Undergraduate Admissions

For current high school students and applicants with a high school diploma or GED, the SoA’s application process involves two initial steps:

• Apply to UNC Charlotte, using either the Future 49er Portal or the Common App (applicants must declare “Architecture” as their intended major)
• Submit secondary application materials required by the SoA to the Future 49er Portal.

We kindly ask all applicants to upload a brief resumé along with their main application to UNC Charlotte (it is an optional upload in the main application). This resumé should include any specific coursework, jobs, or extracurricular activities that may contribute to our evaluation of applicants to the SoA.

For current UNC Charlotte students applying to transfer into the Architecture major, the SoA’s application process involves two initial steps:

• Email your student ID# and a brief (50 word-or-less) statement of interest to the SoA Admissions Committee (soa-admissions@charlotte.edu), using your current UNC Charlotte email account.
• Submit secondary application materials required by the SoA to the Google form provided to you in response to your initial email to us.

• Apply to UNC Charlotte through the Future 49er Portal (applicants must declare “Architecture” as their intended major)
• Submit the secondary application materials required by the SoA to the Future 49er Portal

We kindly ask all applicants to upload a brief resumé along with their main application to UNC Charlotte (it is an optional upload in the main application). This resumé should include any specific coursework, jobs, or extracurricular activities that may contribute to our evaluation of applicants to the SoA. 

Important Notes for Transfer Applicants:

• Applicants from CPCC’s A40100T program are required to submit an additional portfolio (following our guidelines for the optional portfolio submission).
• Advanced placement into the Architecture program is rare, and transfer applicants should expect to begin the program as first-year students and complete all of the required Architecture courses at the SoA; transfer applicants will be admitted or denied based on their qualifications to become first-year students in our program, and advanced placement status will be considered only through a post-admission evaluation process.
• Central Piedmont Community College students earning the Associate in Applied Science in Architectural Technology degree through the UNC Charlotte transfer track (A40100T program) are admitted or denied based on their qualifications to be third-year students in our program.
• All transfer students are required to submit the same secondary application materials as new first-year applicants.

Undergraduate applicants to the SoA are neither required nor expected to have any particular skills or knowledge base. Our program provides its students with what they need to pursue their interest in architecture. We seek curious, rigorous, ambitious, and passionate students, regardless of whatever exposure they may (or may not) have had with architectural drawing, design, or thinking.

Our secondary application process is therefore designed to evaluate creativity and critical thinking, not professional skills. The required process involves:

• Completing two critical thinking exercises
• Creating a pre-recorded video interview

Detailed instructions for the exercises and the video interview may be found on this document.

All secondary materials (the three completed exercises and one pre-recorded video) must be submitted through your Future 49er Portal. That portal is accessible to all applicants after an initial application to UNC Charlotte is completed, and it includes an “Applicant Checklist” that identifies additional steps that an applicant needs to do for their application to be reviewed.

Applicants who select “Architecture” as their intended major will see the required secondary application materials in their Application Checklist, and they will upload their materials directly through their Future 49er Portal, as explained in the instructions PDF linked above.

Applicants may also submit an optional portfolio of design and/or creative work through Future 49er Portal, but remember that the SoA is not looking for any specific type of work, and no additional creative work is required for your application to receive full consideration. Information about the optional portfolio is also included in the instructions PDf linked above.

Applications are considered complete by the SoA after they have fulfilled all of the requirements of the general application for admission into UNC Charlotte, and submitted all of the secondary materials required by the SoA. Complete applications will receive an initial decision (accept, defer, or deny)according to the timeline below:

• Complete application by November 1, 2024: Early Action Decision on/by December 15, 2024
• Complete application by January 1, 2025: Round 2 Decision on/by February 1, 2025
• Complete application by February 1, 2025: Round 3 Decision on/by March 1, 2025
• Complete application by February 15, 2025: Round 4 Decision on/by April 1, 2025

Important Notes About the Admissions Calendar:

• Early Action admission into the SoA is extremely competitive; a limited number of seats are reserved for applicants with exceptional academic records and steller secondary materials. Applicants deferred for further consideration should not be discouraged!
• Transfer applicants (including current UNC Charlotte students) are ineligible for Early Action decisions.
• February 15, 2025 is the final deadline to submit a complete application for Fall 2025 admission (including all secondary materials).
• Applicants who miss the final deadline may submit a late application for consideration after the application cycle ends (May 7, 2025); however, seats may not become available regardless of the strength of a late application.
• Deferred applicants will be updated on their status on/by the notification date of each round (applicants deferred in one round may be accepted or denied in the next round, or may be deferred again for the subsequent round); all deferred applicants will receive a final notification on/by May 7, 2025.
• The SoA will revoke all offers of admission not formally accepted by May 1, 2025.
• Admission into the SoA is offered only in the fall semester; neither spring nor summer admission is possible.

Many FAQs are addressed in the “Important Notes About …” sections included in the information panels on this website.

For questions not addressed in those sections, please contact the SoA Admission Committee via email (soa-admissions@charlotte.edu), and allow a few business days for a response. 

Calling the SoA will be less efficient and effective because you may not reach the person best suited to addressing your question. Email is the best way to have your question addressed by the best possible person in the quickest possible manner.