Ranking of American Urban Planning Universities The Master of Urban Planning is a large interdisciplinary major, involving many disciplines, including landscape, architecture, even agriculture, etc Studying in the United States for master's degree in urban planning Cross disciplinary application I'm really afraid that you don't need a special background because you don't need to work hard! American Urban Planning and Design Students with various professional backgrounds are welcome to apply, because urban planning and design requires extensive professional knowledge.
Master of Urban Planning How is America?
Overview of planning discipline:
With the development of society, the proper urban planning will directly affect the development speed and prospects of a city. In recent years, people have gradually realized the importance of living environment. Therefore, Master of Urban Planning is a very popular major recently. Urban planning is still very high in the professional ranking of graduate school in the United States, which is widely used. Generally speaking, urban planning is to control and adjust the national economy through various means, and ensure the coordinated and stable development of the national economy by administrative and legal means. The fundamental purpose is to develop the economy and improve people's lives. Urban planning is an interdisciplinary subject with strong comprehensiveness and belongs to the architectural category. Planning is a systematic and creative way to influence the future of communities, cities, rural areas and metropolitan areas, even countries and the world. Urban and regional planners use their professional skills to help communities face social, economic, environmental and cultural challenges and help community residents.
Works of Master of Urban Planning in the United States
Urban design urban design, physical (Land use) and environmental planning physical (land use) and environmental planning, community and urban development community and urban development, economic development development zone development, GIS GIS specialty, transportation planning, international development international development, housing and real estate development Housing and real estate development, of course, are not in all schools. However, it can be seen that the urban planning profession in the United States has more issues to consider than in China. The most important difference is that domestic planning projects are often done step by step in accordance with the norms. As long as they can be done, it is OK. Foreign planning projects are to seek more optimized and reasonable solutions through scientific research. Their theoretical research is much more than that in China.
Generally speaking, there are two types of schools applying for master's degree in urban planning in the United States. One is more focused on overall planning design, and the other is more focused on economic administration. This can be basically identified by carefully looking at the direction setting of the department and the teachers when selecting schools. Then choose schools according to what you want to study. Of course, if you don't have any special preference, you can choose both types of schools, and then make the final choice after the application results come out.
Urban Planning Branch of American Master of Arts
Land Use Planning
Land use planners in the urban planning profession in the United States encourage the increase and development of specific communities or appropriate corridor areas, reduce the increase of environmentally sensitive areas or areas where support services cannot be effectively provided. The work of land use planners belongs to long-term comprehensive planning, which is designed to coordinate all important activities of the society: housing, entertainment, transportation, water and air quality, etc. Land use planners help develop or manage local housing, industrial and retail facilities established in cities and counties; And ways to provide public services for funding, while assessing the impact of proposed residential or commercial development. Land use planners coordinate the work of other planners to ensure space openness and agricultural land for new homes and enterprises in the face of growing demand.
Environmental Planning
The work of environmental planners under American urban planning specialty is to enhance the physical environment and minimize any negative impact of development. Environmental planners focus on scientific and technological issues and develop projects and policies to encourage the public to protect natural resources. Planners develop expertise in one aspect of resource management to identify the impact of a series of government policies and proposed land use changes on the environment. Some planners focus on clarifying the polluted areas and preventing pollution and ecological environment damage. Many environmental planners integrate the pollution and the protection of non renewable resources brought about by the development of substantive fields such as housing, transportation and economy.
Economic Development Planning
In North America and internationally, the economic development planners under the urban planning specialty in the United States improve the communities and areas of residence and the living environment of residents by expanding and diversifying economic activities. The purpose of this is to draw up plans to attract enterprises that create new jobs and increase additional taxes; Other planners work to prevent enterprises from leaving poor areas. Local economic development planners are committed to promoting the characteristics of the community and encouraging tourism or other entertainment. Many planner development projects provide housing for vulnerable groups and job opportunities provided by commercial enterprises; Help communities find new ways to finance development costs, and work to find new projects that overcome regulatory and other barriers. Economic development planners under American urban planning majors often combine with land use, housing, social and community planners to address the needs of poor communities or the decline of business districts.
