If you want to work and go to school.....think about Bean Town...The Boston Architectural Center....if you have ten years of experience...well
you should be able to land a job in a firm. It is a program oriented towards people who work. It isn't easy, but it will get you to a degree,
and heck Harvard and MIT are just on the other side of the River.

you could also consider Columbia College, who seem to cater a bit more to professional (older) students.

LIG, a couple random comments rather than full-blown advice:

A pal of mine was a 30 year old in a room full of 20 year olds when we were in school - he's now a fairly well celebrated architect with a monograph and everything! And I learned a lot from being around him when I was younger - so that is a positive spin on being the oldest student in the class.

I would think your work experience and the amount of professional work you couldput in your portfolio would help you immensely in getting into an MArch program, regardless of what your BA degree is.

Gin,
You don't need a masters to become licensed in Illinois. Save your money.
Get Your B Arts in Arch Studies (or whatever they call it) and finish your IDP. You'll need 1170 TU's (aprrox 4-1/2 years) and you're eligible.
After taking the ARE you'll realize how little is actually required (regarding knowledge/skill) to earn the title of "Architect".
The tests are a joke, and what you've done in the real world won't matter, nor will the education. Good luck, brother.

If that actually works, pimpanzee, it sounds like very good advice. LIG, you seem to have enough experience that you shouldn't need to bother with MArch if all you really want is to get licensed.

Snooker:

I actually lived in Boston before, and considered the BAC route. But I hated Boston and the hyper-conservative architectural climate there, and the cost of living is obcene. If I have to pay $1000+ a month for a dumpy apartment, I'd just as soon do it in NYC.

Also, Drexel University in Philly has a B.Arch. program that is structured similar to the BAC, and I was enrolled there for a couple of quarters... It seemed like a good idea in theory and I loved the faculty at Drexel, but I grossly underestimated how intense it would be to hold down a full-time job while taking studio courses, and I quickly burned out. I'm hoping that a general BA program won't be quite as taxing.

Aside from all that, I'd prefer to stay in Chicago until I at least have my undergrad degree and some money saved up... I've moved four times within the past three years, so I'd like to stay put for a while. When it comes time to look at graduate programs, then I'll start thinking about moving again.

db:

I'll check out Columbia's website and see what they have to offer.

Pimpanzee:

I'd like to have the M.Arch. for a few reasons:

1) I want to get NCARB-certified and registered in states other than just Illinois. I'm not even 100% certain I want to stay in Chicago once I have my degree, and I'd certainly like to have projects in other states anyway.
2) I'd like the possibility of maybe doing some teaching at some point in my career, and having an M.Arch. would make that much more realistic.
3) Despite my 10 years of work experience, I still feel like I have a lot to learn about the design process. I have pretty good design sense now, but I feel like I could do much better if I continue to be challenged in an academic setting.

Does that make sense?

i don't think columbia college in chitown has an architecture program.

They have interior design and various other BFA programs as well as some BA programs. I took a look at their website and couldn't find anything specifically for adult students, though.

The only accredited architecture programs in Chicago are UIC and IIT.

Gin,

I went to a quarter at Circle a million years ago and it really sucked. It was a weed out program and they made you feel like you didn't exist.

I worked for a while and then went to IIT. Some of the instructors were quite good but then there was Ben Nicholson who would pass student work off as his own and then publicly humiliate students who questioned this. So after being in the working world, I didn't have a lot of patience for crap like that and there was quite a bit of nonsense going on.

But the important thing is what you leave there with... What can you accomplish? Have you learned how to learn, adapt and compete? That's an education.

If you can get the license and become educated in the manner I have described, then you can float above all the pretence and nonsense, move forward and be successful.

GOOD LUCK!

arts is definitely much easier than architecture with studios, so if you need time to bank coin it makes sense, especially since you have actual buildings to put in the portfolio for entry to grad school...

age simply isn't an issue in grad school, at least, so shouldn't worry much about it. i didn't go back til 29, and many of my friends/classmates were not so different, all graduating in their 30's. i think the older students often did better work because of their age and experience.

luck to you.

