[skwid]

Hi I'm a high school senior getting ready to apply for college and I'm stuck in a dilemma with my majors. I'm naturally good at biology and have garnered school awards in my classes and I find the subject interesting. I think medicine would be a stable and promising career for me as I have prowess in the subject. However, what's been keeping me sane at my school has been my comics for the school paper, my doodlings during classes, and at times my intermediate art classes. I appreciate and love artistic expression in every way shape and form. My second path would be architecture as I love the idea of building something both beautiful and functional. The trap that I don't want to get caught in, like my uncle who is a liscensed architect, is hating my career over mere monetary troubles. My uncle who is gifted works in NYC, but he admits that at the moment he hates his job- working long hours in a cubicle learning CAD and churning out drawings he doesn't get fully paid for. I love being around people and my girlfriend so time is also an issue as well. I was wondering, and I have read the previous articles in the forums, if some experienced architects could answer these few questions. Also, what skill level should I be to realistically shoot for a successful career and not get manhandled by firms and the like. And, how important are connections? What undergraduate studies should I take and should I start building a portfolio.

And on a more personal note, I don't know if any of you can relate, I'm half asian and there is a pressure from my family to become a doctor so that definitely does factor in as a motivation for my majors.I like to be the absolute best at what I do and more widely to show my loyalty to my family's dedication to me.

So there are my two paths. Either I become a practicing doctor or move up in the architectural world. Again I ask for some realistic opinions. I have very rudimentary art skills, but great skills in english and the sciences. Thanks alot for reading this and I hope you have some opinions- I'd like to get an unbiased spin on this from people I respect and admire in these forums.

Cheers-

[stacy]

You're already starting out with the baggage of making someone else happy with your career.
Isn't that where your uncle is stuck? ...Working for someone else, meeting their standards, meeting their schedules, making THEM happy...!?!!

Forget it ALL for at least one year.
Make your Freshman year like a Whitman Sampler.
Take a variety of classes.
Talk to instructors who teach things you may have never considered before.
Make friends who have lots of different majors and minors.
Who knows, maybe you're really a poet, or a physicist or maybe a journalistl

THE TRUTH IS... you don't know what you want to do OR WHO YOU ARE YET!
You CAN'T start out this way and EXPECT to end HAPPY!

[eyewoo]

stacy's advice is bullseye solid. Memorize it!

In the profession of architecture, 95% of the professionals become draftsman, designing conduit layouts, etc. There are few who are creative and imaginative enough to become the actual designers of what buildings look like. Most of it is the boring and fundamental 9 to 5 work.

How about medical illustration...?
_________________
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[skwid]

haha thanks for the advice stacy I'm not uber concerned about what my family thinks since I know it's my life anyway but it would be a plus to get that respect. Eyewoo, see that's what I'm worried about, getting stuck in a job where I'm not really in contact with people and just stuck with my drawings for hours on end. As for exploration I will definitely take my first year in college to experiment with different paths, but I'll need to strike a balance between what I like to do and what gets paid which =

[Tzan]

I cant tell you what to do, but I can tell you what I did.

In highschool I couldnt take art classes since I was on a college prep track. I liked art and architecture. I went to Wentworth in Boston and studied architecture. After I got an associates degree in architectural engineering I went to Mass College of Art for 1.5 years.

I then spent the next 17 years working in many offices doing all forms of drafting. My most creative moments involved laying out modular fabric panel office furniture and copying house layouts from a house plan book because thats what the developer sold to the customer.

In 1997 I became a self employeed architectural designer (not registered). At that time I did contract work for other architects and a tradeshow exhibit company for $25/hour. I did nothing really creative, you just follow the same old formula. During those years I made between 11k to 36k per year.

In 2001 I started getting my own work. Just houses and house additions. I've done nothing that I'm really proud of. Its just more of the same old junk you see all around you. This is because its what the customer wants. You cant force him to want and then pay for a better, more expensive design. 2001 - 2003 I made about 25k per year.

I do know a guy who has been in business for 15 years doing similar work and he makes 50k. I would actually be happy with that, but right now its just horrible doing crappy work and not getting enough customers and not getting the same pay as others. Structural engineers and architects charge $150/ hour I charge $80. I only get about 50% of the contracts I bid. On saturday I met with a home owner, gave my price, they said they wanted to ask around for a better price. Every time someone has said that I never heard back from them.

On the bright side, I did just finish a contract job at Turbine Games. I got into the QA department and 3 months later got a contract to work on the Middle Earth content team. For reasons beyond my control I didnt get an extension or a full time job, but I cant talk about it.

So... back to the architecture thing, yuk!

I am a game designer and I'm working on a card game now. I'll be posting some images if I like the way the playtest is going.

So to summarize, even if you do architecture and work for yourself, you still need to meet the needs of the customer. They dont want to pay you, they have no vision, they couldnt afford a good design anyway, they have all the money and you need to make them happy. Hmm... I wonder how many second story additions I have put on 1950s ranch houses?

[Returner]

There is only one way I guess to get a good perspective at Architecture, and that is to go and visit some architecture firms and talk to the people there, and maybe hang in the background for a day or two. I'm going to do that here in Stockholm next week. Can give a quick report here after that visit
Do what you want with your life and don't worry about the money (but marry yourselve rich just in case!)
But the bottom line is that only you can appreciate how much you want a creative/arty like kind of job in your future even if it may be riskier. And I guess It gets more complicated if you are gifted in other subjects to, AND come from an asian family.

[Tzan]

You can get good money in the architecture business. I know a guy 3 years out of college and he works at a huge downtown Boston AE firm and he gets 45k per year. So yeah if money was my only concern I could get it. I just dont want to commute into Boston everyday and I really like working for myself

Good luck with the visit!

I'm still looking for a rich girl

[Returner]

Thanks! I have high hopes for the visit so I hope it goes well to.
Yeah maybe all our efforts should be on finding a good rich nice looking gal instead (maybe she could be a working architect while were at it)

[Tzan]

[skwid]

haha thanks a lot for the info guys especially Tzan. yea my uncle has been working for about the same time and just got an offer for a stable position in a firm for 80k and he asked what benfits they had and was promptly turned down. and I'd love to hear about the stockholm thing ask around for me haha ^^