i have a "scared straight" bit that you old timers may get a kick out of. true story....me (yelling at potential arch. student):

YOU SEE THIS!? *pointing at eye*. SEE HOW IT'S ALL JACKED UP AND DISFIGURED!? I GOT IRITIS BECAUSE TONY LUMSDEN MADE ME PULL AN ALL NIGHTER. AND, IF YOU DON'T KNOW LUMSDEN, LOOK HIM UP...ROOKIE.

it seriously was disfigured for a good 2 years. tony was a great architect (rip). a little gruff, but i got on his good side because once i was able to locate some articles he lost at the airport. those were the times in the business i relish. my advice to the kids out there is find something you love, and you'll never work a day in your life. i just made that up.

if you like, i dunno, maybe 5-minute round bare knuckle boxing, then architecture might just be for you. ;)

I love architecture, and have made a decent career of it (35 plus years as a residential specialist). If I could do it all over I'd have majored in engineering.  Or even better majored in something that would allow me to hire an architect....

If you need to ask you already know the answer

yeah you can do

There is a little bit of truth in every one of the posts submitted. One thing that I was told by an Architect that I worked for as a draftsman before I entered school - "you have to love the work, because you'll never be rich." I found this to be true. There are very few millionaires in the field- the "Starchitects" if you will. After graduation, I worked for four firms. Why four? Layoffs due to economic downturns. Something the professors never mentioned in school. Anyway, I was forced to look elsewhere for ways to use the degree, and ended up in local government as a code official. My advice? Work as an intern in a small to medium size office. That way you will be exposed to more about how the firm runs. I think you will be quite surprised at how much searching for work is done and how the business aspect overrides actual design time. 

This question was asked 16 years ago. 

This person could have gone to school, got licensed, started working, and transitioned to owning their own small firm by now. 

Hope things worked out for them, maybe one day we will hear how it went, and what they did. 

Ha! Archinect just alerted me that some anonymous user who doesn't show up in a search just 'disliked' 3 of the comments that I made here 17 years ago. Huh. 

Hope it all worked out, ieugenei!