if you want to know about the business of architecture listen to uiuc professional practice class on the schiff hardin website

Thanks for the replies

So how exactly does one go about making a portfolio? Is it strictly limited to professional work, or can you include school work and personal artwork?

My undergrad was in business, but I had always planned on going to grad school for architecture... my portfolio consisted of work from a few graphic design and drawing classes I had taken in the past, didn't have any architecture related work. The graphic design stuff was probably the most helpful since I spent a couple spreads showing my design process, other than that it was drawings in different media and some photography.

I did this exact combination.  There are pluses and minuses:

Pluses:  I too was curious about both fields, it is a practical combination, it's good mental training to balance both the quantitative and the qualitative since architecture requires that, it makes for fairly disciplined thinking if you get good grades (sorry, in business, it is GPA driven and they consider it for employment)

Minuses:  you can't put it into use early on, if an architecture school is artsy or high-design they won't like it but if the architecture school is well rounded, has a CM school, and/or has a program joint with MBA they will, you may find that some of your classmates are weird in a-school and they you, you really only need the more basic business classes and your major classes in senior year will not come into play (like investment strategies or consumer behavior) but don't let that deter you.

I could go on, but you get the idea.  Basically, you have 3 hurdles, all of which can be overcome:  1) you will have to prepare a portfolio, and you should be minoring in art or taking some electives there (2 drawing, a 2D design, and a 3D design), and it is probably better that you don't try to play architect in your portfolio unless you've taken classes either at school or a comm. coll. in their arch. area, 2) be very careful in your essay and do not mention that you think this is a good combination and that architecture has business and economic components - it will torque some of the schools that don't want to hear this to no end - I learned this by receiving a thin letter or two, and 3) you might find that it will intimidate some employers who are smaller and/or more artsy, but screw them, because you really belong at a mid-size firm, at the least, with a decent reputation and diversity, as in "suit mentalities allowed."

For the portfolio, slickness counts and it is no longer glossy exhibits of your art or design thrown into sleeves.  The layout, text, fonts, descriptions and all that have to make it rich and visually appealing.  Ask to see the portfolios of those accepted with non architecture backgrounds.

In Canada, there are 3 really hot M.Arch. schools - McGill, Toronto, and UBC.  However, McGill does not have this program but the other two do.  Clearly, the other Canadian schools are also good, but I have never set foot on the others' campuses, so I do not know them.  You can definitely come into the states, but I don't know the international price for some of the grad programs.  Some are pricier than others.  The curricula also vary.  I think a high design, low-tech school would frustrate you, as it would have me. For now, concentrate on your degree at hand, together with good grades in case you change your mind, acquiring a hand at art and design, and working at producing a portfolio.

Lastly, is this a recent interest or have you always been interested in architecture, meaning that you have an aptitude for drawing and visual communication?  That's an important question.

Thanks for the great reply observant,

I have always been into illustrating and designing from a very young age, although I have a feeling a lot of people say that ^^

I am planning on taking an introductory architecture class this year, and a couple arts electives like you said. Other than that, is there anything I could do in the meantime to develop relevant skills? 

I was also wondering,

As a business student, how did you find the jump between business and architecture, in terms of workload and learning styles?

Thanks

Good idea.  The introductory architecture class will give you a grasp of the theory and vocabulary.  It'll indoctrinate you in archi-speak so you can better write your essay for grad school, where you will want to focus on design, problem solving, and holistic thinking, among other "cool" concepts to drop.  I'm being flippant, but also realistic.

Well, the work load is bifurcated.  There's a design studio each term, which is very labor intensive and where design choices have to be defended and even intellectualized.  All the communications required by studios (drawings, models, etc) take time.

As for the other classes, the learning style is like any other academic subject.  The theory and history classes require regurgitation and critical analysis of what you see, much the same way you'd criticize an organizational problem in an organization by its components.  In structures, it's plug and chug as it would be in a quant. business course, and the construction and environmental technology courses have both a textbook component and a simulation component, sometimes with lab exercises which may require graphics and/or models.