Thanks... I'll be attending an information session next week about the DePaul program... After that, hopefully I'll have a better idea of how long it would take to complete a degree in that program, given my prior coursework and work experiences.

gin--Columbia offers a BFA in Interior Architecture, not Interior Design, and there are some subtle but important differences there. And while they do not specifically have anything like an adult-evening program, I believe that a number of their students are older and they have a significant number of evening courses offered. I could be wrong about this, but if you're checking out DePaul (who doesn't have anything resembling an architecture program) then certainly CC is worth a visit as well. Accredidation isn't the issue here since you'll be goin to grad school anyway.

You shouldn't worry abt age in grad school. My advice is to do a liberal arts BA and then do the full 3 years, just because it will give you time to really explore what you want to do.I admire your perseverance. Keep on it!

Gin - take pimpanzee's advice - thats the route I took. In fact, I should have seen you there ( UIC ). I did meet some depressed guy on the L one day who had been removed from the arch program and was working at a book store. Could that have been you? circa fall '97?

As much as Grad school helps you clarify your ideas and vision, so does doing independant compettitions. There may be a hinderance to the design track within large firms - they tend to want to put BA's doing blue prints onlys, however there is another route - find like minded people in your age group and blaze your own trail, with your lic. It may be that you end up taking a vow of poverty but, hey, you just might actually make money doing it to. But only if you get the stamp.

Also - UIC is unique in that its own internal tension between 1/2 the staff who are actual practitioners are at war with the other half who are stoned out of their minds theoreticals. Couple this with the schools overly socialist agenda in the midst of towers to capitalism, and its enough to leave your head spinning in a haze of confusion, then add that most people there are english second language and its like youve entered the twilight zone.

There's some great faculty at UIC (Sidney Robinson, Ken Schroeder, and Lloyd Gadau among them), but my biggest struggles there involved the rudderless direction of the ciriculum, horrible facilities, and a revolving door of interim department heads in the wake of Tigerman being invited to leave. Not to mention the mindless civil service drones who staff the financial aid office and other administrative departments of the university. My whole time there, I never felt like I was any more than a number on some computer screen.

THATS PART OF THE BRUTALIST CONCRETE ARCHITECTURE, GREY CHICAGO WINTER AND OVERTLY OPPRESSIVE SOCIALIST UIC AGENDA.

IT WAS THE LUCK OF THE DRAW THOUGH, WHICH PROF YOU GOT. THERE WAS NO CONTINUITY IN THE CLASSES - ONE STUDIO DID ONE THING WHILE ANOTHER DID SOMETHING ELSE. IT WOULD HELP YOUR SITUATION IF YOU WERE A SLUTTY BOSNIAN OR UKRANIAN CHICK.

Have a great day happyplatypus!!

(ps that "art school drop-out" comment on the "good architect in Chicago" thread cracked me up!)

All joking aside - I know what you were going through - total confusion.
But now that your older ( I had plenty of 30 year olds in my studios) you wont fall victim to the confusion, depressed lost architecture student who has no idea whats going on syndrom. At this age, you may actually enjoy it and get laid at the same time.

I think this might be one of the first thread I ever started on Archinect. Just thought I'd resurrect it to post a scan of what I finally got in the mail yesterday:



Thanks for the push, everybody.

grats dude

LiG have you started at UC yet?

Grats Gin, and for the record I just got my BSAS last December from UW-Milwaukee at the age of 34, and I'm still considering going back for an M. Arch, so you're never too old I guess.

Yeah, I'm about halfway through my first quarter at UC. It's kicking my ass, but I guess I wouldn't be getting my money's worth if it wasn't.

Ha, that's great LiG. Are you going on co-op (a breeze for you) soon?

I just got an offer from a fairly large corporate firm in downtown Cincinnati for my first co-op quarter, which begins in January.