In general people choose to earn a masters degree (MLA) for three reasons:
1. By far the most common reason is that people decide they want to pursue a career in landscape architecture AFTER they started or already completed a bachelors degree. It sounds like your daughter is still in high school, and if she knows that she wants to study landscape architecture then going for a bachelors degree isn’t a bad idea.
2. As a post-professional degree (meaning they already went to a landscape architecture undegrad program) If someone has a BLA/BSLA from a program that focuses on a spicific niche of landscape architecture (lets say more of a horticultural focus), and they want to do urban design work, for example, they could get an MLA II from a program with an urban design focus. Don’t worry about this for know, as many undegrad programs allow for students to follow their interests.
3. To teach. If you look at the faculty at most landscape architecture programs (or architecture, for that matter), most of the faculty posses a masters degree. Again, an undergrad degree will by no means hurt, but if teaching is in her future an MLA is practically a requirement.
Rutgers is an excellent school, and don’t put too much faith in the DI rankings. University of Pennsylvania’s graduate programs (MArch & MLA) are all but missing from their lists, and Cooper Union’s excellent (and free) BArch program has never been ranked! As long as her degree is accredited it is more her skills than where a diploma is from that matters.
