once you get into second or third year you will probably be allowed to sleep in studio, and there will likely be some sort of campus gym or fitness type place where you can take a shower.  i wouldn't worry about it too much.

I had really bad time management skills when I first started architecture school. During my first and second years, I routinely pulled at least one all-nighter a week, on top of all the other stuff I was doing (sports, extra-curricular activities, etc.). I was burning the candle at all three ends (including the middle), and got really sick partway through second year. If I'd kept doing that, I probably would never have graduated.

Then I did a crazy thing and got married.

That completely changed my priorities in how I handled school and my studio workload. I started treating it like a job, where I would go to studio at 8 in the morning, attend classes if I had them or otherwise be at my desk working, and went home around 6 or so each evening. I might occasionally go in for a couple of hours on the weekends, but mostly didn't. For the last three years I was in school, I put in only one more all-nighter, and that was only because it was a group project for which my team members completely dropped the ball and I had to pick up the slack at the last minute. Except in that one case, I always had my final project models and drawings done days if not a week or more early.

gwharton, thank you so much for your comment, it relieved me so much and you showed that everything will be alright as long as I prioritize myself and manage my time well. Any free time I have I am planning on spending in studio and are planning on being on campus from about 11am until 8pm (to avoid traffic), treating it as a job like you said, and during those hours I would attend classes, work in the studio, and maybe for an hour every couple days socialize with classmates, got to the gym, or participate in a club. I just need to make sure I balance myself. On the weekend, I can type any papers or do any readings from home so I optimize my time on campus and take advantage of the studio since I do not really want to make an excess trips to school considering the distance.

remember Murphy's Law... Not everything in a project will be equally important, nor will you have time to do everything with equal intensity, so always time manage and prioritize and decide what 20% in your project will you spend 80% of your time in.. while leaving only 20% of your time in the other 80 percent.

There is no reason why you'll have to pull all-nighters like most students seem to do.  Infact, getting a good night's sleep and starting your day early etc will keep you performing at your peak and thinking clear.  If you pull too many all nighters and work late, you just stress yourself out and slow down your thinking, making mistakes etc, sleeping in during class, physicall present/mentally away etc which all snowball in the end.

There were atleast 3 students in my uni batch who were married.  They always amazed me because they never pulled an all-nighter, left studio by 10pm at the latest, were rarely in on weekends but still managed to get more done than most and always seemed to finish projects early.  

Its amazing what solutions people can find and overcome when they put their mind to it and have to live with circumstances.  Set your deadlines to finish much earlier.  In most cases, you will not but you'll get most of what you need done by the deadline to say the least, unlike running out of time and not doing many things you wanted for a project.  Lastly, but probably most important from my personal experience, keep a timetable/calender of your 'must do tasks' - weekly, daily, hourly and try to stick to it.  Make sure you slip in some rewarding activities apart from school like gym, movie night, entertainment etc.  That way you won't be a slave to school work entirely and can still find time for relaxation.  Its amazing how time flies and how much is wasted when you don't keep a track of time.  You get less work done, don't finish on time, are more stressed out and don't end up rewarding yourself with a break from time to time.

good luck anyway... wish I had followed most of my own advice during uni ;P

I have two suggestions, get a job, and find one soft spot in your schedule and call it your night off. Barring final review week of course. I was horrible at time management early in college and my grades reflected it. No social life, no money for one, all-nighters 1x/2x a week, and a C+ in studio. Anyways, you need to force yourself to be efficient. If you need to work at 8 AM and be productive enough to be worth a paycheck - you will force yourself to get the important things done by midnight, and you won't screw around with things that really don't give you a better project in the end. If you can find a job in architecture, the education will continue there, a big if though. The night off during the week is important because it's a mid week break, and it might be the only chance you get if you work on weekends. My senior year & grad school I worked 20 hrs week, and if I had no studio or morning classes on Thursday, I was hitting the bar on Wednesday, because on weekends, I was usually working or in studio. I got mostly A's & a few B's. Don't underrate mental health and productivity.

If you have older relatives near the end of their life, remember the week of a final review is the best time for murphy's law, happened to me three times when I was in school, three different projects.

From what I observed to, being married really improved your work ethic, so just marry someone your first year.

