no highschool program will prepare you for architecture school. My advice, take some life drawing classes outside of high-school, learn how to process BW film in a darkroom, learn a 2nd or 3rd language, etc... basically anything that will give you tangential but relevant experience and help build character and creative inspiration. You can even try working for a house builder over the summer perhaps. Is there an accredited program in your area? If so, look up their free public lecture series and attend them.

Whatever you've learning in HS will be nothing compared to accredited architecture schools so don't bank on that being a key for future enrolment.

Draw. Draw. And then draw some more.

And spend a summer working construction.

I don't know Non Seq, I teach high school Graphic Design, and I try very hard to instil a sense of good design and composition in my students, along with an understanding that Photoshop isn't better than illustrator better than indesign, but that they are different tools for different tasks. And that software knowledge doesn't make you a good designer; understanding design does.

So I think Lax up there can take any art classes his school offers, even if they're not under the fine arts umbrella. And try to immerse himself in good design, instead of the typical day to day things he's bombarded with typically.

B&W film processing? What is this 1990? Learn about 3-d printing, parametric BIM modeling, and read a lot, not about architecture. Find how to bring the things your passionate about to the work you plan on doing.

Sarah is that common? I hope so. I came out of a HS where your only elective classes were either general visual art or gym...

I remember giving entrance interviews to potential first-year students a few years back and very little of the applicants, even those with high grades from top HS who claim to prepare their students for design fields did not show the level of design teaching you mention. Kudos for the effort and I hope more do the same. Even to this day, I remain good friends with my HS art teacher who, without her help, would have made my entrance to architecture nearly impossible.

b3tadine[sutures]

BW film processing is still taught in first year in some schools. It's a hand's on craft like any other but I learned a great deal more about composition, light-shadow and scale than with 3D software. Other's millage may vary. BIM and Co. modelling will are common enough that learning those will be done organically. Should we now discourage hand sketches simply because there is a "sketchy-line" style in sketchup or a water-colour filter in photoshop?

I've had a 1st student once who took a year between HS and university to "learn" every software he could. 1st year design studio policy was to design and draft without the req of CAD or BIM and this student was incapable of doing any work. Like Sarah mentioned above, knowing software does not make you a designer, best to know design first.

Art classes are the best.

Shop class! Do they still call it that?

learning how to process film teaches a technique, just like learning CAD, doesn't it?  i assume you're just talking about the part where you project an image onto a piece of paper, then dip the paper in a chemical, then into another chemical....

learning how to take a good black and white photo might teach about composition and such like you're saying, but surely that same composition can be achieved with a dslr instead of an slr?

can people still buy film?  i didn't know they even made that anymore.

Curt, ever use the "dodge" or "burn" tools in photoshop? They refer back to very interesting analogue techniques I was alluding to in my BW comment above.  Perhaps too obscure for some. My main point was the "hands-on" approach part. I'm much more of a fan when there is no "undo" and "copy-paste" command available. And yes, people can still buy 35mm film although it's not easy to find outside of niche camera and art stores.

Honestly, I don't know how many other HS teachers teach design the way I try to. I have a degree in architecture, not in education, and I approach my classes as an architecture prof would with mid crits, final crits and all.

And out HS does have shop, but it's not called that. Down here, in large schools you have a choice of building construction and maintenance (wood shop) and welding. In smaller schools, they typically offer Ag, which covers welding and general farm-type construction.

I'd take whatever art classes your high school offers, especially if those classes include critiques. When I started architecture school I found knowing how to critique and how to be critiqued helpful. If possible, I'd also look into volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. Finally, I'd read as much as possible. Not necessarily about architecture, just whatever "high-quality" reading you enjoy.

art history - it gives you a basic perspective on the development of culture which will help you better appreciate architecture in all its manifestations

All most in every field academic education is far different than actually work. Our education system should be upgraded to match with actually changing field.

Many colleges have summer 'pre-college'  sessions, usually six weeks, that are intended for high school students between their junior and senior years.  Penn, Cornell and Carnegie Mellon are  ones that I know of, and I am sure there are others.  Here is a list of about fifty from the AIA website:   http://www.aia.org/education/AIAS075245

 The class gives you an excellent idea of just what architecture school will be like so that you are sure of your decision (or not!)  They follow the same kind of program you will have in college, with the critique process mentioned above. 

And if you decide to go on to college for architecture, the experience will not only give you a leg up on everyone, but it GREATLY improves your chances of getting into the college of your choice if you did well during the summer.  By college of your choice, you don't have to attend the school during the summer that you want to ultimately attend- other schools will recognize this as a plus as well.  In architecture school, it is not unusual for half of the students to drop out because they did not realize what they were getting in to, so taking one of these classes  is a good way to be sure yourself, and show the college that you will probably stick around. 

Learn time management, it becomes very important when you have multiple ideas for projects and knowing which is best to move forward with is critical. Read architecture books, there are forum posts with recommendations. Sketch stuff, learn to use water colors, learn to cook quick simple meals. Develop your communication skills, like writing, speaking, drawing, instead of software skills because being able to deliver an inspirational talk to your peers will get them to draw for you.

I am learning AutoCAD at home on my own, will I be learning these programs in college or anything or will that need to be done on my own? My engineering teacher told me he can get me an internship over the summer if I learn things like AutoCAD, and I believe Revit. I am taking drawing classes at the moment and I am in Spanish 4 (although my Spanish is ok, I'm still learning) I saw an architecture text book. In my library at school, should I check that out and look into it? It appears to be fairly out dated.

My engineering class is having me use mainly Solid works to create things ouf of what ever we have avaliable. Which is mainly balsa wood, scrap wood etc. we also recently acquired 2 small 3D printers at my school, but I have no idea if that would help me at all? I'm not entirely sure what they require you to do in Architecture school.

wouldn't hurt to learn autocad and/or revit.  getting some work experience should also be very helpful, plus it tends to get you money, which is nice to have.  my experience was that college doesn't teach you the software, but there was sort of an expectation you would know how to use it when you needed to, so we had to figure it out on our own.  that was a long time ago though, so things could be different.

architecture school is going to have a studio environment where other students are pretty much always accessible, so it wasn't really self-learning as much as the students in studio worked together, asked each questions, and stuff like that.

what's the architecture text book in your library?

^it really depends on the school. A lot of them are pretty flexible about how they will let you work, but may require specific things at specific times, or may have professors that do so. I think most schools will probably make you do more physical work your first year or two and then have you progress to digital.

Most will only give you a class or so in any software, so it's largely self learned in the end. I would be really careful about using Revit for school, the software is valuable to know if you want a job someday, but it's not going to be a good choice for most school work. If you have the chance to use it in something like a building systems class, then go for it, but not studios... Unless it's a small comprehensive project.

Learning to build models out of any material will be helpful for most schools.