I have one friend that served 4 years and then went to arch school and then harvard gsd, he's doing great, has his own firm in phoenix. you have more experience than most, and thank you for your service.
Look for schools that have a strong campus wide veterans program so you have advocates, often architecture faculty foster an unhealthy work life balance and do not accommodate the occasional training weekends or other duties you would have while stateside. Also consider the age difference between you and a typical undergrad, a school with a wide age diversity may be a better fit.
Form what I know of friends who were National Guard, and Reserves Southern Illinois University Carbondale (small program) and University Of Illinois Urbana Champaign have in the past been reasonably accommodating to the schedules and all the other possible challenges.
We had National Guard in SIUC and the whole department rescheduled the crits and other assignments, department wide, to accommodate people serving, small schools tend to be able to do this with less push back and they tend to be more invested in an individual's success.
Another test is to see how many ROTC are in the program as a way of gauging how accommodating they may be.
I am currently overseas with no schools that have an architecture program so I am currently looking at schools with distance learning courses. Any suggestions on schools with good programs for that?
SIUC has a strong military presence over seas (mostly Navy) unfortunately the studio portion of the curriculum in architecture programs is not conducive to distance learning. I think you can get the gen-edds and history classes out of the way. Depending on where you are stationed you could enroll in a program's overseas campus and get a start on studios but the sequencing is hard to do unless you are on campus taking a full time schedule for a 3-4 year period of time for undergrad. There is however an alternate route into a masters of Architecture program when you earn a degree in a field other than architecture and take an extra year for your masters (3 year masters). UIUC has this program and is fairly successful bringing non architecture majors up to speed quickly.
If you are looking for an undergrad that dovetails into architecture, rel-estate related degrees, pre law, and business have a lot of cross over skills and knowledge that could be useful in a career in architecture.
Your GI Bill will pay the tuition to any college you get accepted. Do you plan on getting out soon or are you going to stay for 20 years of active duty and retire? And where are you stationed now? Another idea is to leave active duty short of a full retirement and join the Guard or Reserves as a "weekend warrior" until you get the reduced retirement at age 60.
I have 4 years left on my contract, that's should be enough time to get part of my degree done, I haven't thought to much about going guard after active but it would be an option. Once this contract is up I will start full time college
Nov 16, 17 11:31 pm ·
·
Volunteer
You need to be careful not to sign up for an internet-based class at one school only to enroll in another school and not have the course not counted - that would be time and money wasted. Schools, even Ivys, salivate over students with the GI Bill, so you need to use it wisely. I would be more inclined to just visit significant architecture where you are stationed and take photos and do sketches. You can use the time to visit schools you are interested in while on leave.
I spent four years in the Marines. While serving I was able to take a few courses, about 15 credits worth. Basic 100 level courses not related to architecture but required for my degree. Contact the schools you are interested in about a year before fall semester. Have everything they need in their hands before (BEFORE) the deadline for incoming freshmen for fall start.
Nov 17, 17 5:05 pm ·
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active duty to architect
I am currently active duty military looking at colleges, I am also wondering if anyone has been in this situation before and how it worked out?
I have one friend that served 4 years and then went to arch school and then harvard gsd, he's doing great, has his own firm in phoenix. you have more experience than most, and thank you for your service.
Look for schools that have a strong campus wide veterans program so you have advocates, often architecture faculty foster an unhealthy work life balance and do not accommodate the occasional training weekends or other duties you would have while stateside. Also consider the age difference between you and a typical undergrad, a school with a wide age diversity may be a better fit.
Form what I know of friends who were National Guard, and Reserves Southern Illinois University Carbondale (small program) and University Of Illinois Urbana Champaign have in the past been reasonably accommodating to the schedules and all the other possible challenges.
We had National Guard in SIUC and the whole department rescheduled the crits and other assignments, department wide, to accommodate people serving, small schools tend to be able to do this with less push back and they tend to be more invested in an individual's success.
Another test is to see how many ROTC are in the program as a way of gauging how accommodating they may be.
I am currently overseas with no schools that have an architecture program so I am currently looking at schools with distance learning courses. Any suggestions on schools with good programs for that?
P.S. thank you for all the help so far!
SIUC has a strong military presence over seas (mostly Navy) unfortunately the studio portion of the curriculum in architecture programs is not conducive to distance learning. I think you can get the gen-edds and history classes out of the way. Depending on where you are stationed you could enroll in a program's overseas campus and get a start on studios but the sequencing is hard to do unless you are on campus taking a full time schedule for a 3-4 year period of time for undergrad. There is however an alternate route into a masters of Architecture program when you earn a degree in a field other than architecture and take an extra year for your masters (3 year masters). UIUC has this program and is fairly successful bringing non architecture majors up to speed quickly.
If you are looking for an undergrad that dovetails into architecture, rel-estate related degrees, pre law, and business have a lot of cross over skills and knowledge that could be useful in a career in architecture.
Your GI Bill will pay the tuition to any college you get accepted. Do you plan on getting out soon or are you going to stay for 20 years of active duty and retire? And where are you stationed now? Another idea is to leave active duty short of a full retirement and join the Guard or Reserves as a "weekend warrior" until you get the reduced retirement at age 60.
I have 4 years left on my contract, that's should be enough time to get part of my degree done, I haven't thought to much about going guard after active but it would be an option. Once this contract is up I will start full time college
You need to be careful not to sign up for an internet-based class at one school only to enroll in another school and not have the course not counted - that would be time and money wasted. Schools, even Ivys, salivate over students with the GI Bill, so you need to use it wisely. I would be more inclined to just visit significant architecture where you are stationed and take photos and do sketches. You can use the time to visit schools you are interested in while on leave.
I spent four years in the Marines. While serving I was able to take a few courses, about 15 credits worth. Basic 100 level courses not related to architecture but required for my degree. Contact the schools you are interested in about a year before fall semester. Have everything they need in their hands before (BEFORE) the deadline for incoming freshmen for fall start.
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