What would I have to do to go to college for civil engineering and then major in architecture? I like both, and people have done it before. My idea is that I would be able to design the building with the structure in mind and do cool things with experience in both fields.
So what, exactly would I do in college? Take all my classes for civil engineering obviously, but what about architecture? Do I register for several architecture classes?
I also chose civil engineering over architecture major for the reason that if I don’t end up liking architecture, I’ll have civil engineering to go back to. It also has a higher salary, and is quite interesting.
I majored in architectural engineering, because I wanted to concentrate on building design. I had to take a couple of architectural design classes. At UT-Austin, it is possible to do a dual major - Arch. E. plus Architecture. I knew only one student who did that, and he said it was brutal. There are several schools around the country that offer the Arch. E. major. Kansas, Kansas State, Penn State, UT, etc.
My strong recommendation would be to pick one field or the other. They are VERY different! If you want to be a structural engineer, you should take as many design classes as possible (concrete, masonry, steel, wood, prestressed concrete, etc.). If you want to be an architect, concentrate on that as an undergraduate. There’s a lot more to being an architect than drawing pretty pictures. Flashing, egress requirements, etc. I really can’t emphasize enough how different these fields are. I got almost all As in engineering. I barely got a C in one of my architectural design classes! I’m not artistic at all. And architects who think they can design beams scare me - they think they just have to look for a size in a table! Ack.