The professional undergraduate program is designed to provide an exceptional university education as well as comprehensive preparation for entry into a competitive and challenging career. Studies in architecture and other basic disciplines are undertaken in parallel throughout the five-year program. Interested students may pursue dual undergraduate degrees or minors combining their interest in architecture with fields such as business, history, fine arts, and urban planning.

The curriculum has two levels of study. The first provides a foundation of understanding on which to build a second level of advanced study. Continuous through the ten semesters of the program runs the design studio in which projects are engaged as a means for developing the skills, knowledge, understanding, and judgment to create appropriate and exemplary architectural designs.

At the end of the third year, the foundation program culminates with a studio project helping students to summarize what they have learned and transition toward the more independent studies of the advanced program. This special integrative semester is also a transition to a more knowing and mature commitment to becoming an architect.

Designed to encourage students to complete their basic education in architecture and to develop their own interests and their own professional directions, the advanced program includes elective opportunities inside and outside the School of Architecture. The program culminates with the Fifth Year Comprehensive Studio, part of the last semester of study. This final semester allows students to explore individual interests. During this time they also develop a comprehensive architectural proposal that demonstrates the full range of skills and knowledge. The proposal is required for the completion of the first professional degree in architecture.

NAAB Catalog Statement
In the United States, most state registration boards require a degree from an accredited professional degree program as a prerequisite for licensure. The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), which is the sole agency authorized to accredit US professional degree programs in architecture, recognizes two types of degrees: the Bachelor of Architecture and the Masters of Architecture. A program may be granted a five, six-year, three-year, or two-year term of accreditation, depending on its degree of conformance with established educational standards.

Masters degree programs may consist of a pre-professional undergraduate degree and a professional graduate degree, which, when earned sequentially, comprise an accredited professional education. However, the pre-professional degree is not, by itself recognized as an accredited degree.

The NAAB grants candidacy status to new programs that have developed viable plans for achieving initial accreditation. Candidacy status indicates that a program should be accredited within six years of achieving candidacy, if its plan is properly implemented.

The USC School of Architecture Bachelor of Architecture program and the Master of Architecture "+2" program are accredited by the NAAB.