A traditional liberal arts education prepares students for a complex world by instilling a wide array of knowledge as a foundation for life-long learning. Students can draw from this experience and tackle novel issues far better than someone without this skillset.

ACBA has taken this principle and focused it on craftsmanship and the built environment. The result is an educated artisan - someone who can be tasked with creating custom work tailored to the customer's wishes.

Most colleges have a slate of required general education courses that may feel substantially removed from a student's field. ACBA has integrated its required coursework to be directly applicable to the trades. For example, rather than two semesters of "a science," ACBA students take two semesters of material science that focuses on why building materials fail and how to properly care for them. Rather than fulfilling a general "history" requirement with something like Western Civ, ACBA students take two semesters of architectural history. This approach goes across the board for all of our general education courses. Please refer to the College Catalog for more detailed course information.

Anyone can follow a recipe well enough to cook a respectable meal - but that doesn't make you a chef. ACBA trains its students to become chefs within their trades. ACBA students learn to think outside the box, invent creative solutions to novel problems, and have the skillset to follow through. No matter the style, materials, or setting, ACBA students can find a workable solution to custom problems.

While there are many very capable trade schools with competent faculty, ACBA takes this to another level. Many of our faculty are European craftsmen who have achieved master craftsmen status in their respective countries. Our students go through a highly rigorous curriculum that produces artisans who typically enter their fourth year with multiple job offers in hand.

It is true that you can learn how to become a craftsman by apprenticing or attending a trade school. The problem with those approaches is that, most of the time, you're trained on what is equivalent to a paint-by-numbers approach. Apprentices are very good at reproducing products, but the moment a client wants something that requires deviation from the pattern, they are lost. A cook is only as good as the recipe, a chef can roll with the punches.

Tuition and Fees

Tuition: $9,936 per semester

Shop Fees: $350 per semester

Matriculation Deposit: $300 (applied to Fall tuition bill)

Application Fee: $50

Graduation Fee: $100

Part-time Tuition: $828 per credit hour description

For more information, please visit: Financial Aid

An ACBA education prepares its graduates for multiple career paths. The simplest is that you leave as a college graduate and now all of those jobs that require a four-year degree are open to you.

In addition, you leave as a journeyman-level craftsmen - as ACBA looks to the respective trade groups to see how they define a journeyman in their profession. Typically groups like ABANA or the Timber Framers Guild produce requirements that a craftsman should be able to complete to be considered at that level. ACBA ensures its curriculum satisfies all of those requirements.

You're also a very competent project manager. While many are aware of the huge need for tradesmen in the US, few have thought about the managers on those sites. Right now, companies are hiring business majors who have no experience building anything to manage job sites simply because there aren't craftspeople with four-year degrees. ACBA puts its students through an entire managerial sequence, and our trade classes establish a huge portfolio of work that will set you up to move quickly upward along the corporate ladder.

Don't take our word for it, check the Bureau of Labor Statistics projections over the next five to 10 years as the last of the Baby Boomers enter retirement. There is a looming shortfall, and all the US is currently doing is training the very low end of the ladder and praying those folks show enough promise to move up. ACBA, even at maximum capacity, cannot hope to fill the enormous need in this country.

One anecdotal example was a recent campus visit by managers in the Office of the Architect of the US Capitol. Three representatives met with ACBA students to encourage them to apply for openings they have throughout all of the trade areas. This is the office that takes care of some of the most important buildings in our nation (the Capitol, Supreme Court, National Botanical Gardens), and they are coming in-person to pitch job opportunities to our students. Their current workforce is scheduled to be more than 70% eligible for retirement by 2026, with not enough craftspeople in the pipeline to take their places.

ACBA submits past alumni classes for employment verification on an annual basis. In our most recent annual report, 89% (81 out of 91) alumni were employed within their field of study.

ACBA submits graduation charts through a few different mediums. The National Center for Education Statistics uses a system called IPEDS, and ACBA is available here.

ACBA also offers students the ability to take an Associate degree which some opt into during their time at the College. Because students opt into the degree path shortly before they graduate, it almost always maintains a 100% graduation rate.

It's a really hard decision that comes down to your personal preference. Each trade area has a unique personality, yet there is something for everyone in each trade. We encourage you to visit the campus in person and see for yourself the work the students have done and to speak with them in person.

The admissions cycle normally closes at the end of May with classes beginning the following August. This is to allow students an appropriate amount of time to find housing, meet with financial aid, and get everything situated before the semester.

Students are encouraged to adhere to this deadline, but please reach out to our Admissions Office to see if any spaces remain available.