<p>My son is a freshman Arch student at the Univ of Cincinnati. From what he has told me, all the stories about the long hours are true. However, the work/time involved has not bothered him. So far his GPA is 3.4. Last week though, he told me that he is sure that he wants to transfer out of Arch. He says that it is not what he had envisioned, and "hates it." The DAAP department at UC also offers an Industrial Design major. This is where my son is headed. He has been hanging around the ID studios in the little free time that he has, and loves the things they are doing. He says that it fascinates him.</p>
<p>Arch track was 6 years (4 for undergrad + 2yr master's). New track is 5 years, plus the year he is in now....still equals 6 years. UC curriculum offers tons of co-op opportunities for both majors.</p>
<p>It's a big move......any thoughts (both pro & con) on his proposed major change?</p>
<p>If your son uses the term ‘hates it’ for architecture studio, then he should listed to his instincts and try something else. My daughter has a mech engineering/product design degree from Stanford and is currently on a fellowship in Germany working for a very cool industrial design group in Aachen. The coop program at UC sounds great because this is a very small field and the challenge is getting your first job, any experience would be very valuable.</p>
<p>D applied to Syracuse with first choice School of Architecture (SOA) and second choice School of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA). VPA houses fine arts, interior and industrial design as well as theater, etc. She has been accepted into VPA, Interior and Environmental Design–according to the acceptance letter, because the faculty was impressed with her portfolio.</p>
<p>Of course, she is still waiting on other schools, but I spent some time looking into what she has been offered and confess to being pretty impressed with the Syracuse Design program, where in 2012 Industrial Design is ranked #3 and Interior Design #10, as well as Architecture #7. </p>
<p>(Many thanks here and now to Rick for his advice to anyone considering any of these fields to purchase the DI Ranking. I agree wholeheartedly that it is money very-well spent.)</p>
<p>According to the Syracuse website, all industrial, interior and environmental design majors take a common first year curriculum. At the end of that year, they declare their majors. Also, according to the website, SOA does take internal transfers who meet their GPA and portfolio criteria.</p>
<p>So, in order to help advise DD, should she consider Syracuse more carefully than she appears to be doing? (She snobbishly detests the thought of interior design.) I think Industrial Design is a fascinating career and if she in unsuccessful with an internal transfer into SOA at the end of freshman year, she can feel proud about graduating from the Syracuse Industrial Design program! Then, if she is still, interested, she can apply for a M.Arch. Sounds like a great combo to me!</p>
<p>Any reflections on this from professionals in either industry?</p>
<p>mom5kids—I’m not a professional but want to throw in my 2 cents. My d looked into ID seriously. When in hs, she took summer college programs in architecture, product design and engineering. She couldn’t make up her mind between aerospace engineering, architecture and product design. After her experience at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she learned that the conceptual way of thinking about designing objects was totally different than how she thought about spaces. It could be that your d instinctively prefers one over the other. </p>
<p>It will be interesting to hear Rick’s response to this.</p>
<p>ID and Architecture have a lot of things in common in terms of the studio culture… I would suggest the OP provides some more details of the ‘hates it’ part because there may be a big overlap between the two in terms of amount of work, type of project work, theory vs practice, etc.</p>
<p>I think the professional practice of architecture and industrial design can be quite different, but for me design is design. When I have the opportunity on projects I love to design custom light fixtures, door pulls, reception desks, conference room tables, bathroom vanities, pretty much anything the owner is willing to pay for. There are project types where it is about shaping the internal spaces, but designing a high rise building is pretty much a sculptural issue at an urban scale and not greatly different than any other sculptural pursuit. I would also think that architecture and industrial design share a similar studio culture.</p>
<p>The thing that makes architecture a little different is the cultural link that in carries. A study of the history of architecture is a study of the development of culture and civilization. This background has a value, which is why so many prominent industrial designers have been architects.</p>