<p>Hey guys, I was just wondering what the average academic course load of a typical architecture major usually is? How many credits do you guys usually sign up for each semester? How many hours do you usually spend on classes including studio?
Any particular studying strategies you guys want to share?</p>
<p>One more question: has anyone ever quit their extracurricular activities because of their course load?</p>
<p>it really depends on the program…i know at Notre Dame, the first semester is spent getting general requirements out of the way and they save the real studio for Second Year (they have drafting second semester), but I think at Syracuse you start studio right away and get your requirements done along the way. In order to stay in architecture school, you have to have good time management because studios are somewhere around 4 hours, 3 days a week (and are double the credit of a normal class) and you have to spend more time to work in studio when classes are not in session. If you manage your time, you should be able to get a good amount of extracurricular’s in, but architecture is a very time demanding major.</p>
<p>Thxs, Hawk. Do you attend Notre Dame?</p>
<p>I will in one week! I do know a good amount about the program and I have sat in on some studio classes while I visited. If you are considering them, send me a private message, and I can let you know how the school year goes and such. But definitely take a tour if it is on your list…the campus is absolutely amazing.</p>
<p>sry to be off-topic, but was it true that they looked at your parents’ bank statement to make sure you were able to pay for all 4 years in order for acceptance? i ask this because I took off Notre Dame from my list because they told me that 4 years amount was needed.</p>
<p>I have never heard such a thing…ND is need blind in acceptance. All their departments run independent so admissions never sees any of the financial information. My parents never submitted any financial aid forms, and I was accepted. But ND is need-blind and according to what I have been told, money has nothing to do with acceptance (unless maybe your a legacy who gives a lot of it - this happens everywhere), and they give 100% of your demonstrated need according to their information. Again, I didn’t qualify for any, but that is how it is supposed to work. Maybe if you ask that question on the ND page, you may get more responses from people who use it.</p>
<p>Solarprincess, One thing my s found helpful when he was looking at schools and their programs is to go online into each of the arch departments and look at their websites. Somewhere in there, most of them will have a curriculum breakdown/checklist for students to see. Most schools will require you to complete the core requirements, i. e. English, History, etc., but if you have taken any AP classes and do well on the exams (4+ score), you can test out of those. Here is a link to Virginia Tech’s curriculum breakdown for the 5 yr. BArch to get an idea of what I mean. Hope it helps and good luck to you!</p>
<p><a href=“http://archdesign.vt.edu/images/ARCH.2011.pdf[/url]”>http://archdesign.vt.edu/images/ARCH.2011.pdf</a></p>
<p>I know it sounds odd, but take APs in subjects that you don’t really like along with those that you do. I have a friend of mine who took AP Calc BC even though he hates math, but the studied for it and got a 5 and now doesn’t have to take any math in college. Trust me, APs are easier than college classes, so use them as ways to avoid the ones in college…if only I had thought about that, I wouldn’t be taking English!</p>
<p>my daughter is an Environmental Design major - college of architecture at Texas A&M. She is taking 13 hours her first semester - 2 studio design courses, 1 studio lab. Business Math and Political Science.
She AP’ed out of English, took dual credit history and biology - but A&M requires a 4 on AP Calculus for any math credit and she made a 3 - so she’s taking math<br>
She has a lighter load for her first two years because of the credits she received through dual & AP. The course work for ENDs will be the same lenght of time because of the way the courses are layed out for the program. Somewhat frustrating, at A&M it will take 6 years to complete the requirements to be an Architect, first receiveing a BS in Enviromental Design then Masters in Architecture.</p>
<p>A&M has a new degree offered through the College of Archtiecture - BS Visualization. It is a pretty cool degree plan, previously only a Masters was available. Students have worked directly with Pixar, DreamWorks, and Disney Animation Studios on several of the recently released antimated movies.
(I secretly hope my daughter will move into this area of the College of Architecture)</p>
<p>At Cornell it looks like this right now: you have first year core architecture classes from 12 to 4 everyday, and everything else you want to take basically has to be a morning or evening class, and you’re supposed to sign up for two non-architecture classes a semester. When I was registering, I was a little disheartened that so many classes conflicted with my AAP classes, but I still found decent ones in the end.</p>