Are you yet to start March? Because you won't have any time for part time jobs once in school. March is extremely time consuming. It's possible to hold other kinds of part time positions (TAing, service industry) but this would have to be kept at 15h/week or less.

As such, you are not of much use to an architecture firm. Even landing a free internship would be a stretch.

Instead try to concentrate on your work. If you build a really strong portfolio, that will help once you are available to join the work force. Also continue networking. 

Best bet is depending on where you are, hopefully not a big city, is to stop into these offices personally and introduce yourself and see where that goes. Don't even bother sending them anything by mail/email until you've introduce yourself for the reasons rusty stated. I wouldn't even call them, just stop in...otherwise, you may likely be competing with other people your age who are already light years ahead of you.

Thanks a lot guys. To answer some questions. Yeah, I am currently an M.Arch student w/ a year under my belt. I just one, need an income, and two, need to get as much experience as I can get.

I hear what you're saying rusty! and I agree with you, but many students have worked while in school at a firm and even freelanced a year within graduated, which is a good way to ease into employment. I'm willing to part-time school if I can find something. Income or the lack thereof is killing me.

As far as the "drop-in" introductions with arch offices/firms, I've been doing that. Surprisingly, the visits have been positive but I think the economic time has been a detriment to offices/firms taking a risk.

Hopefully by the time you graduate, the economy will be back on track and you can get hired.

I wouldn't worry about not having experience while in school - it's hard to work and study at the same time.  A lot of distractions.

I didn't work a day at any firm during grad school and landed a lot of good offers after.  Remember you have to start somewhere.  Hopefully you've learned some marketable skills while you were in school like REVIT, CAD, SketchUP, 3d modeling and Rendering, etc.  hand modeling and sketching are also good - hand drafting wont do shit even though some of the more self-righteous students and faculty go crazy over it.

You'll be fine - let's hope the economy is too.

Actually firms ARE starting to hire these days....  I was whacked at my last firm and then was quickly picked up by several other BETTER firms.

talk with profs (esp. those who are practicing) - let them know you are looking for part-time work.  either they'll know someone who is busy and looking for some help over the summer, or they have research grants and need to spend the money (usually for things like making diagrams for their books).

the trick to finding work is letting everyone in your vicinity know that you're looking for work.

cold calling or showing up uninvited to firms is an absolute last resort and only if you've moved to a new city.

...unless that new city is new york...showing up uninvited will pretty much make sure that firm NEVER hires you...

If you come to NYC, make sure to bring the offices one of these

Foot in the door?  Lucky if some of the bacterial spores off your big toe will waft through that crack.

Thank you all, I really appreciate the comments, like I said anything helps.

med, I really appreciate the advice and I am working on improving my skills in the downtime. So right on the drawing thing. Just got acquainted w/ most of them. had a class in Revit, beginning class in AutoCAD, played w/ Sketchup, toying around w/ Rhino, and trying to figure out the whole rendering thing, 3ds Max, etc. Any tips on picking up the programs quicker? The ones I took as a class were easier to pick up due to the fact that I learned as an assignment.

toasteroven. thanks also, hmmm, getting a little counter intuitive information about the "drop-in" but I get it. Just having a little difficulty letting my community know I need work by emails, online staffing companies, and the sort. I don't they distinguish me from any other applicant. 

elinor. Thanks, but not NYC bound yet.

burningman.  Tell me that works in firms/offices outside of NYC.

Justin Ather Maud I'm trying buddy, like you all, I'm trying.

Listen thanks again my people, if you hear a scream in the distance, then you know this guy landed a job.

good luck, wherever you are! :)

Income or the lack thereof is killing me.

So you decided to invest in an M.Arch.  Interesting.

Have you tried searching for software videos?  I recently found some good ones on Vimeo.  There seem to be some good blogs out there also for learning software.  Some people like lynda.com if your wiling to pay a monthly subscription.

The best way to learn a software is to integrate it with your work i.e. in this case your school work. As such, I would suggest you only learn 1, or at best 2, softwares and really master it, and then move on to the next one and repeat. You do 3 years March, no? So you have 2 years to go, plenty of time to go through 4 softwares. Don't rush through them lest you forget most of what you learn during the crucial period i.e. final submissions. It will show in your portfolio.

But definitely learn Revit as soon as you can. (don't know how it is in the US, but here in Australia I heard it's almost guaranteed employment if you can do Revit really well).

elinor. moved from CA to FL, don't ask me why

jbushkey truer words. truer words. But, I've looked into lynda before and the payments turned me off, I'll check vimeo, I really need to master some programs, alright not master but you know what I mean.

meal Aussie Aussie Aussie hahah. I really like this approach and will go ahead with that, since I don't have any school work as of late I will catch some videos of these programs.
I really like the Revit program by the way.

Thanks again my people, I appreciate all the thoughts and advice. Keep waiting for that scream.

Let me ask. When applying for a position, what's the best way to apply, come on let me hear it, I want examples, personal stories, failures, all of the above.