<p>I certainly encourage dialogue but feel that those statements were isolated by you through omission of other contingent factors I mentioned. I did mention that there are 4 year schools that have a more cohesive approach that may be more specialized so don’t do the whole transfer method. At the same time there are many schools that do accept transfers as many do here in California as part of the Master Plan.
I also spoke from personal experience as well as certain trends I’ve noticed. I’m sure you can concur that some people do change their minds when it comes to a career track. I just think if someone is still unsure that they test the waters with a two year degree. I figure within 2 years instead of 4 that such a person would better know if that is what they wanted to do. I also recommended that 2 years is a good time frame to start developing a portfolio. I understand that a BA is entry level but with a 2 year degree they could do a internship so as to get some real world experience. I believe that such an experience would benefit the person to better apply what they learned which hopefully would increase their abilities prior to graduation. One of the reasons is I feel that computers and being in the classroom environment for extended periods of time tend to isolate the individual. I’m too pragmatic and believe knowledge is useless if cannot be put to the test within real world applications.
I’m sure you can agree that becoming a whole person, in this case an architect, would best benefit a firm if incorporated both the technical and creative. Just like in architecture as well as in film, I don’t feel its merely enough to learn the software. I know many people who are technically savvy but have no depth to a fields tradition and how it came to be the way it is today.
I remember when I was doing drafting in school. I’d wake up at 6:30 be in my educational drafting classes from 8-noon and studio classes from noon to 4, go to work at 5 till 1:30 am and do it all over again 5 days a week for over a year straight. When the weekends came around I was too tired to go out partying and would just sleep. What I noticed was that many in my classes were creative duds. They didn’t know how to whip up a freehand design and only knew the software or imitating. At that time we were using CADKEY3D which I really liked even though it became obsolete in short time. I was really good at drafting exploded isometric drawings but hated drawing screws!
I still love architecture but am just the sort of person who has passion for creating something so need to feel inspired or become sort of listless. I also worked many years to develop very employable skills that just weren’t very appreciated. It left me wanting so found I much more enjoyed just drawing platt maps, slopes, and stuff like that. It didn’t have to be as perfectionist looking as much as only clearly understandable. I have hope that things will improve but find that the digital revolution has lowered the quality of the historic and artistic side of architecture as well as music, photography, and film.</p>