I'm just about to start my third year and I've held a job since high school. At one point this past semester I held two, working a combined 30hrs and doing 21 total hours of class (thankfully this only went on for about a month). It's definitely a struggle getting used to, but I definitely agree that having a job or some other serious time commitment will force you to budget your time in studio. I'm putting myself through school but I've still managed to find enough time to do my projects well and have some fun in college. It's definitely manageable though!

just keep in mind that there’s always someone better than you. then you’ll have to work twice as hard as that person. then you realized theres another person better than you, then you’ll have to work 4 times as hard. and so forth. by then you’ll be working yourself to death and for what? is it worth it? that all depends. 

This thread is making me feel great about the prospect of working in school. I thought for sure I would take the first semester off, but recently began reconsidering and decided not to. I do agree with the idea that people are capable of way more than they think, and having a a good bit of down time can actually make you less productive.

Having to commute might hurt you, depends how heavily your school makes you hand-draft vs using computers (which you could get done at home).  There was one person in my freshman class who had time for a part time job, and she already had another degree, and is no longer in our class...

I'd love to hear from those who suggested taking a job, what school they went to.  Also, what kind of job did you have?  Taking up a job was  frowned upon and not recommended by our profs/faculty unless it was absolutely required and that too a part-time job in the school labs, workshop, material shop, darkroom or so where you'd be sitting down,  working on your own assignments or reading for the most part until someone came in seeking assistance.

Everyone I experienced that had a part time job usually wasn't that committed to architecture. They were usually the ones complaining about having to stay up past 3 AM and didn't know much outside of what the professor told them because they never did any learning on their own.

Well it's either land an assistantship, or full scholarship or have school paid for by a family member. If that fails there are a few options, don't take a job and end up with much more debt with added interest. Do take a job, and end up with less time to work on projects and internships. Since it seems like assistantships are awarded primarily to two year students, or three year students in their second year-- there are only a few options that I can think of. Simple point, not being from a wealthy family sucks. This is compounded by the fact that we live in a generation where we are all connected and see the perks. Educated poors and trust-funders alike are often part of the same clique. Serfs didn't use to be allowed in the Kings Castle.  Simple fact, just start going 110 mph now, or be satisfied living a life in chains.

Shoulda been born in one of those Scandinavian countries that have magically found out how to make it free.

The only reason I want to commute an hour is because I want to save money. I think it would be foolish to add $50,000 to an already $100,000 debt load. My logic is that I will spend 2 hours a day commuting, amounting to 10 hours a week. 10 hours a week is like a part time job but from the amount I will be saving, it is like making $20 an hour so I think it would be reasonable. I just need to know how to budget my time and stay on top of everything.

I did undergrad at Ohio St., working in parking lots and playing in cover bands. Grad school at IIT, working at an architectural firm. When you get out into the working world, you will not be selling designs as much as you will be selling hours; and you will be expected to deliver more for less. You have to be able to hone in on the important parts of your client's desires and deliver their vision, all while ensuring that another client's project gets built correctly. The thing I found about spending a lot of time working late in studio, or in the real world for that matter, is that people spend a lot of time bitching/bragging about how much they're working, and not a lot of time actually getting something accomplished. Some Profs may discourage it, but the sad truth is that a lot of them can't cut it in the real world, so they teach. They are experts in design and theory, some of the most exciting and challenging things about architecture, and are highly important, but that is really 20% or less of what you do in the real world. Knowing how to handle the other 80% is what keeps you employed, and successful.

If you can learn how to budget your time you'll be doing much better than most. There are a handful of people in my studio that have part time jobs and we're doing fine, we pull very few all nighters compared to the rest of our studio mates because, well, no one wants to stay up all night if you have school and work the next day. A lot of professors at my school discourage working while being in school, but a lot of them put themselves through school and don't have a problem with it as long as you get the work they ask for done.

I was a commuter (only 25-30 min though) and it wasn't really too bad. I had a very part-time job that allowed me to only work a full shift on saturday mornings. Saturday's I then dedicated to work. I would go to job until my shift was over, then go straight to studio and work til 1-3am (until i hit a good stopping point) and then sleep in on Sundays and use that day to relax and focus on other things.

