I've always wanted to get my masters in urban design or urban planning. I wanted to know how others felt about going into graduate school at 33. Is it too late? NCARB completed, exams are also done.
Go for it I'm going this fall and will be 33 in October, starting a 3.5 year M Arch program. Some people won't understand that but if you've worked for 8 years doing jobs you hate via military and corporate America then I think they would. I'll have 30 years to still work once I get out before I can even thinking of retiring which is a full career. If it doesn't work out/can't get a job I can always go back to insurance. I'm applying to in state schools to keep the debt down.
33 too late - No way - I started M.arch @ 50 - graduated @54 then went to work for big arch firm as a BIM modeler. I did not and do not get any encouragement - you have to really push yourself and ignore nay sayers
I'll be 37 next month, and I'm roughly halfway through my M.Arch. degree at the University of Cincinnati. It's both a blessing and a curse... I had about 15 years experience already before starting my degree, so I already have a pretty good idea of how buildings get put together, and I can generally produce work a lot faster than my classmates. And maybe it's just my perception, but I think some faculty also tend to see me more as a colleague rather than merely as a student.
On the downside, most of my classmates are straight our of undergrad and I think I'm the oldest person in my class by at least a decade, and I never quite fit in with the studio culture and social events, etc. For me it's very important to maintain some kind of social life outside of school just so I don't feel like I'm surrounded by kids all the time. Also, I've found that I'm not physically capable of putting in the long hours that are sometimes required, and I have to do a better job of budgeting my time and using shortcuts. I'd much rather throw together something quickly in CAD or Photoshop than spend all night working on a beautiful hand drawing, because I realize that it doesn't really matter in the end. Pulling an all-nighter seems to take a much bigger physical toll on me than it did back when I was starting my undergrad degree, and no future employer is going to give a rat's ass how many all-nigthers I pulled in grad school, anyway.
Overall it's been equal parts rewarding and frustrating, but I keep telling myself it will be worth it once I'm done. Hopefully it will be for you, too.
"no future employer is going to give a rat's ass how many all-nigthers I pulled in grad school, anyway."
You just need to be able to do them - I did - Friday night is posting night - and many times, the game would go into sudden death overtime - if you fumble the ball, you get get off the team. N.G.
Learn Revit, and you can cut your school hours by 50% at least. Thats what I did in my last year - I had t because I also worked 8/hrs a day as 3D Maya modeler for a video game studio.
Feb 16, 12 6:03 pm ·
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Graduate School at age 33?
I've always wanted to get my masters in urban design or urban planning. I wanted to know how others felt about going into graduate school at 33. Is it too late? NCARB completed, exams are also done.
Go for it I'm going this fall and will be 33 in October, starting a 3.5 year M Arch program. Some people won't understand that but if you've worked for 8 years doing jobs you hate via military and corporate America then I think they would. I'll have 30 years to still work once I get out before I can even thinking of retiring which is a full career. If it doesn't work out/can't get a job I can always go back to insurance. I'm applying to in state schools to keep the debt down.
never too late.
33 too late - No way - I started M.arch @ 50 - graduated @54 then went to work for big arch firm as a BIM modeler. I did not and do not get any encouragement - you have to really push yourself and ignore nay sayers
Everyone - thank you!
@ zenakis, you inspire me, and you are right!
I started my master's in urban design at 34. All is well.
I'll be 37 next month, and I'm roughly halfway through my M.Arch. degree at the University of Cincinnati. It's both a blessing and a curse... I had about 15 years experience already before starting my degree, so I already have a pretty good idea of how buildings get put together, and I can generally produce work a lot faster than my classmates. And maybe it's just my perception, but I think some faculty also tend to see me more as a colleague rather than merely as a student.
On the downside, most of my classmates are straight our of undergrad and I think I'm the oldest person in my class by at least a decade, and I never quite fit in with the studio culture and social events, etc. For me it's very important to maintain some kind of social life outside of school just so I don't feel like I'm surrounded by kids all the time. Also, I've found that I'm not physically capable of putting in the long hours that are sometimes required, and I have to do a better job of budgeting my time and using shortcuts. I'd much rather throw together something quickly in CAD or Photoshop than spend all night working on a beautiful hand drawing, because I realize that it doesn't really matter in the end. Pulling an all-nighter seems to take a much bigger physical toll on me than it did back when I was starting my undergrad degree, and no future employer is going to give a rat's ass how many all-nigthers I pulled in grad school, anyway.
Overall it's been equal parts rewarding and frustrating, but I keep telling myself it will be worth it once I'm done. Hopefully it will be for you, too.
LIving in Gin
"no future employer is going to give a rat's ass how many all-nigthers I pulled in grad school, anyway."
You just need to be able to do them - I did - Friday night is posting night - and many times, the game would go into sudden death overtime - if you fumble the ball, you get get off the team. N.G.
Learn Revit, and you can cut your school hours by 50% at least. Thats what I did in my last year - I had t because I also worked 8/hrs a day as 3D Maya modeler for a video game studio.
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