<p>I posted this somewhere before, but got very few replies. So here goes.</p>
<p>I'm interested in architecture, but from personal experience working in cosntruction/arch that it means nothing to know how to design when you don't know how it will work. That's why I'm looking into dual degree programs for arch/archeng. I've looked around, and have found only one undergrad program. This is at UT Austin, where they offer an integrated dual degree arch archeng professional program, giving you a BSE and Barch. I'm looking for programs like this.</p>
<p>Now here's a few issues.
I know UT offers an integrated dual degree. I'm assuming this will allow students to intertwine both studues somehow, as oppsoed to taking two different sets of courses for each major. Would you find this kind of thing in Princeton, say a undergrad Barch and BSE?</p>
<p>What's a dual degrre program as opposed to a dual major?</p>
<p>Essentially, I'd like to find out which colleges offer any sort of dual degree program for arch/archeng.</p>
<p>You already have your answer for Princeton in that thread. The Princeton undergraduate architecture program is not a professional program, hence you won't get a B. Arch. </p>
<p>A double major is usually two majors within one school - sortof like having two concentrations of study in one degree. A dual degree is two different degrees - though of course many courses will double count. Each school has their own definition of the two, so you might want to look it up specifically for that school.</p>
<p>Construction. I am an architect and I know how things are built but I didn't learn that in architecture school--I learned it from builders and tradesmen on the jobsites--starting with my apprenticeships, right through to this week on the site of my new apartment tower that is under construction. (Tower Cran! Wooot!) I have to say that learning process has been a gas. I have loved working with all the men I've met over the years--all the incredible craftspeople and engineers.</p>
<p>When kids work in construction as high school students, they tend to pick up a very negative attitude about the value of Art in Architecture--or the value of design in a higher sense. This is a very common reaction unfortunately--and one of the reasons that the elite architecture schools can be wary of such experiences.</p>
<p>I don't know how open-minded you are but I can assure you that you will need as many semesters of intense design training that you can possibly get if you want to design great buildings and build your wealth at the same time. For this reason, I tend to advise students to avoid any thought of a 'double-degree'. Focus on the architecture and take a smattering of other classes as your electives allow. </p>
<p>Construction is a fascinating field, but it does not require a university education, IMO, unless you intend to be a Construction Manager the day you graduate. I say that as someone who has built some extraordinary structures on my own and as an apprentice who worked on some record breaking structures that were designed by famous architects and engineers. I have a friend who went to VaTech for Construction Management and she is the Construciton Manager for a Fortune 500 Company. She is involved in design but she is not a deisgner.</p>
<p>If you want to design buldlings as an architect, try to suspend judgement until you get a bit further down the track and understand a bit more about the profession by finding a 5 or 6 year architecture program that you like. Then jump in.</p>
<p>*By the way, one of the reasons that you have been taught that architects are not valuable is prehaps because the architects working with those contractors were not collaborative. Remember that when you get out of archtiecture school. There is tremendous class resentment on a construciton work site and many architects make it worse with their arrogance. Me--I've always found it improves the Art and Architecture if I include the brains of the guys on site.</p>
<p>I didn't mean to offend, I didn't mean to say that architects aren't important, its just from personal experience that I feel having the engineering aspect is a great asset. By the way, the construction company I worked in wasn't just build cut and sqaure, meaning, we often had to formulate designs, and on more than a few jobs, it was pretty aesthetic-intensive. We're just not about drywall and framing and EIFS, but I myself have come up with designs where some innovation is required.</p>
<p>I've already looked into the situation with construction management....and its not going to do it for me. </p>
<p>I understand that colleges want to mold you according to their design principles. So, they'd rather start with a "fresh" you...</p>
<p>To butress what Cheers is saying, anything but design in college will be a distraction. You will have several semesters of engineering anyway. You don't seem to be interested construction management. Not to be condescending but without having taken several semesters of design at a good college, you really don't understand what the conceptual ideas are that go into good design. It is not just solving problems, it is about ideas. My suggestion is to focus on architecture and work in construction during the summers. It will be very important for you to understand how to bridge the gap between high design and construction. Again, Cheers is correct, the best teachers of construction are those tradespeople that are actually performing the work.</p>
<p>Hi construction, WashU has this great program in their architecture curriculum where the students take on actual construction projects with their professor in the neighboring communities.</p>