissions-wise. I was rejected from Carleton's program, so I looked into taking an Arch. Technologist diploma at Algonquin College thinking that it would be possible to transfer into Carleton's program later; that is absolutely not the case and holds virtually no weight in their admission selection.

I'll echo Jump's words, every architecture school feels that they are doing it the "correct" way and the other schools are not. Case in point, no matter where you apply to for your M.Arch after finishing your B.Arch, I'm pretty sure that every Masters program requires you to take 1-2 'qualifying' semesters in their school (unless you graduated from THEIR bachelors program).

I think that in pretty much every case you will have to start as a freshman, unless you apply to a B.EDS program at UBC or Dalhousie.

BenC: Are you still in Algoquin College? Are you gonna transfer?