Harvard MArch I: Can You Use Group Work?
Harvard MArch I permits group and office projects but prefers mostly individual work. Choose useful evidence and credit your actual contribution.
Harvard MArch I: Can You Use Group Work?
Harvard GSD's MArch I permits group and office projects but strongly prefers mostly individual work. Label each collaboration and your precise contribution. Additional team projects require judgment about the portfolio's balance; a polished rendering alone does not show your contribution.
Permission and selection are different questions
Harvard GSD's MArch I FAQ strongly prefers a majority of individual projects and, if possible, no more than one group project and one office project. It leaves additional group projects to the applicant's judgment. That is a stated preference, not a rule that a second collaboration automatically disqualifies you.
GSD also asks for each project's date and academic, office or personal classification. It requires precise identification of your collaborative contribution and citations for any image or process that is not your own. These instructions concern evidence ownership, not just the portfolio's appearance.
Our recommendation: choose projects that make your decisions inspectable. Employer prestige, team size and impressive photography do not substitute for evidence of your own design contribution.
Audit every group project before including it
Make a small inventory with four columns:
| Check | What to record |
|---|---|
| Context | Academic studio, competition, employment or personal project; date and collaborators |
| Your role | Specific design decisions, investigations, drawings or models you produced |
| Shared or borrowed material | Who created the underlying design, photographs, renderings or other elements |
| Submission fit | Whether this project meets the target's instructions and adds evidence missing elsewhere |
Then examine the proposed pages, not just your project list. Can a reader identify your contribution without opening a separate CV? A useful credit line should accompany the work it explains.
For office projects, confirm permission to share the material before uploading. Credit does not resolve a confidentiality restriction. If the project cannot be shared or your role cannot be explained clearly, select another admissible example. Our confidential project guidance explains why access and assessability must be checked separately.
Worked example: a team studio with your drawings
GradPilot original example: An applicant helped develop a team housing scheme, independently tested courtyard daylight options, and produced the section drawings. A teammate made the final rendering. An honest caption could read:
Academic group studio, 2025. Scheme developed with two collaborators. My contribution: courtyard daylight comparisons and section drawings on these pages. Final rendering by the credited teammate, reproduced with permission.
Use the collaborators' actual names and the required attribution format in your own submission. If you later redraw part of the scheme independently, identify that later work and retain credit for the original collaboration. A new drawing does not make the shared design entirely yours.
The example illustrates attribution, not an ideal portfolio formula or an admissions result.
Connect the portfolio to your separate statement
First confirm which architecture degree serves your goal. Then let the statement explain what your work led you to investigate next. The field SOP examples and graduate essay hub cover that argument.
Use the general master's SOP rubric for a compatible statement through free graduate statement review. It reviews application writing, not portfolio images, design quality or permission to reproduce work.
University instructions checked September 12, 2026. Follow the current requirements for your exact degree.
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