if they've been teaching for years, that's your answer. the market is getting crowded with people who want to teach, so the entry fee keeps getting higher.

jon, you can most certainly begin teaching without a masters degree. My advice would be to speak with the department head or other professors about teaching an undergrad drafting/AutoCAD course. From there you can work your way up to the Studio's or electives. I know of a few people who did it this way. I did it for a while with a B.Arch by just showing up to reviews and asked my professors if they needed more jurors, most are happy to have you come back and who knows, it could turn into a job offer.

Jon, define your role. what is the university looking for, what can you offer.

I've heard many a college desperately looking for a structures person or someone to teach 1st year studio (which can be quite daunting if you have 45-70 students).

I've taught in a number of programs - all part-time or adjunct so far as I also work in a firm more or less fulltime. It has certainly been easier to make the short list for consideration for positions because I have an M.Arch. In fact, any time I've been privvy to who my competition was - or anytime I've been on a committe to interview applicants for faculty positions - anybody seriously considered has had a graduate (and sometimes post-graduate) degree - unless the position was for a course focusing on computer software. For history/theory positions in particular it is the norm these days for most applicants to have a PhD, though not always in architecture.

I've known a number of people teaching without an M.Arch, but I have a few comments on that:
1. If you're applying somewhere where you don't have a strong connection (an "in") it's very difficult to be considered in the first place - especially for a teaching job early in your career - without the graduate degree.
2. People I've known who teach without a grad degree fall into a few categories: a) they're over 50 and have a long teaching history b) they have a strong connection to the program at which they're teaching (like they're the Dean's wife, or a star grad of that school...) c) they're a recognized expert in some area - and usually well-published d) they have "name brand" recognition - such as the young daughter of a very famous architect who taught one of my undergrad studios e) they teach software courses, woodshop, welding, or other "skill-specific" courses exclusively.

There are some exceptions to this of course, but: if you know that your goal is to teach then the best thing would be to get the credentials that will make this easiest!

No offense to the university of houston - it's a good program - but, if you check the faculty rosters at schools at which you think you might potentially want to teach you will probably not find too many people with just a B.Arch from your school.

I strongly suggest that you look as some faculty rosters at schools you're interested in to get a sense of the types of degress and backgrounds typical for those positions.

Finally: to teach studio most programs will require you to submit a portfolio, and it would be expected that at least some of it is built work. So in addition to considering a graduate degree you might want to consider where to get some real-world design experience, and whether to do that now (before grad school), later, or both....

Aluminate,
which catagory do i fall in?

/31, no architect in family, no published work....

you're a category all your own.

hey, is that like the short bus?

i will also say generally adjunct or lecturer positions may not be advertised and is generally offered to locals v. national search. i would say schools in urban areas with higher consentrates of architects within the community generally have more adjuncts teach v. a school such as arkansas offers more tenure track positions.

visiting positions many times are a full time 1 year positions is intended to rotate in fresh new blood with some special skill or focus [such as perhaps rural communities in africa] but can offer benifits to that person which generally are not offered to adjuncts who most often have less than 40% appointment and dont qualify.

when one recieves a graduate degree, it is assumed that have a higher understanding of research and theory in general that just a BArch. and as most programs have grad/undergrad programs, schools want to bring in folks that have the ability to instruct at all levels. and at tenure level, have the ability to bring in research $$$. credentials are important for research proprosals.

it would not think someone fresh out of school with a barch would have any chance in getting shortlisted for a tenture track or even a advertised visiting position. schools will get on the order of 100 applicants so you do the math.

you might try to look for schools that have a chinese exchange program - you might be able to contibute there.

also, if you dont have a green card or citizenship, that even lowers your chances on getting a position. in fact if i remember, schools cant sponser you for a visa unless its a full time position.

http://www.acsa-arch.org/jobcenter/default.asp are faculty positions, although the summer is a bit lean.

you might try starting at junior colleges - remember your just starting out and believe it or not, teaching is much harder than it appears on the surface.

Cameron: I think you'd fall into a category of people who have earned some widespread recognition/distinction in their careers.

AFH may have earned distinction for the role it plays but not because of an individual, because of the hundreds of architects who get involved in projects. Hopefully it'll be around, or some version, long after I'm dead.

Alas the press like to focus on the singular and has a hard time coming to grasp that a collaborative grassroots body of designers can be responsible for shifting the focus of what design is and can be.

As I mentioned above 'define your role' -- if you have a strong history of theory based work I wouldn't apply for the woodshop...

I agree 100%. The person who started this thread though has started more than one thread asking what he should do next because his goal is to teach. It seems as if many are giving him the same advice - both here and at his current school. His question was: why are they all telling me to get a graduate degree? I was trying to shed some light on why people are telling him this.

If he has some other plan or wish as to what to do next to pursue his goal of teaching - some alternative to grad school - I wouldn't discourage an alternate plan. For one thing, one can always go back to school to get the graduate degree later.
But, in the absence of any other info as to what he'd rather be doing, getting some real-life experience and/or getting a graduate degree seem like good options.

why don't you get a graduate degree and work your way into teaching while you are doing it? i don't really understand why you are resisting the degree? are you wanting to teach here in the state? if so you would do well to get it.

unless you are doing really 'interesting' work as an architect, you need the degree to be competitive and you need to develop your connections. and you can ask to be a teaching assistant while a grad student, supervising some undergrad projects, probably pro bono.

Cameron - I believe your catagory is "right place at the right time" as far as teaching goes. That and the fact ralph loved the sh*t out of you, even if he did think AFH stood for architects for humanity. :D

you got that right. it's too bad that I'm probably not going to come back... will hang out in Bozeman for a while. thinking about UMN though.

it was pretty hard to 'teach' 75 students, respond to the tsunami and work on a book but all in all a good time.