studying architecture at Case

<p>DD just got accepted. She is very interested in architecture as a career. She did not limit herself to accredited B Arch programs (though she has gotten into one, RPI) as she feels she can still get an M Arch later, and she wants to explore. It is important to her to have a school that has enough Arch for her to get a better idea if she likes it, and to maybe point her towards a vaguely arch type job before grad school (well she doesnt say this last, but I think strongly its a good idea before getting a Masters degree)</p>

<p>I note that Case has a pre-arch major, but no Arch departmen. The courses are mainly art historyish, though they do promise studio experience. A double major is required for pre-archs at Case, and DD might do Civil E in combination. She is more techy-problem solving focused than artsy (though at this point she says she does NOT want to be an engineer) </p>

<p>Any feedback on the Case pre-arch program is appreciated. Esp on issues in combining it with Civil.</p>

<p>Talk to someone before you go:</p>

<p>Civil engineering major: 129 credit hours
Pre-architecture: 30 credit hours</p>

<h1>of credit hours that overlap: 18</h1>

<p>total = 141 credit hours or more than 17 1/2 average hours per semester to graduate in 4 years.</p>

<p>Keep in mind engineering will have a fair bit of labs (which usually require more work than the #of credits suggest) and I would think (although I’m just guessing here) studio work might be the same.</p>

<p>That just seems like a lot to HAVE to do every semester (think of her senior year when she’ll have senior project and stuff), but I would talk to someone in both departments about it before you make any decisions.</p>

<p>I’m not sure if you could get a minor in CivilE with a pre-architecture major, that might be worth looking into.</p>

<p>would AP help with that? She got a 5 on BC Calc last year, and is currently taking AP English, AP Govt, AP Japanese.</p>

<p>At best that would put her at about 16 hours a semester.
Technically isn’t a “full time” courseload 12 hours?
It’s not undoable. You know her better than any of us. How’s she doing with the rigor of her senior year courseload?</p>

<p>I think the best approach would be to actually speak to both pre-arch and Civil Eng faculty, and see what they suggest. I mean EVERYONE who does pre-arch at Case has a to have a double major, if I am reading their website correctly, and Civil E is such a natural one, I cannot believe this hasn’t come up before.</p>

<p>12 credits hours is the MINIMUM to still be a full-time student. Taking just 12 hours is pretty rare (unless you have an artificially low number of hours because you’re working on your senior project or something).</p>

<p>This is the student handbook, very useful link</p>

<p><a href=“Division of Student Affairs | Case Western Reserve University”>http://studentaffairs.case.edu/handbook/doc/handbook0607.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Her Calc BC would give her 4 credits, a 4 or 5 on English and Gov would give her 3 credits each. Japanese is not mentioned, I would ask someone at undergraduate studies about it because Spanish you can receive 3 or 6 credits (for a score of 3 or 4,5 respectively).</p>

<p>we visited. We were favorably impressed with the general atmosphere and the student body. And liked Cleveland more than we expected. Unfortunately we did not get the impression the pre-arch major is serious, at least not the way DD wants. We also got the impression that structural engineering is not particularly “hands on”. At this point, I can’t see her picking Case, unless we determine that we cannot afford Lehigh, and even then I think she would lean to RPI. Still we come away with a broad favorable impression of CRWU, and we wish all who go there well.</p>