The one negative I will say for commuting is that you don't usually get the comraderie that comes with the on-campus people, because they all live together and spend almost every minute of their lives together during school and become very close-knit, where commuting you are kind of an outsider because you just dont spend as much time in studio (by nature).

I front loaded all my classes (745-noon) whenever possible and that allowed me to force myself to be up early instead of wasting time in the mornings sleeping more than I needed to. I would then have all afternoon and evening to completely focus on school work, but on my timetable...you have about 10 hours per day at your own disposal in my example. Routine may be monotonous and stressing in its own way...but when you force yourself to go to sleep at about the same time and wake up and about the same time, it doesn't take long to get used to it (i would go about 4-5 hours of sleep per night - by my own choice) but it didn't bother me because it was so used to it.

Another tip - have a good playlist on your computer/ipod. A LOT of time in studio is used (wasted) by just chatting with everyone, shooting the breeze, goofing off, etc. That is good and very much needed throughout studio time...but in small doses. Your brain can focus effectively for about 45-50 minutes at a time before it needs a break of 10-15 minutes to recharge in order to be its most effective....so a real key is to allow yourself that hour to really crank on what youre doing. put your ear buds in and don't let outside distractions in as much as possible. If you "get in the zone" while working, too...keep it going as long as possible...it's tough to get back in a groove once youve lost it. Budgeting the actual minutes of your time is important, but more importantly is how you budget what you do during those times.

To me (and my professors) - if you finished a project, you didn't do your job. As designers, we are "never done" designing...theres always more detail, more thought, more refinement, etc that can go into everything. My prof's were more process oriented. Your project could be (almost) crap at the end, but as long as you showed you did this, and this, and this, and this, and none of it worked, so you tried this, and this, and this....then your ends were justified. (keep in mind, sometimes theres always a point where you just need to pick something a run with it...its not ALL about process - just a lot of it) Prof's understand that not everything is going to work or turn out how you planned...as long as you can justify it, theyll see your perspective more. (so all nighters really dont do you any good)

Not sure about anyone else, but i found that in my 3rd and 4th years, i worked for an arch firm, and it actually hurt me. My imagination started to fade, i started to think more realistically, and in school, my profs always said "this is the time to explore, be creative, create something cool, unique, interesting...you have the rest of your life to be grounded into reality...take this time to have FUN with your designs." School IS about learning your profession and whats possible/not, but unless you get a client with deep pockets and an open mind (hahaha) you may not ever really get to be AS creative as you want or you could be in school...so have fun with it.

commuting 2 hrs a day isn't too bad.. hopefully you're taking the train or bus and don't have to drive during teh commute.  If the latter, you can get lots of assignments and reading done.  Architecture isn't studio 24/7 :)

The hour long commute each way does suck, but in my opinion it's a good thing to have something else in your life besides studio. I got sick of the studio atmosphere pretty quickly and started limiting my work day to 8pm (11 on nights before deadline). In my whole education (bachelor and masters) I never pulled a full all-nighter. I stayed up until 3am a few times. I think that having a few hours of clearly focused work time is much better than 12-14 hours of mingling/chatting in studio.

During my masters I began a schedule of working at studio from 8-2 with a lunch break, taking the afternoons off, and then getting back to work from 7-11. I felt amazing, got loads of work done, and had time to make good food and exercise. The only interruptions were when I had group work to do, but then I just adjusted my work day a bit and took the evenings off instead of the afternoons.

'To me (and my professors) - if you finished a project, you didn't do your job.'

Meh. It works that way in school to some degree, but that doesn't really fly for a real project. A really robust design process will enable you to come to a satisfying design solution within a scheduled amount of time. A shitty design process goes on forever, or as long as it takes for people to start suing each other. You can decide what you'd rather focus on in school.

Hey jyount—can I ask you a bit about your grad experience at IIT via email?

Sure, jk3hl.

Thanks! Shoot a blank email to james.kehl (at) gmail.com and I'll write you back. I appreciate it. This is jk3hl, by the way.

Thanks everyone for the comments. Anyone else have anything to say about commuting to architecture school and if you really are working 24/7.

Arch49, all  I can say is that you will find the rhythm and working style that works for you. But you must get the experience of the beast of the workload - embrace and experience it before you can effectively strategize what works for you.  Listen to your body and mind - cause if you`re getting stressed and  not productive, all night in studio - then definitely reconsider your game plan.