A collection of urban traffic planning and design works of master students of natural light art, applying to AA Architectural Alliance, University College London and other institutions
Transportation Planning
Traffic planners help to formulate plans to meet the current needs of families and enterprises for local and trans regional transportation; It is predicted that the future tourism model needs additional transportation services and facilities to meet the demand. Many traffic planners use advanced computer technology to deal with social and economic problems in tourism. Local traffic planners often deal with traffic congestion and develop new financing methods. Many traffic planners also make plans to promote people to drive less, or provide vulnerable groups with opportunities to work at home, or organize special transportation services for the elderly. The traffic planner cooperates with the environment, land use and economic development planners.
Housing and Community Development Planning
The housing planners in the subdivision major of the Master of Urban Planning in the United States help vulnerable groups and low-income people develop strategies to increase the supply of affordable housing and expand housing ownership. Planners often try to establish incentives to eliminate restrictions on private housing builders or to establish unit housing for low-income families or the elderly working in public and non-profit organizations.
Among the top 30 American universities, MIT, University of California, Berkeley, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carnegie Mellon University of California, Los Angeles, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, Princeton University, Penn University, University of Southern California and so on have urban planning.
Ranking of American Urban Planning Universities
1. Harvard University
Harvard University（Harvard）
2. University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania（UPenn）
3. Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University,Baton Rouge（LSU）
4. Cornell University
Cornell University
5. University of Virginia
University of Virginia（UVA）
6. University of Southern California
University of Southern California（USC）
7. Virginia Tech
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University（VT）
8. Kansas State University
Kansas State University（KSU）
9. Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University（PSU）
10. Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University（TAMU）
Professional application for urban planning in the United States
The first semester of the general master's degree in urban planning in the United States will be a basic course to introduce knowledge in various fields so that you can understand and decide which subject to choose. Generally, the second semester begins with the special subject you choose, plus some basic courses and elective courses. Some schools require classes and planning related work during the summer vacation between the first year and the second year. It depends on the school you choose. There are also many high ranking colleges and universities.
From the second year, you still have to take your special courses, but at the same time, you should prepare the outline of your graduation thesis. In the second half of the second year, most of the courses are independent research courses, and the graduation thesis is completed under the guidance of professors. Some schools have to pass the graduation examination and thesis defense, depending on the specific school. This is a two-year master's program. Some schools may require two and a half years or even three years (relatively few), but they are all similar to each other.
As urban planning is a very broad subject, people applying for urban planning major come from different backgrounds. Schools also like students from different backgrounds to learn from each other. So if you are not a city planning undergraduate, don't worry about being at a disadvantage when applying for the city planning major. For example, if you study finance and economics, you can focus on "community and economic development" or "planning policy/theory". Don't worry too much that your undergraduate major is not urban planning.
Most graduate students of urban planning are not undergraduate students of urban planning. There are not many urban planning undergraduate schools in the United States, many of which only have graduate schools and only accept graduate students. Because they believe that urban planning is a very broad subject, it is too early to fix students in one frame when they are undergraduates.
Employment prospects of urban planning major in the United States
According to the statistics of American Planning Association, more than 65% of American urban planning graduates work in government departments, about 20% work in various non-profit organizations, and less than 20% work in private enterprises. The planning work of government departments is mainly undertaken by master graduates, and the specific work is mainly about planning policy design, material planning and planning management. In teaching and scientific research institutions, there are more doctoral graduates in teaching institutions. In consulting and research institutions, there are graduates with various degrees. On the whole, the market demand for planning majors is more for masters than for doctoral graduates.
In the domestic design market, the largest demand is architectural design, followed by urban planning, and then urban design. Urban design pays more attention to the image, scale, space, and contour of the city, and is more related to architecture. Domestic design companies are generally divided into architectural design companies and urban planning institutes. The employment of general construction companies will be more advantageous if they have urban design and architectural background. Urban planning and urban design majors are suitable for planning management departments or planning and design institutes.
The above is the ranking of American urban planning universities. Urban planning and design must be based on understanding the city, integrate urban functions from the life experience of a city resident, achieve comprehensive and mixed innovation, more suitable for livability, more reasonable space arrangement, and more reasonable urban planning, Students who want to apply for master's degree in urban planning in the United States can refer to the following articles:
What is the difference between foreign [landscape design urban planning architectural design] majors
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