Feels like a trap coming from JK, but ... difficulty can be measured in different ways. To me, good grades in school were easier than getting really good results for buildings in real life. Which can be soul crushing. Some aspects of the profession, particularly the interpersonal part and paperwork are also much more difficult in real life.
Alternatively, I’d say I found school to on average be more stressful, and take up a larger amount of my time, and probably was worse for my health.
So… I’m going to go with school, because I enjoy making money more than spending it when I’m doing similar things :)
Practice is much harder than both school and the ARE exam. There’s no zoning hearings, no lawyers, no tall ladders, and no dirty crawl spaces in school. No real contradicting requirements either.
In school, if you fail and depending on your financial situation, you may not graduate (get a degree), which can set you back in many ways.
In practice, if you don't get something right, you may get sued or lose your license.
Based on the above, I think not graduating is the bigger "deal". If you screw up professionally, you can lose money, you can damage your reputation, it may get expensive to buy insurance if your premium gets too high based on the amount of claims against it, you may even lose your license depending on the degree of negligence, but at least at the end of the day you will still have your degree and if you want, you can find a job in an entirely different field simply because you at least graduated from college.
I think if one is defined by the profession, drive comes with the territory and therefore the prospect of not graduating will not even be a question regardless of how "hard" classes are. Accordingly, for someone who is serious about "making it" in this profession, professional success, whether monetary or through recognition (and often the two are not mutually exclusive, though there are exceptions), would be of paramount importance and so getting to where you want to be is much harder.
Its kind of like if you know you can run 5k, but want to win a 50k run: sure you may be a bit winded at 4.5k, but at least you know you'll make it for sure, but wanting to win the 50k run will be a goal you know you'll have to work a lot harder to achieve.
Some people look at graduating from college as this big achievement (maybe because for some, they were the first in their families to do so), but for me, I always knew I would graduate despite the times here and there that were a little tough. Therefore, I never looked at graduating school as the greatest achievement I have ever had. In fact, for this reason, I never even went to my graduation. I just got my diploma in the mail. But I was among the first in my class to get a job upon graduation, and I sit here years later having a much much different tier of goals I want to accomplish, because I have always aimed higher and have never been satisfied by my accomplishments. I have always aimed to be the best I can be.
If you are struggling with school, I would advise not entering this profession. School is...(or should be) about flexing your creative muscles. Practice is about bringing it all to a concrete reality, if you dare. Practice can be as easy or as brutal as you can imagine. It all has to do with defining the realm and limits of your practice. Forty years ago - learning to say no to a project has probably been the most important lesson I learned. Best to you.
it's a dumb question - in hindsight it's easy to say things like "school is easier than real life," but when you're a student, and not full into adulthood yet, architecture school is pretty tough, and also very much "real life." as someone said the stakes feel high, relatively speaking. to brush off the difficulty of school well into middle age lacks empathy; i personally found myself much more stressed more often in school vs. the dull doldrums of office life.
I read this and was about to say that I disagree - at least for me, work is ten thousand times more stressful than school. Then I remembered that I was a few years older than my schoolmates and honestly that made a huge difference.
I worked in an office 3 to 4 half-days per week while also maintaining my 40-60hr studio life. School is easy but also like BB, I was a 2y older than most of my colleagues in undergrad and I came in from another uni degree.
Sep 15, 23 10:47 pm ·
·
Chartres
@NS, and that's why you missed out on important aspects of schooling to the point that you equated architecture to being in a CA pigeonhole, and devolved from an architect to a technician.
school was really hard in moments to my younger self. practice is really hard in moments to my older self. measured to an objective standard practice is way harder. I caveat that to say that practicing independently is hardest. I think practicing in the structure of a firm with the support of multiple design professionals makes things somewhat easier because you can support each other. i'm sure i'll get flak for that statement but I'll throw it down anyways.
Couldn't agree more. I think it's fair to say that while stress is subjective, the stakes aren't. When I messed up in school, it maybe meant a few nights of rework, and only disappoint myself. In practice, I've got employees to consider before anything else, which is way more stress than anything that ever happened in school, by a mile
Sep 16, 23 1:18 pm ·
·
square.
sure, but if you fail school you're not getting to the place you are now... those are pretty high stakes.
also most people don't own practices, and for the reasons you cite i never will - that level of responsibility is tough to say the least.
Sep 18, 23 9:39 am ·
·
BulgarBlogger
Hopefully there comes a time when you realize you are really really good at what you do, and you marry that confidence up with an internal inquiry about whether you would make more money working for someone else or just doing it all yourself on your own. Most people eventually conclude the latter and therefore, according to the AIA, your statement about "most people don't own practices" is false. Most Architects in the US are sole practitioners.
Sep 18, 23 12:16 pm ·
·
square.
well i'm including all those employed by architects (many of them not licensed of course).. i dont have a source but im willing to bet there are more workers than owners.
What's more difficult: Architecture School or Practice
?
internet forums, apparently.
Twitter too, for some. Case in point:
Good use of 3
Feels like a trap coming from JK, but ...
difficulty can be measured in different ways. To me, good grades in school were easier than getting really good results for buildings in real life. Which can be soul crushing. Some aspects of the profession, particularly the interpersonal part and paperwork are also much more difficult in real life.