For my first two years at undergrad, I did have to commute like many others. I went to Ryerson University in Toronto...so a lot of us students lived in the city or surrounding Greater Toronto Area and would commute. I would travel  1-1.5 hours to school and another 1-1.5 hours back home depending on the time and traffic. I also had other commitments outside of school (I was heavily involved in church choir - ergo a regular church going person). 

The only advice I can give to students that plan to commute, is to be willing to spend the extra hours to work in studio. I have a friend that would always stay on campus till 11pm to 12am DAILY in studio during the weekdays, and he was a decent designer and student (I`m not sure if he was all A`s...but he did good)

My situation was that lost time caught up to me later on. I think you need to really get a good momentum  -  working hard in your early years because you are new to architecture school, the design work will push you into many different circumstances and detours - technical and conceptual (from software learning to reflecting on process) and the only way to learn from them is to bank on that experience early on just to be better at handling your time in the future. I think with maturity and focus it should work , and by the time you are in your upper years you should be proficient. 

Proficiency is what I was lacking, and I fell behind.....BIG TIME...because lost time (weather it was learning software, or extra effort in design process) accumulated like a rolling snowball, time management was difficult for me. I would be spending extra extra time figuring out things in my upper year studios. my process would be longer, and I wasn't really strong in the software like other students. (I am hoping for a better time-management story when I am in Grad School)

I must say,  I got my my A`s in studio was in my final year when I was moving close to school (and I was also helping out my AIAS Chapter that year and still went to church...just did not do choir) . I stayed at school till 12am-3am daily and was entering the architecture building at 8am. I noticed alot of strong students my program were the ones that were school always...however I do not think crazy all-nighters is productive when it's just playing around with peers all night. (I`d beware of students who worked because they were some of the most sh*ttiest people I`ve worked with in groups.)

I'm not trying to scare you Archi49. I believe that you can do this, but you also have to realize that things will not always go according to plan. I suggest that if you have to commute, just make sure that you're still dedicated to studio and make up for that time that's used for other commitments (I was not mature to do that in my freshman year). Embrace the chaos and don't let it scare you and don`t avoid it.

check out my blog http://www.facebook.com/underdogarchstudent  
I think time management is a good topic for me to bring up, because I must say more all nighters DOES NOT equate a good job.

Sorry for the long post, but I was wondering, what are people's thoughts about my school's All-nighter culture: http://ryersonian.ca/article/18330/ . 

I have mixed thoughts, because (I was lucky to have my fourth year studios on the same floor with the freshman...and I found them now to be quite louder than ever...and though they stayed in studio alot..I dunno if all-nighters were to their advantage.)

Any thoughts?

And just a heads up,  remember there are late bloomers in Architecture as well as architecture school. You'll notice kids that were doing great in their first two or three years decline dramatically and vice-versa. So if you think you are struggling some due to working outside of studio or from sacrificing time to commute, the next studio or year things may be drastically different for you. 

Can anyone tell me their daily routine while in architecture school. Like what time they woke up, when they went to classes, had free time, and went to bed? I find it very unbelievable that an architecture student will work from 6am until 2am. Is it just that a lot of them do not have good time management or is it really that demanding?

I just finished BArch. My class schedule varied each semester. Some days the schedule worked so that we had class at 8am, and a class ending at 10pm the same day. Our studios were open 24/7 for a while, then they changed the hours from 7am-2am. Before deadlines I would (sometimes) be there when they opened and when they closed, but that doesn't mean I didn't have classes, meals, and socializing breaking up that time. 

My typical bedtime once studios closed was 3am, but I generally wouldn't get up the next day till 9 or 10 depending on how much work I had or classes to go to. I 5 years I skipped a couple of classes to finish up work.

It is really demanding, even the overall hours in class is large because of long studios and other studio-type courses. That said, a lot of students (including me) have poor time management that they learn to change, or (like me) spend a lot of time goofing around in studio.

So I have classes every day for a total of about 4-5 hours a day. All my classes though are architecture related classes. My University does not require architecture students to take general ed classes. On estimate, how long should I plan to work in studio and be working at school on projects? I was thinking staying on campus for 10-12 hours a day giving me about 6-8 hours a day to work on outside studio or anything else I should do on campus. Is this realistic?

