Master of Landscape Architecture

You must hold a degree that is academically equivalent to a four-year bachelor’s degree at UBC. There is no requirement for the discipline of your previous degree. We accept students from a wide variety of academic fields.

If you have completed your degree at a Canadian or American university, you must have a B+ average in your third- and fourth-year-level coursework. If you completed your degree at an international university, you must have a B+ average in all coursework.

Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application. Tests must have been taken within the last 24 months at the time of submission of your application.

The minimum scores are:
TOEFL - 100 iBT or 600 paper based
IELTS - Overall band score of 7.0 with a minimum score of 6.5 in each component of the academic (not general) test.

While not required, you may submit GRE results as additional evidence of scholastic promise and aptitude

You must submit an online application form, complete application materials and the non-refundable application fee by the deadline of January 15.

A summary of your experiences in education, work, travel, volunteering, and other relevant areas. The maximum length is two pages, double spaced.

All MLA applicants must provide a statement (600 words maximum) that responds to the following questions:

1. Please tell us how your academic background and lived experiences have prepared you for your studies at UBC SALA.
2. Include a description of a contemporary landscape project, condition, or issue that you find compelling, and why.
3. Please elaborate on an aspect, theme or topic within landscape architecture you would like to pursue in the future.

Your portfolio is submitted digitally in your online application. The PDF can be a maximum of 20 letter-sized (8.5" x 11") pages (or 10 spreads) and must be under 10MB in size. These 20 pages do not include your cover page or table of contents.
Tip: Use 150 pixels-per-inch or even 72 ppi images, or try saving the file as a Reduced Size PDF (“Save as Other”) in Adobe Acrobat, to bring down the file size.

The intent of the portfolio is to highlight design potential and visual thinking. You should use the portfolio to showcase your interests and accomplishments, and to show how you could contribute artistically and socially to a demanding professional program.

Your portfolio should demonstrate your ability to conceptualize ideas, observations and projects in two and three dimensions through a variety of media, not just one or two. The portfolio may contain drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, installation, printmaking, ceramics, fashion design, woodworking, writing samples, and/or other media. Showing your creative process and ability to think conceptually will also provide context for your work.

You should organize your portfolio into a clearly legible, well-crafted document. The portfolio should have concise, descriptive text on each page to adequately explain the work. All text and visual material you include must be legible. Applicants with previous design degrees may show a variety of media expressing their design process and intent. In addition to text describing the overall project, you should select key images in your portfolio and include a few sentences that explain your process – both technical and conceptual – for creating that key image. We are interested in your design process, not just the finished product or image.

Your portfolio should focus mainly on your own work. If work was produced in collaboration with others, please clearly indicate your precise contribution to the submitted work and only use a maximum of 3 pages of collaborative work.

You must upload scans of official transcripts from all post-secondary institutions previously attended, including transcripts from universities attended on exchange. Uploads of unofficial transcripts will not be accepted. If you are currently completing a degree, submit your transcripts to date. In that case, UBC will not grant final confirmation of acceptance until you have submitted the final transcripts after the degree is conferred. If offered admission, you will be asked to send official transcripts in hardcopy.

If the academic records are in a language other than English or French, you must submit scans of the official transcripts in their original language and accompany them with scans of official translations.

You must arrange for three letters of reference, two of which should be academic and speak to your past performance and ability to succeed in a graduate program. Referees submit their letters through the online application system.