The "architorture" syndrome is bullshit.  It's that for people who want it to be that, or who have that perception.  An all-nighter is not the order of the day.  It happens toward the end of a term or at an intermediate point in the term when a major presentation is due, along with all the graphics and models.  It's cultish if you let it be, or if the school pushes cultism. Just think of it as cramming for a test, but with different media.

Also, subscribe to one of the major architectural magazines between now and grad school.  At this time, the economy appears to be healing somewhat but the vocabulary of designs seems to be more consistent in a way than it was when transiting through two very different schools of design thought.  Are you choosing a quant. or soft business discipline?

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by quant. and soft business disciplines.

I haven't decided on my concentration yet. In my school, specialization usually begins in third year, but I am caught between either Marketing or International Business, which seem somewhat similar anyways

quantitative = finance, accounting

qualitative = management, human resources, strategy.

just got an mba...in my experience you're using a completely different part of your brain and the things are valued much differently.

the class i found most prepared for by architectural training was the strategy capstone i took.  it involves broad, conceptual thinking, and combining everything you know to work as part of a whole.  design is very much the same way of thinking.  if you study architecture in school, chances are you'll deal with broader design issues over things like detailing.  working in architecture is different... it depends on what you do in the office.  you could be drawing details all day and figuring out how things go together, or you could be designing the building in more of a conceptual way and having others fill in the blanks.  or you could be doing code analysis, or managing projects and talking with clients and vendors (this is the businessy side of it)

accounting and finance are kind of like structures, meaning they're quantitative, based in plug and chug math at least at the basic level.  architects never really get past a basic level before handing it off to a structural engineer.

also in business the main idea (when it comes down to it) is to please the stockholder (or any owners, really) by making the stock price as high as you can get it.  in architecture the mindset is a little different... you want to please the client, but you often have higher standards (or tastes) for design than the client does, so you try to balance that off.  a lot of people are of the mindset that you're not just responsible for your client but for society and "architecture" as a whole.  the degree of this varies between people.  personally, i feel like if the client isn't paying me for it i'm not doing it, but not everyone thinks like that.

probably the biggest difference is the PEOPLE in it.  if the people from my business classes and architecture classes were in the same room, it would look like boys and girls at a middle school dance.  i would go so far as the culture is almost as different as being from different countries.

*and by middle school dance, i'm talking about when i went to middle school, not today where they're all grinding each other.

^ and ^^

Thanks, backbay - and for the insight and your experiences, too.

Yes -

quant(itative) = accounting, finance, information systems

qualitative/soft = marketing, management, human resources, and international business

And there is no right or wrong answer.  It's what you want to study.  In fact, if you know you are going to a-school, I think soft may leave you less worn out when you get there.  And, if you don't go, you can always add those classes at the back end.  Some schools allow undergrads to design a general business major, where you can only take a maximum number of electives in different areas.  I think that's really cool and makes one a generalist with both quant. and qual. skills.

Good analogies.  The capstone senior year integrative strategy class is more like overall design and the structures and environ tech. classes are like accounting and finance, since they are nested within a framework.

So true about business students and architecture students being totally different, for the most part.  Looking back, I think that the more holistic (grad level) marketing student might get on well with architects and the "Wall Street or bust" student would not understand or possibly dislike them.  There would be reciprocal analogies from different types of architecture students in relating to business students, too.

So, backbay, it appears you did B.Arch. to MBA.  The MBA programs are much more inclusive in who they admit and some do NOT want a second time around business major, especially the Ivy League ones.  In fact, their percentages of previous business majors is surprisingly low.  On the other hand, I don't think that M.Arch. 1s are that inclusive, for those doing it the other way, because of the way some of their faculties have been "conditioned."  This is especially true in the Ivy League where they seem to honor the implicit courtesy to admit "broadly educated" undergrads in the arts and sciences from other Ivy League schools and top name schools ... and also in the West Coast hippie belt, where pot smoking protestors from Berkeley and Oregon in the 70s are now running the a-schools and have a bad taste in their mouths for "the establishment."  However, if Josh, the OP, takes a minor, or distribution classes, in art and design, he could in fact assemble a portfolio slowly and diligently and get himself admitted somewhere respectable.