Alternatively, I’d say I found school to on average be more stressful, and take up a larger amount of my time, and probably was worse for my health.
So… I’m going to go with school, because I enjoy making money more than spending it when I’m doing similar things :)
I’m sure for others the answer will be reversed.
Practice is much harder than both school and the ARE exam. There’s no zoning hearings, no lawyers, no tall ladders, and no dirty crawl spaces in school. No real contradicting requirements either.
School is most definitively far easier than real life.
Let me put it this way: the stakes are different.
In school, if you fail and depending on your financial situation, you may not graduate (get a degree), which can set you back in many ways.
In practice, if you don't get something right, you may get sued or lose your license.
Based on the above, I think not graduating is the bigger "deal". If you screw up professionally, you can lose money, you can damage your reputation, it may get expensive to buy insurance if your premium gets too high based on the amount of claims against it, you may even lose your license depending on the degree of negligence, but at least at the end of the day you will still have your degree and if you want, you can find a job in an entirely different field simply because you at least graduated from college.
I think if one is defined by the profession, drive comes with the territory and therefore the prospect of not graduating will not even be a question regardless of how "hard" classes are. Accordingly, for someone who is serious about "making it" in this profession, professional success, whether monetary or through recognition (and often the two are not mutually exclusive, though there are exceptions), would be of paramount importance and so getting to where you want to be is much harder.
Its kind of like if you know you can run 5k, but want to win a 50k run: sure you may be a bit winded at 4.5k, but at least you know you'll make it for sure, but wanting to win the 50k run will be a goal you know you'll have to work a lot harder to achieve.
Some people look at graduating from college as this big achievement (maybe because for some, they were the first in their families to do so), but for me, I always knew I would graduate despite the times here and there that were a little tough. Therefore, I never looked at graduating school as the greatest achievement I have ever had. In fact, for this reason, I never even went to my graduation. I just got my diploma in the mail. But I was among the first in my class to get a job upon graduation, and I sit here years later having a much much different tier of goals I want to accomplish, because I have always aimed higher and have never been satisfied by my accomplishments. I have always aimed to be the best I can be.
So who cares about hard? Graduating from school was the least I could do to start on the journey to where I wanted to get to.
School is like shadow boxing in your modern apartment mirror. Practice is like being in a ring with Mike Tyson on a 2 day notice.
School is to make mistakes and learn, practice not so much
If you are struggling with school, I would advise not entering this profession.
School is...(or should be) about flexing your creative muscles. Practice is about bringing it all to a concrete reality, if you dare.
Practice can be as easy or as brutal as you can imagine. It all has to do with defining the realm and limits of your practice.
Forty years ago - learning to say no to a project has probably been the most important lesson I learned.
Best to you.
Both are difficult.
Real life is harder.
it's a dumb question - in hindsight it's easy to say things like "school is easier than real life," but when you're a student, and not full into adulthood yet, architecture school is pretty tough, and also very much "real life." as someone said the stakes feel high, relatively speaking. to brush off the difficulty of school well into middle age lacks empathy; i personally found myself much more stressed more often in school vs. the dull doldrums of office life.
I read this and was about to say that I disagree - at least for me, work is ten thousand times more stressful than school. Then I remembered that I was a few years older than my schoolmates and honestly that made a huge difference.
I worked in an office 3 to 4 half-days per week while also maintaining my 40-60hr studio life. School is easy but also like BB, I was a 2y older than most of my colleagues in undergrad and I came in from another uni degree.
@NS, and that's why you missed out on important aspects of schooling to the point that you equated architecture to being in a CA pigeonhole, and devolved from an architect to a technician.
Both would probably have been insurmountable without my white privilege.
Victimhood is a great place to commiserate with others.
To not be able to: tell truth from lies, recognize inequality, have no empathy.
What a joyless and impoverished existence it would be to have such a distorted perspective of reality.
I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
*have empathy*
Empathy for what???
school was really hard in moments to my younger self. practice is really hard in moments to my older self. measured to an objective standard practice is way harder. I caveat that to say that practicing independently is hardest. I think practicing in the structure of a firm with the support of multiple design professionals makes things somewhat easier because you can support each other. i'm sure i'll get flak for that statement but I'll throw it down anyways.
Couldn't agree more. I think it's fair to say that while stress is subjective, the stakes aren't. When I messed up in school, it maybe meant a few nights of rework, and only disappoint myself. In practice, I've got employees to consider before anything else, which is way more stress than anything that ever happened in school, by a mile
sure, but if you fail school you're not getting to the place you are now... those are pretty high stakes.
also most people don't own practices, and for the reasons you cite i never will - that level of responsibility is tough to say the least.
Hopefully there comes a time when you realize you are really really good at what you do, and you marry that confidence up with an internal inquiry about whether you would make more money working for someone else or just doing it all yourself on your own. Most people eventually conclude the latter and therefore, according to the AIA, your statement about "most people don't own practices" is false. Most Architects in the US are sole practitioners.
well i'm including all those employed by architects (many of them not licensed of course).. i dont have a source but im willing to bet there are more workers than owners.
Most people conclude the latter? What kind of fucking fantasy island do you live on?
Did under 30% somehow become most...?
maybe he meant that the largest contingent of architects is sole practitioners v ersus architects in several other firm categories and sizes
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