Vado is right. Your professors are just professors -- human beings in other words. People make it like they are porcelain gods.

But one thing I also found is that you never want to bore them with interminable technical computer jargon on how you produced images. It's insufferable and it undermines everything your colleagues do and what you learn.

I also agree with Sarah about the note taking for friends and colleagues. And also about critiquing the work of one another. In many cases it helps more than an official crit.

Acting irrationally at 3 in the morning is perfectly acceptable. Here is an actual picture of my friend Dan demonstrating the maximum level of irrationality:



**Note. Picture taken for Integrative Systems Presentation. No urinals were harmed in the making of this photograph.

yes, exactly. this is also why i think it's important to work in the studio and not @ home.

always rummage through the trash/recycling to find good model material... you'd be surprised how much useful shit people just throw away

I will second Cris's advice. Work in the studio. Always. The "studio culture" is the source of the vast majority of the learning that will occur in the next several years. Get used to it, and embrace it.

drinking red wine near final models / drawings is never a good idea

That is, unless the studio stinks because people haven't been showering.

Consider getting an extra locker that you can share with your closest friends. This is a great place to stash things like Whiskey, Scotch, Gin, Tobacco Products, etc. And always remember that nothing calms the nerves like a little johnny walker.

glue a bunch of sweets together then hollow them out to fit over a box of wine.

Craft in your model is extremely important.

rfuller:

props to your buddy for crapping in the BA urinal, not the in Arch building...my nasal cavity thanks him

ryanj, what year are you, or are you alum?

3rd year MArch/MBA. I'll start my thesis research this fall, y tu?

3rd year undergrad...well about to start 4th year with Colab.

I forgot to agree with Cris. So yeah, I will also agree that working in the studio rather than at the house is a much better experience.

I can never work at home anyway.

Cool.

If you can I recommend an internship or study abroad over colaboration studio. Feel free to e-mail if you've got any questions on the program, grad school, etc.

Well, I also recommend internship or study abroad, but I got Colab when the lotto came up last year.

Here's another note to new students. Lottery type systems that pick classes for you REALLY SUCK. The best part about them, is there's no accountability from the administrators when they implement such things. Neat, huh?

I know you'll soon be drinking so much alcohol that the brain cells soaking up all this advise will soon be dead. So, no advise from me.

yes please don't cry.

never use excuses such as: "I ran out of time..."
"It was late..."
"If only I had more time..."


suck it up

Oh, and never, ever under any circumstances bring family to crits. Studio is like Fight Club, the outside world really does not want or need to know about it and having them around makes you look like a bitch (if your wife helped you get your shit together though and bring it to studio, she can stay, but no parents.)

Nah, not even the wife. We stay out of each other's crits. We'll bring each other food and supplies, but having some one close to you watching you receive new assholes is hard/awkward for everyone.

And just so we're clear, I don't care what firm your dad is the principle architect at. That doesn't make you a good designer. Quit telling everyone about it. And no, you're not better than anyone else around you regardless of your background. Shitting out CAD work on the cheap for your dad only means you can hangout in the corner with the old man who has his associates in drafting from the local community college. You guys go make fun of everyone while they try to get caught up on their ACAD.

If you don't watch out, all the pretending to be too good for the lectures will catch up to you. Sure, you can crack out CAD in your sleep, but will you be too good to listen to the lectures on Design as well? I sure hope so.

take notes during lectures. they are useful when studying for midterms/finals, esp. when there is no memory of ever being in class.

in one of my spring studios, my professor made us partner up with someone before each crit, switch sketchbooks, and take notes on that partners crit for them. worked great. that way you didn't have to write down things as you get your ass torn.

Where you get your supplies...find out if there is a discount invovled...

lol

These are so true that they're funny. I had a classmate of mine always bring his wife, and his insufferably annoying children with him to all his crits. He was lame like that anyway.

Another think not to say during a crit... "I just did this model last night..." or "I just did this drawing last night..." or "I stayed up all night..."

