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Major · Engineering Tech

Drawing buildings before the bricks arrive

Architectural Drafting and CAD/CADD prepares you to translate a designer’s sketch into the working drawings and BIM models a contractor can actually build from. Across 82 colleges, 715 students completed this credential last year, the bulk at community colleges and technical institutes. Median earnings five years out land near $61,244.

Schools offering
82
Annual completions
715
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$61k

About this major

Architectural Drafting and Architectural CAD/CADD prepares you to apply technical knowledge to working drawings and electronic models for buildings and related construction projects. Coursework typically covers architectural drafting conventions, blueprint reading, building materials and systems, basic structural design, rendering, and computer-aided drafting, with progressively heavier exposure to Building Information Modeling. Students spend most of their time inside Autodesk AutoCAD and Revit, supplemented by SketchUp, ArchiCAD, or Vectorworks depending on the program. The credential is, in practical terms, a software stack with construction-document literacy bolted on.

The major rewards a particular kind of mind: someone who likes resolving ambiguity into millimeter-precise documentation, who can hold a building’s logic in their head while picking a wall type, and who has the patience to chase a redline through twelve sheets without losing the thread. A baseline interest in how buildings are assembled — framing, MEP, code clearances — matters more than artistic flair. Students often arrive from drafting electives in high school, construction trades, or art-and-design backgrounds looking for a more technical lane.

Nationally, the major is small and concentrated in the trade-credential tier. The packet shows 715 completions across 82 colleges, with the largest single producer being Savannah College of Art and Design at 152 bachelor’s completions and the rest weighted toward community colleges like CUNY New York City College of Technology, Montgomery College, and CUNY Queensborough. The closest career destination, Architectural and Civil Drafters, posts a $64,280 median wage with 4.1% projected growth — modest growth that the industry’s shift to BIM is concentrating in coordination and modeling roles rather than pure 2D drafting.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Architectural and civil drafters $64k +4.1% Associate's degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$61k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$59k

Bachelor's

$72k

Who this major is for

This major fits if you would rather build the documents that get a project built than chase the design vision itself, and if the prospect of spending eight hours a day in Revit sounds like focus rather than tedium. It suits people who already enjoy the assembly logic of buildings — how a wall meets a slab, how a stair lands on a floor — and who can hold construction tolerances and code rules in mind while modeling. The data points to two clean entry routes: a community-college associate’s like the ones at Montgomery College or Portland Community College, or a longer bachelor’s at a design-forward school like SCAD. If your target job is Architectural and Civil Drafter at the $64,280 median wage, the shorter credential plus Autodesk Certified Professional certifications is often enough to get hired.

Reconsider this route if your actual goal is to be a licensed architect — that path runs through a NAAB-accredited B.Arch under a different CIP, not this one. Pause as well if you find software workflows draining rather than absorbing, because the day-to-day is largely model management, sheet setup, and coordination cycles. The field is also actively reshaping under BIM and generative-design tools, so a student who only wants to learn 2D AutoCAD is heading toward the part of the market with the weakest growth. Finally, the bachelor’s-vs-associate’s wage gap in this dataset is roughly $13,600 — real, but smaller than in many four-year majors, so weigh the extra two years against earlier entry into the workforce.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Architectural Drafting and Architectural CAD/CADD

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah, GA 0 152 152
CUNY New York City College of Technology Brooklyn, NY 78 0 78
Montgomery College Rockville, MD 36 0 36
CUNY Queensborough Community College Bayside, NY 34 0 34
Academy of Art University San Francisco, CA 0 23 23
Anne Arundel Community College Arnold, MD 23 0 23
Portland Community College Portland, OR 22 0 22
Island Drafting and Technical Institute Amityville, NY 20 0 20
Metropolitan Community College Area Omaha, NE 16 0 16
Kirkwood Community College Cedar Rapids, IA 16 0 16
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Drafting and Design Technology/Technician, General

1,386 completions/yr

CAD/CADD Drafting and/or Design Technology/Technician

701 completions/yr

Mechanical Drafting and Mechanical Drafting CAD/CADD

353 completions/yr

Drafting/Design Engineering Technologies/Technicians, Other

47 completions/yr

Civil Drafting and Civil Engineering CAD/CADD

44 completions/yr

Electrical/Electronics Drafting and Electrical/Electronics CAD/CADD

30 completions/yr

3-D Modeling and Design Technology/Technician

14 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What do Architectural Drafting and CAD/CADD majors actually do day-to-day?
You produce the construction documents that turn a designer’s concept into something a contractor can price and build. That means floor plans, sections, elevations, and details in AutoCAD, plus 3D models in Revit or ArchiCAD with door schedules, wall types, and clash checks attached. The Bureau of Labor Statistics groups this work under Architectural and Civil Drafters, with a $64,280 median wage and a typical Associate’s degree as the entry point. Expect markup cycles, redlines, and a lot of coordination with engineers and project managers.
Will this major make me a licensed architect?
No. Architect licensure in the US runs through a NAAB-accredited B.Arch or M.Arch under CIP 04.0201 plus the AXP internship and the ARE exam. Architectural Drafting and CAD/CADD (CIP 15.1303) is a technician credential, not a path to the title "Architect." If your goal is licensure, treat this as either a stepping-stone job while you work toward an accredited architecture degree or a deliberate alternative path into the construction-documents side of the industry.
Is the associate’s worth it, or is a certificate enough?
Many employers will hire on a community-college certificate plus demonstrable AutoCAD and Revit fluency, especially if you hold an Autodesk Certified Professional credential. The two-year associate’s adds construction documents, building codes, and structural basics that round you into a more useful junior hire. In this dataset the associate’s-completer cohort earns about $58,689 against $72,318 for the bachelor’s cohort, so the bachelor’s premium exists but is not enormous given the extra time and cost. The honest answer: pick the shortest credential that gets you a portfolio and a job interview, then keep stacking certifications.
How is BIM and AI changing this field?
The industry has largely moved off pure 2D drafting and onto Building Information Modeling, where Revit models carry data the whole project team coordinates against. Generative-design and AI-assisted tools like Autodesk Forma and TestFit are pushing the work further toward modeling intent, clash detection, and coordination rather than keystroke-level line drawing. The ladder runs Drafter → BIM Technician → BIM Coordinator → BIM Manager, and the ceiling is meaningfully higher for people who own the modeling-and-data side, not just the drafting side. The 4.1% projected growth for Architectural and Civil Drafters reflects that mix — flat for pure drafters, healthier for BIM-fluent ones.
Where do graduates actually end up working?
Typical destinations include architecture firms, engineering consultancies, general contractors with in-house VDC teams, residential design studios, and municipal planning departments. The dataset shows training concentrated at community colleges like Montgomery College, Portland Community College, and CUNY Queensborough, plus art-and-design schools like Savannah College of Art and Design and Academy of Art University, which signals two distinct hiring pipelines: technical-college graduates moving into mid-size firms and GCs, and art-school graduates moving toward design-forward studios. Junior titles include Drafter, CAD Technician, Junior BIM Modeler, and Design Coordinator.
What about Civil Drafting or Mechanical Drafting instead?
They are siblings under the same CIP family. Civil Drafting and Civil Engineering CAD/CADD (15.1304) feeds infrastructure work — roads, sites, utilities — and pairs with Civil 3D rather than Revit. Mechanical Drafting and Mechanical Drafting CAD/CADD (15.1306) leans toward manufacturing and product design, mostly in SolidWorks or Inventor. If you like buildings and the construction-document workflow, Architectural is the right pick; if you like infrastructure or products, the siblings will frustrate you less.