Earn a Best-Value Education

Reputation and Value

ARC 403 [Senior Studio] : Urban Life Self & Society in the main gallery of Hayes Hall.

On this page:

The School of Architecture and Planning is a distinguished professional school within a leading public research university. We offer nationally accredited degrees in architecture and urban planning, including the only fully accredited Master of Architecture in the SUNY system. Our faculty members are boundary-breaking scholars and practitioners – the top in their fields. Our nationally ranked research-based curriculum is intensively hands-on and closely linked to practice. We also feature state-of-the-art facilities and a “city-studio” (Buffalo) known worldwide for its architecture and urban design. 

Here in Buffalo, you’ll gain a head start in today’s innovation-driven planning and design professions...

...without burdensome student debt.

Our tuition is a fraction of the cost of a private college or university of comparable quality. UB is also among the nation’s best universities for graduating students with the least amount of debt. Our reputation for value is recognized year after year as being among the best in the nation by Princeton Review, Kiplinger’s, U.S. News & World Report and other leading publications. And, most importantly, by our students.

Listed among Kiplinger's 100 Best College Values, UB is the only public research university in the northeast with accredited architecture and planning programs. This places the School of Architecture and Planning in an elite peer group with the University of Florida (top-ranked in the south), University of California, Berkeley (top ranked in the west), and the University of Michigan (top-ranked in the Midwest). A separate, independent review of comparable public universities in the U.S. offering the professional Master of Architecture degree ranks UB tuition among the lowest for non-resident students, and in the bottom half for in-state residents [1]. 

By the numbers

US News best value seal.

Ranked in the Top 20 nationwide for graduating students with the “least debt.” More than half of UB students graduated without debt.
U.S. News & World Report

Princeton Review Seal of Best Value.

Stellar academics and for all it is doing to make college affordable, especially for applicants with need in these tough economic times.
—The Princeton Review “Best Value Colleges”

Kiplingers Best value seal.

High four-year graduation rate, low average student debt at graduation, abundant financial aid, a low sticker price and overall great value.
—Kiplinger’s

Ranked in the Top 20 nationwide for graduating students with the “least debt.” More than half of UB students graduated without debt.
U.S. News & World Report

Stellar academics and for all it is doing to make college affordable, especially for applicants with need in these tough economic times.
—The Princeton Review “Best Value Colleges”

High four-year graduation rate, low average student debt at graduation, abundant financial aid, a low sticker price and overall great value.
—Kiplinger’s

UB is a top-ranked destination school for international students

Open Doors, Institute of International Education

Grads standing in laine.
Lower costs with “Finish In 4”

Students who stay on track and graduate in a timely manner reduce the cost of their education compared to students who do not.

Even with our affordable costs, our goal is to make UB accessible to as many students as possible. All incoming freshmen can participate in the Finish in 4 program, a structured academic advising program designed to help students stay on schedule so that they will finish their degree in four or fewer years.

Top-ranked research

The School of Architecture and Planning, steeped in a tradition of experimentation, offers one of the country’s strongest programs for research in architecture and planning. In 2015, the school generated over $4 million in research on topics as diverse as inclusive design, food systems planning and construction robotics. This level of research placed us among the top three schools of architecture and planning in the prestigious American Association of Universities.

Did you know?

UB was the first SUNY institution invited to join the prestigious Association of American Universities, an association of elite research universities in the U.S. and Canada.

Study with the best

Our faculty members are pioneers in their fields – prolific scholars and innovative practitioners. Among them is one of the world’s greatest known pioneers in inclusive design and a groundbreaking member of the national food systems planning movement. Other faculty members have earned national awards for work on new facades and building technologies, climate change resilience, and urban plans that now undergird Buffalo’s urban renaissance. They are Fellows of the AIA, SUNY Distinguished Faculty, and winners of the Dale Prize in Urban Planning. 

UB Architecture Accredited through 2023, Lauded for Research, Collaboration, Comprehensive Design
- National Accreditation in Architecture at UB

Options for funding and financial support

[1] Based on a comparison of 2015-16 tuition and required fees of all public universities in the American Association of Universities, and all public institutions (AAU and non-AAU) in New York State. Source: UB Office of Institutional Analysis.