Don’t Be Afraid of Architecture School—But Be Ready for the Journey

I have been an architect for over 15 years at this point, and I must say that my life in architecture school almost feels like a passing memory with all the work and family life that I do nowadays. But happen it did, and those five years of architecture education was a journey in which I obtained the foundation that I stepped on during my apprenticeship years and once I become an architect.

Why am I talking about my school life of all things? Recently, I have been able to read and interact with architecture students who have been voicing their concerns and struggles in Internet forums where architects, new graduates, and students are able to provide advice and tips to each other. From these messages, I gather that the same problems I encountered back then are still relevant today, so I thought to write down here some advice that may be of help to students who may become architects one day.

1. Taking Architecture as a Course. Architecture, as a college degree, is one of the longer educational paths that you can choose in school. It can be anywhere from 5 years or more (though some institutions do offer 4-year accelerated courses) depending on your effort, all the while contending will all your Minor Subjects added to the mix. I will not say that architecture is a “difficult” course; all career paths are hard and difficult in their own ways—what I will say is that to take architecture, you need a certain type of mindset and skills to succeed. Most will say that the skills will be drawing and artistic aptitude, but that is a secondary aspect of architecture. What is more important are Spatial Reasoning (the ability to visualize and hold that information in your mind in three dimensions), problem solving, and the ability to integrate and combine data and observations into a coherent solution. If one has a grasp of these skills, then you have the tools to make it in architecture school.

However, I would say also that one must really want to go to architecture school—and not be under any illusion that it will be an easy journey. Taking architecture should be a personal choice, not an obligation forced upon a student by others or a choice made without thinking.

working in the college library

1. Financial Considerations. Unfortunately, this is a real issue one needs to consider in architecture school. When I was in school in the 2000s, computers and laptops for architecture work were still in a relative infancy, so most of my expenses went to tracing paper, pens, rulers, and having stuff printed out. But nowadays, the expenses will now include architectural programs (like autocad and sketchup), laptops, tablets, and so on, and all these costs will pile up quickly.

2. Workload and Time Management. Architecture school has plenty of different types of work: researching, studying for tests, working on plates (or drawing), writing reaction/critical papers, presenting, and reading. For your Major Subjects, you will need time to research for whatever building type you are designing for that semester, draft plans for your design plates (plates are the term used for the architectural drawings for school), read up on architectural history and memorize building laws and architectural codes of ethics. Aside from the Majors, your Minor Subjects will also need your attention—Social Sciences, Language, Physics, and Mathematics among the many topics you need to pass to graduate. So, what to do? Time Management and awareness of deadlines are the key. Always start on the plates as early as possible, study ahead, and keep a written record of deadlines and class schedules. While a little hard to do in school, having a good number of sleep hours is a must as well—this is part of time management. (This one I should have followed more when I was in school: more sleep, fewer overnight work nights.)

3. What if Architecture School is not for you? As a final advice, a student in architecture school should also be open to the idea of moving to a different career path if your grades are falling, the workload feels heavy, and the passion is waning. Think carefully and have an objective viewpoint when analyzing your own condition and stress levels in architecture school. There is a big difference between pushing yourself to do better and you are content and satisfied when you do finish a goal versus blundering and dragging yourself to the finish line all exhausted and finding it all meaningless and just “finishing the plate to get it over with.” There is no shame in changing paths on your journey. What matters is that whatever the career you choose, it is the one that you will be content with doing over the decades.

College drafting space

If you want to read about one of my adventures (misadventures?) after architecture school, you can read about my site visit on top of the roof of a healthcare facility. But on a final note, I would say that students should enjoy the journey of learning architecture in a school setting; the real work begins in apprenticeship.

If anyone who reads this article needs some advice in this matter, feel free to email or message me anytime.

"One must really want to go to architecture school—and not be under any illusion that it will be an easy journey. Taking architecture should be a personal choice, not an obligation forced upon a student by others or a choice made without thinking."