In order to become a full-fledged registered architect in most, if not all, states in the US, you have to have a professional degree. This would be a masters degree (M.Arch) for you, as the 5-year professional undergraduate degree (B.Arch) is being eliminated (and has already been removed from most schools), and will be long gone by the time you are graduating. In addition to the academic side of things, in most states you will need to complete 3 years of work with an architecture firm (called Intern Development Program, or ‘IDP’), and take a series of Architectural Registration Exams (ARE). THEN you will be an architect.

To get the M.Arch, plan on at least 6 years of university after you have completed high school. If you get a B.S. in architecture, you can often complete your M.Arch in 2 years (often referred to as a 4+2 program because you spend 4 years getting your bachelors degree then 2 getting your masters). There are many schools, however, that have 3-year M.Arch programs, so you could be in school as long as 7 years. The 3-year M.Arch programs generally admit students with no (or minimal) architecture background, so if you decide to major in something other than architecture for your undergrad degree, you can still always go back to school to pursue architecture.

While you are working on the IDP requirement, you will be gaining a lot of real-world architecture firm experience. Most entry-level salaries while you are in this stage of the game are between 30,000 and 40,000 (perhaps a bit lower in really cheap places and perhaps a bit higher in really expensive places). Once you have experience under your belt and actually become an architect, you can make more gradually. Most registered architects I know (except those who have their own firms or are REALLY high up in big firms) make between 60,000 and 85,000 a year (but most I know are in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and NYC, so this is probably higher than most middle-American cities).

There are a lot of good schools (colleges) out there… the notion of a “good program” when it comes to architecture is kind of elusive though. Because architecture is so subjective, it is hard to rank it the way other programs (business and law for example) are ranked. There are programs that are geared toward those interested in practical and technical stuff, and there are those that are geared toward those who are interested in theoretical stuff. It would be a good idea to visit the schools before you decide to attend, so that you can get an idea of what you are getting into before it is too late! Some theoretical schools that are considered good by a lot of people are Harvard, UC Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, Rhode Island School of Design, UCLA, Rice, Columbia, Ohio State, Princeton, and MIT. Some very practical schools that are considered good are Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo) and University of Cincinatti. Notre Dame, which you mentioned, is geared more toward historicist architecture (copying old architecture styles to make new buildings) so this might be good if you are interested in historic preservation… also University of Virginia and Columbia are great schools if you are into historic preservation.

Architecture can be a fun job, and it can be a nightmare. It depends a lot on where you work. You should identify what kinds of projects you want to work on, and target firms that seem suitable for you. Just make sure it is really what you want to do before you begin the long journey (it will take at least 9 years after high school graduation to become an architect). I would advise majoring in something else for undergrad, and then go to grad school for your M.Arch in one of the 3-year programs… that way if you end up hating architecture or decide you want to do something else, you have something to fall back on! Business/Finance, Economics, Math, and English are all great undergraduate majors that you can choose and then go into architecture later. Just make sure you do some creative stuff on the side so you have something to put into your application portfolio. Good luck!