[Bel St.John, ASLA, LEED AP]

Thanks Gary for replying. Definitely agree with the sledding down Slater Hill… on a couch. Ha Ha.

[Bel St.John, ASLA, LEED AP]

Oh yeah, most important… no tri-pod!! Ha Ha.

[Bel St.John, ASLA, LEED AP]

It depends on what you want to do with your Landscape Architecture degree. If you have any aspirations of becoming a licensed Landscape Architect, then the accredited program is most likely your best bet (depending on how soon you want to try to achieve that). If you don’t want to get licensed or not in the next 8+ years, then go for the unaccredited program… maybe.

What an accredited program means is that the school has chose to go through a voluntary review process through the Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board (LAAB) who has a set standard on quality which they evaluate the schools program. The school then makes the commitment to uphold that standard if they pass. I think they might even get periodic outside reviews to make sure they are still doing that but with such a small profession, word gets around pretty quickly if they are or are not.

By graduating from an accredited program, you can take the LARE (the professional licensing exam) in 2 to 3 years depending on the state you are getting licensed in after working under a already licensed Landscape Architect. If you graduate from non-accredited program, you have to wait 8 years while also working under an already licensed Landscape Architect. There is some leeway with including years while in school at an unaccredited school and other technicalities but that still won’t cut much time out for you. Legally, you are not supposed to call yourself a Landscape Architect until you have been licensed so even though you have a degree in Landscape Architecture, you really are a Landscape Designer.

The biggest thing in my opinion about choosing to go to an accredited program is the quality of education you are going to get. For the most part, people in the profession know what schools are accredited and with that comes a reputation that is known (for better or worse). So while you pay more and take more time to achieve that, you in return also get the benefits of that schools reputation. Like with most programs in any school, they are ranked yearly so why not set goals high to head to a school with a reputation. Although, that really shouldn’t be your main factor on choosing a school, every school approaches the profession in a different way and you should find one that meshes well with your ideals. Whether that is theory, sustainability, technical, etc.. I’m not saying schools are the best just because of accreditation but there are standards set in place.

If you want to look more into this you can visit the professional society’s website: http://www.asla.org or more information regarding licensing you can look at the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Board’s exam at: http://www.clarb.org.

Hope this helped you!! Take care.

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