Hi Archi49

I didn't mean to scare you with the links and my previous post.

For your non-studio classes, the general rule is
- For every hour of in-class, dedicate approx. 3 hours
(for an average university class of 3 hours - give yourself 9 hours of time outside)

The same can go for studio, HOWEVER the design process cannot be easily quantified as there as design is subjective, alot of issues will arise as you do the work and it can be one heck of a rollercoaster ride (but a fun one). 10-12 sounds reasonable, but it's hard to say, depends on how your working habits are.

I think you're gonna have to like dive into September and then play it by ear. I know this the time of year when those students coming into college are anxious (especially if they heard the rumours about architecture school) find your rhythm on what works well and what doesn't and you'll eventually find a way to cope with the workload and manage your time. Some can just work straight during the day being morning birds, while some are night owls. You'll find a strategy that can work.

I recently found Life of an Architect's Blog Entry on Studio. He gives some really good tips to survive the studio (wish I knew back then).

Regards,
The Underdog Architecture Student
(p.s. feel free to share my blog to your peers, as I am trying to branch my blog out)

I avoided taking classes before 10 like the plague. If my first class was at 10 (usually the best I could do), I'd wake up at 9 and I'd usually be out of class sometime between 2 and 4 depending on the semester. If I could, I'd take a short one or two hour break at home, but sometimes I couldn't and I'd go straight to studio. On almost any day I'd try to be in bed by 4 am, maybe 5 or 6 during rougher periods. 2 or 3 am happened occasionally if I could manage it. I feel like I seldom wasted time, but I may have overworked sometimes. Generally I felt I was managing my time okay though. I didn't usually count/plan hours of work per se, but I would always outline my goals each day and try my hardest to meet them each night so I could go to bed.

If you're even somewhat of a morning person and like to work with few distractions I would suggest having an earlier schedule. Studio is generally a lot quieter and emptier so distractions are a little less likely to occur. I've always planned my classes early (or at least my gen ed's, but i'm out of those now) so that I can get into studio while everyone else is just starting class. I like to be in bed for midnight or 1am (which is early considering most)  on a regular week day, but I have to get up for work at 6AM. Our school does have 24/7 access, though they have considered locking us out from midnight to 6am so that we're forced to sleep at decent times and learn time management. But I find it's easier to start my day early in case something goes awry and I have plenty of time left in the day to finish. Personal preference is what it comes down to, but If you're more of a night owl schedule for that but if you're a morning person go that route!

So do you think it would work if I got to school at like 8, did studio work until 12, had class from 12 to 5 and left school at 6?

First year I would get to school around 8 AM and leave around 2 AM+, with only 3 or so hours of that being for core classes. My roommate would literally go days without seeing me because I would leave before they were awake and get home when they were already asleep. And also there was the occasional 36 hours straight, and once when we had to letter a short essay on arches I was there in the same seat for 20 hours straightt minus an hour for food. My school was open 24/7 too except football game days where we would have to sneak in past a guard to do work.

The following years were drastically different though.

Archi,

As others have said, it's different for everyone, and even different by school. You can get a better sense by talking to current students in your specific program. You can probably find them on facebook, or by contacting your school and seeing if they can put you in touch with any students.

I made a grid schedule of my week, which allowed me to see the hours I was spending in class, and the blocks of time I was free, time for meals, time for sleep etc. Gradually you can fill in certain work into certain time blocks.

Don't forget to include time to meet people...making friends in and out of architecture while in college was more valuable to me than my portfolio.

Archi, 

The fact that you are already thinking about this shows me that you will be fine in the long run. It may take you a little while to find your "rhythm" and you will definitely screw up a few times, but I (and most other arch students i know of) definitely did not have the fore site to think about the idea of time management before architecture school. 

I worked through most of architecture school and ran cross-country and track at a division 1 school and I pulled fewer all nighters than most of my peers, while also getting mostly A's. While I did not commute, I did have serous time constraints and found them great motivators which forced me to manage my time. I was generally on campus from about 9/10 am to 10 pm with about 2 hours out for practice. On days I worked, it was different, but I usually worked on days I did not have class. I will say I don't think I had an entirely free weekend the entire 5 years of school, but did have a social life and had a great experience. 

