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Difference between Architecture student and other fields student??

Seating in front of my drafting table i was just thinking of my past architecture studies and life...submissions,those late night studies , eleventh our model making , running for plotting , xeroxing the journals , computer failure before the day of submissions....that is amazing..but whats the different between us and the other students like medical or engineering students? what do u think?? is there any difference?

http://architecturalguidance.blogspot.com/

 
Sep 19, 08 9:53 am
weem_of_crete

Depends if you're talking grad or undergrad. At the undergrad level, arch students have it worse. Pre-med students can be found playing frisbee on the lawn while arch students weld their fingers together with Zap-A-Gap. At the graduate level, it's probably equally bad. However, medical and engineering students can look forward to high salaries when they graduate, while arch students are in it mostly for love. Arch students have more of a personality than engineering students, and are less sociopathic and passive-aggressive. Med students often are more personable than arch students, although there are some dorky doctors out there.

Sep 19, 08 11:28 am  · 
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marmkid

i dont know if architecture students ever have it worse than med students
i know they think they have it worse than anyone else out there, but that really isnt the case

it all depends on what you think is having it bad

if you dont like spending a lot of hours on projects and drawings and models, you probably shouldnt go to arch school

I think if you look at it just on a number of hours schedule, maybe you can claim that arch students have it worse in undergrad
but seriously, when an undergrad is in the studio claiming to have been there for 24 straight hours, are those 24 hours actually spent working straight through?
i seriously doubt it

pre-med students might just get their work done in a more focused amount of time, allowing them to play frisbee

i dont think arch students are ever considered "efficient workers" by any means



i know i would blow my brains out if i had to memorize tons of medical jargon and read through millions of journals in school
yet i could sit at my drafting table and draw for 10+ hours consistently and love it

and i think you would have the exact opposite view from med-students



honestly i dont think there is much difference between any sort of higher education, as long as its something you love, it wont seem terrible
or at least it shouldnt

Sep 19, 08 2:25 pm  · 
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marmkid

i would also argue that architecture students have more fun with their work in school than compared with out of school, since in school you dont have to worry about client wants, budget, buildability (to a degree), artistic expression, etc

med students i would think have more fun once out of school and when they are doctors, since they are actually then doing what they want, helping people



so you have to look at it that way as well

i'd love to be able to sit at my desk for 3+ years again (in grad school) and have a couple different crazy design projects that i had total freedom on
its hard to realize how much fun that is when you are in school

Sep 19, 08 2:27 pm  · 
 · 
Synergy

Man weem_of_crete, how long have you had to repeat that to yourself to actually convince yourself it is true?

##News Flash##

Architects aren't inherently the hardest working people in the world, and architects aren't the most passionate about their work either, they are just people, like everyone else. There are highly devoted architects and architecture students, but this is true of every other field too. Get over yourself.

By the way, passive aggressive? is that something like the unsolicited snipes at Engineers in your post?

Sep 19, 08 2:39 pm  · 
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marmkid

and i really would love to stop hearing architects woe-is-me for having a lower salary than doctors or engineers

if you honestly thought that you would be earning big bucks instantly while in school, you were an idiot and the fact you wasted your education when all you wanted was a big salary after graduation makes you look even dumber



and another thing
do engineers and med students regularly not actually finish their assignments when they have a deadline in school?
in both undergrad and grad, there would always be at least 1 or 2, sometimes 5-6 people who wouldnt present because they "werent happy" with their work and needed more time

yet they were allowed to continue on to the next studio with their incomplete

that i imagine does not happen in med school, and i am annoyed it happens in arch school
as someone who actually paced his work to actually be finished on time, i got really annoyed at those who didnt
yes, i would have loved to spend an extra 30 hours working on my front elevation, but if its to the detriment of the actual project and means i would have nothing else, i would space it out and work on the entire project so i could present

its not complicated, yet architectture students act like misunderstood artists when their "design" isnt complete


**ps
this is not all arch students by any means, it is just something i noticed in my 7 years in undergrad-grad school
please dont take offense

unless you are those couple people in my studio who actually went an entire year (2 full semesters of projects) and didnt present with the class, yet actually got to continue on to the next year

Sep 19, 08 2:49 pm  · 
 · 
toasteroven
Arch students have more of a personality than engineering students, and are less sociopathic and passive-aggressive

really??? just wait until you start working professionally.

Sep 19, 08 5:24 pm  · 
 · 
blah

The glasses, the eye wear

Sep 19, 08 5:39 pm  · 
 · 
complex

we all wear black clothing

Sep 20, 08 12:56 am  · 
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Omkar Deshmukh

Do we really wear BLACK cloth???? :)
I don't think so...
Architect should not limit himself to use black clothes...
He should be innovative in all ways..

Sep 20, 08 6:36 am  · 
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rodgerT

Architecture students rules:

- do not associate with anyone but other architecture students, they will never understand.

- the less you sleep, eat and see your family etc. the more the architecture gods will smile upon your fetid unworthy carcass.

