I've recently completed a masters in structural engineering, and after a year working in the industry I have to admit to myself it is not what I love, and it's time to take the leap into architecture. The only reason I hadn't pursued architecture before this is because of my lack of confidence, and having grown up in a family that doesn't think much of creative areas of work. Understandably, my background doesn't set me up with the exact skills that most applicants would have going into an M.Arch. (and I do need a good chunk of time to assemble my portfolio for applications) so I plan on taking about a year off to gain some basic skills and develop my portfolio, and my question is how to best spend the year.The way I see it there are two options:

1) Enroll at a University to study several undergraduate courses in arch. This gives me the benefit of exposing myself to architecture in the academic setting, but does come with the hefty cost of tuition (currently living in Canada).

2) Spend my time doing self-study to catch up on some much needed skills. This would save the tuition cost, but may not look as good on an application for an M.Arch.

I greatly appreciate if anyone has any words of advice on the two options or just thoughts in general on how I should approach this. Thank you!