You can't plan for/predict everything. Deadline weeks are a totally different story (but my philosophy is that from about 2 am to 6 am you are going to be so un-productive that you might as well go to sleep and get more done the next day).

Good luck!

The best advice I can give is to set priorities in studio, and have a plan of attack with deadlines. Evaluate what is most important to your project and presentation. Don't go overboard with an excessively detailed 3d model, when a couple hours putting together some thoughtful OMA-like diagrams will do a lot more for you. You can waste a lot of time detailing a bad idea. This is also why sleep is important, to keep a clear mind. Save the all nighters for when you're done thinking and ready to go into full production mode. Once you have your class work priorities done, take every opportunity to party and sleep in that you get - you won't get many. With 3D stuff, Keep in mind that an architect's no.1 job is to design a building, visualization is becoming more and more a specialty expertise that is a career unto itself.

Sleeping through lectures is one other reason I preach the avoidance of all-nighters. Had I slept through fewer lectures, I honestly might know a lot more about architectural theory, and consequently had better ideas for studio. As it were, though, I would pull an all nighter, chug a cup of coffee, break out my pen & notes and swear that I was going to pay attention in class; but inevitably the next thing I knew, I was being unpleasantly awakened bythe sound of students packing up and leaving the lecture hall, with two words, an unintelligible scrawl, and a long line in pen sliding off the side of my notebook. Obviously learned nothing that day. Anyways, get your sleep, you need your 5-6 hours/ night during the week.

As someone who has lectured in front of several arch classes, there is nothing more irritating than seeing students dozing off. Sleeping during class is probably the fastest way for a student to find himself on a teacher's bad side. If you think you can hide it, you can't.

On the other hand, staying engaged with the lecture and discussion is about the easiest way to establish a good relationship with your professor and classmates. In fact, I can forgive other areas of deficiency as long as the student is taking an active role in the classroom. Not coincidentally, the best students are usually the ones who are most engaged.

Ugh, I really hope I can survive it. An hour each way is manageable I think for any other major but I am wondering if an hour each way is manageable for an architecture student. Specifically first year. 

Why do they make you work so hard if other majors require far less work yet higher salaries. 

I really hope that 3-4 hours a day on my own time will be sufficient enough to finish my projects after 5 hours of class a day.  (all architecture related classes).

Can 20 hours a week of studio on my own be sufficient amount of time in the studio? I have  8 hours a week of design classes?

I can do any English or history assignments at home over the weekend.

" Can 20 hours a week of studio on my own be sufficient amount of time in the studio? I have  8 hours a week of design classes?"

lol.  No.

You will spend 20 hours a day sometimes on projects for a week straight. Just do it and do what you have to do

Production alone is EXTREMELY labour intensive taking up insane amounts of time to make models and drawings.  More time than you'd imagine, especially now before having experienced arch school.  And unlike the real world, you're doing it ALL yourself (except for odd group work now and then).  

Let alone dealing with the design and creative aspects of coming up with viable ideas for the project.  Which with regards to time, is notoriously unpredictable in knowing when an idea will come, let alone a viable one.  Design being filled with a lot of detours and dead ends.  Not uncommon for a prof to tell you start all over having worked for the past 48 hours on an idea, for example.  

20 hours is preposterous.  Unless you just want to hang on by a very very thin thread.  Which some people do actually, get by with the bare minimum.  But might be a diff system in undergrad though.  I only came into the degree in the masters program (not undergrad) where they try not to fail anyone once they're in.  

So how am I supposed to make an hour commute each way possible?

Is my life going to be waking up, commute, school, studio, commute, sleep, repeat? How can I make time to be home? Can I work on certain aspects of my project at home? Staying up all night is not really for me. I am always in bed by 10 and up by 6. I do not think I want to change my whole life for this but I really want to become an architect.

You'll find a way if you really want to become an architect. Like previously said, time management and focus is key.  Work when you're there to work.  Not half engage in it, making the task drag on longer than it should.  

It gets easier with more years in school, and getting faster/more efficient with software.  Eventually you'll streamline and get to know what to spend your time on and which to kind of skim through/past.  

oh and quite a few people do work at home, especially with drawings.