And one thing we were beaten to death with. Never use an apology of ANY sort to begin your discussion.

i would go one step further and say don't apologize at all. if you call attention to a weak part of your project, expect them to talk about it. if you don't mention it, they may not even notice it.

i love in my first year materials class, 5 students were like "that was due today??" and one other was like "i didn't know we even had to build a model".

wow

Vado - my first major was European Film History. It took me years to get over the unatural facination with French New Wave. Now its just New Wave for me.

I am so guilty of being apologetic during crits, even though i never really need to be, luckily i've never gotten a real duche on my jury and I haven't apologized for anything since first year..

That said, don't be afraid to crit yourself regarding your design but always maintain the fact that you do have a good, if flawed project (and every project has flaws). Playing Capitan Ego and pretending your project is the shit and defending it to the death, despite the fact it sucks is a huge no-no. "Be humble and confident at the same time." A great way to avoid the low-hanging fruit paradox is to crit yourself and disarm the jury before they can attack. The absolute best way to do this is humor.

Buy one of those yellow ink erasers. You will be the most popular kid in studio.

Some other phrases you should never say in a crit -
"I sort of"
"I kind of"
"I wanted to"
"Like" an inordinate amount of times

Definitely put your drawings up on the wall the night or day before a review. You will either be stunned by their beauty or frightened by the amount of errors you find. It's easier to just fix it the night before than to have to explain why that one part of your section "looks funny" in front of all the reviewers and your peers day of the review.

do you know if there are any videos of people being critiqued?

apurimac,

your suggestion to crit yourself to disarm the jury before they can attack you during the crit is a great idead and reminds me of that 8mile movie. remember when eminem rapped about hiself during the last battle of the movie so that the other guy couldn't talk shit? worked for eminem

always mess with their minds.

r-fuller: great comment, so true. I totally went to school with those two tool-boxes.

newbies: work hard, drop all your assumptions about what architecture is all about, and lose your ego. at least for the first semester...it's sort of like boot camp where they break you down just to build you back up new. Change is painful, but worth it if architecture is for you.

so many good comments so far...

do not throw a football around studio... especially when drunk... it will end very badly for someone's model...

if you drop your xacto knife, just let it go... don't try to catch it... and make sure your feet are out of the way... (another reason to always wear shoes in the studio)...

chopper... definitely get a chopper...

do not schedule your calculus class right after studio... you will never go to class and you will fail...

zap-a-gap really burns if it gets in your eye...

always work in studio... this can't be stressed enough...

when you need a break... go walk around other studios to see what is going on... don't be afraid to ask other people about their projects... especially people that are ahead of you in the program...

go to all of the lectures in your school's lecture series... i didn't see the point for the first few years and missed out on some great lectures...

Almost ALL first year student forget to put doors or windows in their drawings. Don't do that.

Also, remember to cut holes in your model floors at the tops of stairs.

Always poche on the BACK of your drawings.

sunsetsam, you can watch a final review from an mit (march first year I believe) on itunesU. IMO, the work kind of sucked, and the crits didnt really say anything.

yeh, i personally crushed someone's model throwing a ball around the studio... it was a really delicate one with a bunch of 1/32" bass sticks... it was like slow motion... following the bouncing ball as the person that the ball was intended for stretched to try to save it... and then the model fell to the floor and smashed into hundreds of little pieces... i tried to help the girl piece it back together... but there was really no help... she actually dropped out of architecture during the next semester (which was also the last before graduating)...

Reason number one to work at home if you have the space and facilities. Unless, of course, you like drunk jackasses who are wasting time destroying what you are actually working on.

if someone broke a model of mine, there'd be a nice puddle of blood on the model shortly thereafter

i wish i realized these when i was a student, those old days, can't wait to go to graduate school and kick some ass..

i wonder what percentage of architects are missing fingers...

i imagine my reaction would be: ouch. aw shit, there's blood all over my model!

i'd be lashing someone with my 18" metal ruler if they broke something i spent soo much time on

I'm not currently attending, but just reading about those catastrophies boils my blood. Makes me wonder how the builder handled it.

I had a prof. that was missing a finger, most of his middle finger to knuckle closest to the hand. He also looked remarkable like the long haired guy in Big Lebowski.

SH, do you mean the Dude?

i think she was talking about smokey (jimmie dale gilmore)

mark it 8, dude.