thats a good question. I cannot answer it for myself, but I will speak about a friend of mine who is working. He graduated in 2002, and has been working in a firm ever since he got out. When putting his portfolio together, I asked if he was going to put in any of the work he has done in the firm. He laughed and told me that none of that work was his. Sure, he designed details and also some major circulation systems, but he was not the architect, so he felt he could not put that in. Still he got into some pretty good schools without that stuff. I guess he also had the experience of working in a firm on his resume though.

I don't think it would hurt to work a bit afterwards. taking a break from school is nice . . . makes you appreciate it more.

I recommend it, especially if you went to undergrad right out of high school. Taking a year to work made me keenly aware of what a luxury of time two years of grad school is - two glorious years to only think, and dream, and ponder notions important yet obscure, and agonize over your own soul...I worked much harder in grad school because I had worked in the "real world" first.

...then there's the whole question of whether one year of professional experience is enough exposure to decide what you need from grad school. Although i recommend working before going to grad school, i also recommend keeping an open mind. (i.e, maybe two years or more for you to know what you need/want from architecture, you might realize that you don't even want to do mainstream architecture/ or anything related to arch, but another design profesion).
On the other hand, an education never hurts, and the experience, good or bad is learning, in a perverse sort of way!

get the skills to pay the bills.

I'm a year into my internship after my undergrad (applying this coming fall) and I'm really glad I took the time to work. The experience is really eye-opening and I feel it gives me some added confidence.

It's definitely given me a better picture of what I want to do within architecture which has helped me figure out what kind of program I think would be best for me.

Scott,

I know this is an old thread, but I'm curious as to what you decided to do. I interned in Milwaukee for 4 years while in school and had a great experience. I also had about 9 months between my BS.Arch and M.Arch programs during which I worked full-time. It was a useful experience.

I say do it.

There are many things in practice that you dont get even remotely exposed to while in academia. Wouldnt you hate to go on to grad school without being aware of the differences between academia/practice, only to find out that you cant stand the 'real world constraints' once you get out?

I only say this because when I began my internship back in May many of my colleagues had expressed to me how many talented people left the architectural profession simply because they were completely unaware of the relative culture shock between academia and the professional world.

My school (Texas Tech), along with a few others that I have heard, have made an effort to better integrated practical experience into our curriculum. Our options were to: obtain a 7 month intership (primarily on our own), or study abroad. We worked 4 days a week while earning credit for our final undergrad studio V/master's studio I along the way. A very rigorous program indeed, but well worth the work experience gained.

I am happy to say that I will begin grad school in the spring and enjoy architecture and its opportunities more than I can ever remember.

liberty bell nailed it i'd say.

i'd decided to take a year off after undergrad because i was absolutely friend/burnt out to a crisp/exhausted after undergrad and just needed to rest.
and though it started that way, as time wore on it turned into that post college 'find yourself' time.
I finished undergrad in '04 and am now applying to grad schools. In the mean time I've read a FAT lot of books spanning from Atlantis to motorcycle travelogues to design in China, taken 2000 odd pictures (haha, that's applicable in more than one way) and built things for my apt large and small.

Everything that I was taught in school I think I actually 'learned' in my time since.

When I return to grad school I will be pursuing education more than I ever had and with much clearer purpose.

Those are the upsides. And I wouldn't trade that time for a million dollars but the one bit of advice/warning I wish I would have heard was that it might be difficult to find a firm willing to hire you for only a year or so. This may be somewhat firm by firm but I missed a handful of jobs because they weren't okay with me scurrying back off to grad school right when I started becoming profitable to them.

Also, and again this is depending on where you go, but sometimes there's about a 1% overlap between the profession and academia and it can be a very difficult reconciliation. Though, i would list that as a reason to take the time off. It will make you appreciate an environment such as a graduate school so much more.



This is only partially related but I found it a few days ago and enjoyed it. It helps that I'm a big Bill Watterson fan.