It would probably help to build up a drawing / painting / sculpture / some kind of creative portfolio. Math and philosophy are great backgrounds for architecture, though... Just stay interested in the subject and intellectually active, and don't worry so much!

hi punk helvetica,

There used to be two or three people a year coming out of the art department at Oberlin going into Architecture. You might try talking to the faculty over there. Pat Matthews' husband Stan used to come in from time to time and teach a course or two on the subject, Susan Kane had some great classes, And Eric Inglis used to do some interesting work on Medieval churches.

THe chinese could be really good, especially if you achieved fluency -- it could open a lot of doors. Other than that, an Obie level of competency in the other subjects you mention might be over-preparation. Software skills should wait to your last year of grad school, although if you pretended to be a CS major for a term or two you would know enough to be competitive at Columbia or SciArc. If you are interested in the philosophy, I'd say stick with it.

The problem we all encountered without question, was portfolio. Those who could afford it did the columbia two cities program, and one or two opted for the joint engineering program they used to have with (Northwestern?) followed by a year or two of office work. A few of us did good enough work in painting and sculpture to have a fair shot.

I'll dissuade you from the individual major route however. You want your degree, and the course of study it represents, to be intelligible to the admissions committee without them puzzling over it for for the whole five minute they will actually look at your application.

good luck!

go find cooper unions education of an architect and copy some of the projects in there. make some joseph cornell type assemblages. build a tatlin hat and you're golden.