- only read books relating to architecture and begin to learn the crucial languages of obfuscation and sesquipedalianism.

- studio studio studio studio studio studio

- discover the importance of asking yourself questions that have no correct answer and complexification.

- go to as many famous architect lectures as possible and pick up a few new buzz words.

- learn about self flagellation, self doubt, confidence erosion and furtiveness.

- learn the art of paralysis by analysis.

Sep 20, 08 8:19 am  · 
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apparently architecture students are masochistic and slightly nasty about it to boot...

Sep 20, 08 9:43 am  · 
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Apurimac

Laying in bed all night reading and studying vs. staying up all night drawing and building so pick your poison

Why the hell are we calling out engineers and doctors when anybody who knows anything would realize that they work just as hard as we do, if not harder?

You're not forced to stay up all night working on projects, but med students are forced to stay up all night wiping people's asses and getting berated by their bosses during their residency. After that $100K a year starting salary sounds low to me, especially if you have twice that in student loan debt because you spent 8 years in college, which you also didn't have a choice about either.

Engineers are in a different boat, but just image if instead of just drawings some CGI blob you actually had to figure out how to build it and how it would function in the real world. Beyond that imagine if instead of designing your "building" you were designing circuit boards not by simply drawing pretty pictures but by dealing with pure maths.

Now BUSINESS students on the other hand...

Sep 20, 08 10:53 am  · 
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apocalipstick

To know that what rodgerT says is actually TRUE

Sep 21, 08 3:42 pm  · 
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liberty bell

There is a difference, I think. The short answer is, while other disciplines work as hard/harder than we do, e have something more personal on the line.

My sister was in med school while I was in undergrad. She and her friends worked their asses off, they had study groups late into the night every night, they had so much to memorize, they did practice medical exams on one another...

But none of it was as personal as architecture is. Other students also study and grind into the night on research, etc. But every project we put out there is something we've bug forth from our souls (unless we're phoning one in, of course, which happens).

Art students and creative writing students have to do this too. But let's face it, art students for the most part are slackers, that's why they are in art school (apologies to my husband who is the hardest worker I know). Creative writing, drama, music, other design fields - we all have similar personal trauma in every project. I don't know anything about their work habits and the culture of their studios. I do know the Affrilachian Poets group used to sneak into the UK Student Union elevators and stop them between floors to hold impromptu poetry readings - because they desperately needed to share their work in a community and had a hard time getting the University to support them with a space to do so.

So I think other students work with the same intensity and personal dedication that we do. But I think comparing ourselves to doctors and lawyers - and engineers - is a mistake.

Also, I think whether architecture students *actually* work harder than others isn't important, but the self-perception that we do is VERY important. And I'll leave that as stated.

Sep 22, 08 11:27 am  · 
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liberty bell

Um, make that "dug" forth, not bugs. Ew.

Sep 22, 08 11:28 am  · 
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marmkid

i agree that comparing us to doctors and lawyers really doesnt work either

I would say architecture school is in between med/law school and art school, in terms of the work that is to be done, for essentially the reasons LB stated

there is that creative aspect that is entirely subjective that you dont necessarily find with med school or law school
they work with a certain set of parameters (medicine and laws) that cant be bent in certain ways, and really they arent asked to necessarily
in arch school, becoming proficient in building a wall isnt exactly the goal of the program
many times, that is an afterthought assuming you will learn that after you graduate
there is that artistic/selling your idea aspect that makes it different from med/law

a dumb way to put it is:
architects create a product, while doctors and lawyers perform a service



arch students *thinking* they work harder than other students in other fields is incredibly arrogant and annoying


there are plenty of lazy arch students out there just like there are plenty of lazy med students out there (i imagine)
and neither gets very far in their respective fields

Sep 22, 08 11:37 am  · 
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****melt

It seriously aggravates me whenever I hear anyone bitching and complaining about their field of study/career choice compared to that of doctors. Seriously people get over it. There is a reason they make the big bucks. Not only do they work their ass of for 8 years in school but than they must work for another 2 to 6 years past that in order to get anywhere close to where they aspire to be.

Not only that, but I'm going to argue, in their lifetime, they will spend more money than any of us on liability insurance, malpractice insurance, continuing education, etc. They deal with life and death issues everyday, so if they make more money than me, than so be it. Actually when it comes down to it, most doctor's these days aren't making the big bucks anymore anyway. Insurance companies are.

In a nutshell, I agree with both marmkid and LB. There are slackers and over achievers in all fields/industries. Not everyone can be a doctor and not everyone can be an architect, and for that I am grateful

Sep 22, 08 1:00 pm  · 
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marmkid

honestly, i would make the argument that its harder to get through med school compared to arch school

i spent 4 years in undergrad and 3 years getting my masters

i have seen people get their b.arch and m.arch on an amount of work and dedication that i would call, less than stellar, compared to what arch students "claim" they do

if these people had chosen to become doctors, i sure as heck hope they wouldnt have been able to get their degrees with the amount of dedication and work they put into their arch degrees

Sep 22, 08 1:06 pm  · 
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