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Graduate School at age 33?

Stars + Stripes

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.

 
Feb 16, 12 1:13 pm
Buff03

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.

Feb 16, 12 1:30 pm  · 
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TIQM

never too late.

Feb 16, 12 1:47 pm  · 
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zonker

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

Feb 16, 12 2:41 pm  · 
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Stars + Stripes

Everyone - thank you! 

@ zenakis, you inspire me, and you are right!

Feb 16, 12 4:03 pm  · 
 · 
citizen

I started my master's in urban design at 34.  All is well.

Feb 16, 12 4:07 pm  · 
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Living in Gin

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.

Feb 16, 12 5:25 pm  · 
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zonker

 

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. 

Feb 16, 12 5:50 pm  · 
 · 
zonker

 

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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